Top 5 Costliest Dropped Catches In The History Of Cricket
Virat Kohli | Source - Twitter
"Catches win you matches" is an age-old saying that has prevailed for an infinite period of time. And that is for a reason too. Breathtaking catches can not only lift the team spirit but can also drastically shift the momentum in the favour of the fielding side.
Whilst we have been witness to some absolute stunners, we have also seen some terribly easy catches go down as a result of sloppy fielding blunders. These drops proved so costly in the end that they later led to the defeat of the fielding side in the most embarrassing ways.
With that, let us review the top 5 costliest drop catches in the history of cricket.
#1 Hasan Ali against Australia, 2021
Hasan Ali's grave fielding blunder in the semi-final match against Australia lead to Pakistan's heartbreaking exit from the T20 World Cup in the UAE. During this time, Hasan was not in the greatest of forms and was not contributing significantly with the bat and the ball either. The least that could have been expected of him was to be sharp on the field. But as it turned out, his fielding skills were also in shambles too.
At the start of the 19th over, Pakistan had the game in hand and was within touching distance of booking their place in the final. With 22 runs required in the last 2 overs, the pressure was building on Australia.
Matthew Wade was facing Shaheen Afridi and the first two balls of the over only yielded 2 runs. But in the very next ball, Wade played a shot to the deep mid-wicket region where Hasan Ali was stationed. The fielder covered good ground to take that catch only to let that one go. That dropped chance delivered a significant blow to the morale of the Pakistan team. They were unable to recover from the shock, as the next three balls disappeared out of the ground and Australia powered their way to the finals.
#2 Arshdeep Singh against Pakistan, 2022
Rohit Sharma with Arshdeep Singh (Twitter)
During a high-voltage Asia Cup match between India and Pakistan, the Indian speedster Arshdeep Singh received a lot of flak and hatred for dropping a dolly of a catch which allowed Pakistan to sneak a narrow victory. It was in the 18th over of the second innings when Pakistan required 34 runs to win in 18 balls. Although Pakistan was well positioned at that point, a wicket at that stage could have really opened up the game for India.
On the third ball, Asif Ali decided to throw the kitchen sink at Ravi Bishnoi and tried to go for a big heave on the leg side. But in the end, he only managed to top-edge it toward short third where Arshdeep was fielding. It was a fairly straightforward catch but the left-arm seamer took it a bit too lightly and let that one slip through.
Following his costly drop, the entire Indian team was in disbelief and the catch proved to be very costly as in the end, Asif launched a scathing attack against Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the following over to bring the required rate down. At last, Pakistan was able to safely get home by a comfortable margin of 5 wickets.
#3 Virat Kohli against New Zealand, 2014
This dropped catch from the chase master proved so fatal that India missed out on a golden opportunity to level the Test series against the Black Caps. During India's tour to New Zealand in 2014, India were already trailing by 1-0 and were desperately looking for a victory to end their tour on a high.
After cheaply dismissing New Zealand for 192 in the first innings, India batted very well and gained an unassailable lead of 246 runs. In reply, New Zealand commenced their second innings on a shaky note. With an innings defeat looming large for the home side, a costly slip-up from Kohli allowed New Zealand to crawl back into the game.
On the first ball of the 29th over, Mohammed Shami bowled a full ball on middle stump, on Brendon McCullum drove uppishly to silly mid-on. Kohli, who was positioned at silly mid-on, decided to take the catch one-handed but while doing so, he ended up spilling the catch. McCullum went on to script history as he registered a swashbuckling triple ton (302 off 559) to lift his side from an embarrassing innings defeat.
With such a monstrous score, New Zealand walked away with a draw and in the end, clinched the series by 1-0.
#4 Thisara Perera against India, 2014
No dropped catch in ODI cricket has proved to be more costly in terms of runs than Thisara Perera letting one go off Rohit Sharma’s bat during the 4th ODI match between India and Sri Lanka. Rohit made a very rusty start to his innings and was not looking at his fluent best. He nearly gave away his wicket when he was batting on 4.
Shaminda Eranga bowled a full-length delivery outside off stump and Rohit went for the wild swing. In the end, the ball went straight to Perera at third man who made a complete meal of a simple chance. That costly drop turned out to be a nightmare for the Lankans as Rohit went on to register the highest ODI score of 264 storming India to a colossal victory
#5 Marlon Samuels against New Zealand, 2015
This will go down as one of the costliest drops in a World Cup encounter. Windies allrounder Marlon Samuels spilt a simple catch offered by Kiwi batter Martin Guptill.
The occasion was the 4th quarter-final of the 2015 ICC World Cup, and New Zealand were batting first. Guptill looked to dispatch a leg-stump half-volley from Jerome Taylor in the very first over of the match but ended up hitting it straight to Samuels to square leg. Samuels looked utterly unprepared to take the catch and gave the opening batsman a big reprieve with his score at 4.
Little did the Windies know that this blunder would go on to haunt them throughout the match. Guptill exploded in full flow and put 233 more runs on the board surpassing Chris Gayle’s record of the highest score in a World Cup match. In the process, the Kiwi batter helped his team knock out West Indies for the semi-final race by a huge margin of 143 runs.
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