The unintentional run-out
Thisara Perera had three stumps to aim at the non-striker's end, as Tim Southee and Kyle Mills scampered an ill-judged single with five runs needed to win. He picked up cleanly, gathered himself and threw hard at the stumps only a few metres away from him. He missed. Only, there were three more stumps at the other end. Perera's throw skidded the length of the pitch and did not miss at the wicketkeeper's end. Mills, who perhaps thought he was safe, and eased up a yard, was caught a few inches short.
The The Cirque du Soleil artiste
In a former life, Brendon McCullum might have been a trapeze artiste, or a salmon - or maybe a bit of both. Kusal Perera had created a lot of buzz coming into the tournament, but he did not last the first ball he faced, thanks largely to Brendon McCullum's jaw-dropping, flying catch. Kyle Mills' back of a length ball took a thick outside edge, and McCullum leapt horizontally - heels kicked up - to snatch a ball at head height, two metres to his left . The take was so good, McCullum was soon trending on social media networks.
The gate
During the home series against Bangladesh in March, Tillakaratne Dilshan credited his good form, in part, to a technical improvement in his batting. He had tended to be bowled in between bat and pad by straight deliveries, and he hoped he had corrected the flaw. In Cardiff, though, the gate reopened, as wide as ever. Dilshan pushed too far in front of his pad, as he attempted to hit Mitchell McClenaghan through mid-on, and he missed the ball by inches, to have his middle stump clipped.
The full toss
Slow, thigh-high volleys usually do not deserve much more than a disdainful wallop to the boundary, but Kane Williamson not only fell lbw to one, he was also almost bowled by the same delivery. Lasith Malinga attempted a slower yorker, but got the release wrong and, instead of attempting to dispatch the delivery square on the leg-side, Williamson tried to tickle it fine. Fooled by the delivery's lack of speed, though, he failed to make contact, and the ball hit him low on the thigh pad in front of middle stump, before trickling on to the stumps. The bails were not dislodged, but despite a review - perhaps out of sheer befuddlement at the strangeness of the situation - Williamson was out plumb.
The comeback wicket
Daniel Vettori was a doubtful starter for the match as he struggled to recover from an Achilles strain, but in his first ODI over in two years, he might have felt like he'd never been away. He had trapped Mahela Jayawardene lbw in his last ODI match in Colombo, in March 2011, and on his fourth ball of the day, he beat Jayawardene's inside edge to get him in front again. He was ordinary during his remaining overs though, and looked increasingly uncomfortable in the field, so perhaps he has decided to appear every two years to take Jayawardene's wicket and disappear again.