During the second day’s proceedings, an unusual incident took place when Proteas pacer Anrich Nortje was knocked over by a fast-moving spider camera. Nortje was positioned at backwards-square during Australia’s first innings when Fox Sports’ ‘Flying Fox’ camera hit the bowler at speed, and the speedster was knocked to the ground.
Nortje was lucky not to suffer serious injury when the wire-guided camera, which hovers above the players, went too low and hit him from behind. The side-on footage showed the camera hitting Nortje to his upper body, while the Spidercam view itself revealed a jolt with the impact. Fortunately for the tourists, the Port Elizabeth cricketer escaped a possible injury and was on his feet immediately and did not leave the ground.
Here is the video:
After the end of the second day’s play, Nortje said he could have suffered a serious injury when being quizzed about the Spidercam incident. The Proteas pacer reckoned the camera shouldn’t be travelling at head height.
“Definitely. The one thing we’ve spoken about earlier is how low it is, and it probably shouldn’t be … unless for interviews or something. I don’t think it should be travelling at head height,” said Nortje as quoted by The Age.
“So far, so good. It just knocked the shoulder and the elbow, the elbow’s a bit sore, but otherwise seems to be OK. I’ll just monitor it [and] see how it goes with doc. I saw cables, and then I moved my head, and then I saw the camera, and I was a little bit too late. It was quite quick. I didn’t know what really hit me, to be honest. It didn’t really change my mindset or anything. I tried to stay focused,” he added.
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