5 costliest catches in the history of cricket!

Apr 6, 2019 at 2:15 PM

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5 costliest catches in the history of cricket!

In cricket, there is a phrase popularised by likes of Sunil Gavaskar – catches win matches. There are many occasions when it proved right and there are many occasions when it didn’t affect team’s chances of a win. But if you drop an in-form batsman’s catch in a crucial match then your team can suffer.

Here are five catches which proved costly for the opponent team in the history fo cricket. 

Kiran More dropped a catch and India lost the series:

In the late 80s and 90s, India were not known as a great touring party. Although, the 1990 tour of England was not so bad as India lost the series by a 1-0 margin. India were let down in the only Test they lost due to a dropped catch by wicketkeeper Kiran More. India had to pay a costly price because of the dropped catch. England batsman Graham Gooch was the batsman who edged the ball to More when he was batting on 36. More’s failure to grab the catch priced India a 333 runs innings from Gooch and England defeated India by a margin of 247 runs to take a 1-0 series lead which  helped them to clinch the series.

Marlon Samuels costliest ever dropped catch:

It was the incident of 2015 fourth World Cup quarterfinal. Marlon Samuels’ dropped catch made West Indies to concede a 233 run innings in the World Cup, the highest score by a batsman in the mega cricket tournament.

New Zealand batting first started dispatching boundaries with ease, but Guptill was on four gear so he tried to dispatch a leg stump half volley from fast bowler Jerome Taylor in the very first over of the match, but ended up hitting it straight to Samuels at square leg. The fielder looked nervous as a result it gave the batsman a life who was batting on 4.The dropped catch destroyed West Indies bowlers like never before.  Martin Guptill lofted every ball for six and fours and broke Chris Gayle’s 215 runs record of the highest score in a World Cup match. In the process, Guptill also helped his team to qualify for the semifinal with 143 run victory.

Thisara Perera dropped Rohit Sharma’s catch : 

This is another example of what happened when you drop the catch of a destructive batsman on a lovely batting paradise like Eden Gardens.

This is probably the costliest ever catch dropped in the history of ODI cricket in terms of individual achievement.

Like Guptill, Indian opener Rohit was batting on 4 when he offered a catch to Thisara at the Eden Gardens but Thisara dropped the catch and let Rohit bruise Sri Lankan bowlers and piled up 260 more runs to register the highest ever ODI score by an individual batsman.  The right-handed stylish batsman initially started slowly and as soon as he got the going he started lofting the ball. Perera, however, failed  to grab the catch.  Rohit capitalised on the dropped catch and score the highest ever ODI individual score 264.

Shane Warne dropped Kevin Pietersen’ catch:

Other than the Cricket World Cup, the Ashes is the most popular bilateral cricket series in the history of cricket. The game is played between two arch rivals England and Australia.

In the 1990s and early 2000s Australia dominated the Ashes series and win comfortably, but the scenario changed in 2005 when England registered a 2-1 victory in a closely fought series. But the result could have very well been 2-2 if Shane Warne hadn’t dropped a slip catch of Kevin Pietersen on 15 in the second innings of England. Australians only 95 runs behind when Brett Lee made Pietersen nick on e to the slips, where Warnie, a usually  safe slipper, grassed the catch. The mercurial English batsman made them pay badly as England secured a draw and brought home the Ashes.

“You dropped the WC mate,” Steve Waugh to Herschelle Gibbs in 1999:

The costliest ever dropped catch in the history of cricket  happened in 1999 World Cup semifinal between Australia and South Africa as Herschelle Gibbs dropped a sitter of Steve Waugh in the 1999 World Cup. One line from the Australian skipper was enough, to sum up, the consequence of Gibbs’ actions, ‘You’ve just dropped the World Cup!’Waugh’s. Yes, Waugh’s words proved right as South Africa not only lost the match but also could only tie the semifinal against the same team resulting in their exit from the 1999 ICC World Cup. Australia, on the other hand, thrashed Pakistan in the final to lift their second World Cup trophy.

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