The girl I caught in time (5)
I believe the answer is:
erica
'the girl' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'i caught in time' is the wordplay.
'caught' becomes 'c' (cricket abbreviation).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'time' becomes 'era' (I've seen this before**).
'i'+'c'='ic'
'ic' placed within 'era' is 'ERICA'.
(Other definitions for erica that I've seen before include "Girl - heather" , "Plant of the heath genus" , "Heath genus; girl's name" , "ling" , "Moorland plant, girl's name" .)