BackWorld Cup: 5 drops that lost matches
From tactical drops to one of the most expensive misses
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You just dropped the World Cup mate!
South Africa’s Herschelle Gibbs dropped Steve Waugh when he was on 56 in the Australia versus South Africa Super Sixes game at the 1999 World Cup. In his book, Out Of My Comfort Zone: The Autobiography, Waugh recalls saying, “I hope you realise that you have just lost the game for your team." On the same day, John Benaud reported in the Australian daily Sunday People that Waugh said, “You have chucked away the World Cup mate."
Waugh had come to the crease with Australia on 48 for 3, chasing 272, and he went on to score an unbeaten 120. Incidentally, this result affected South Africa in the semi-final four days later, when they played Australia again and tied the match. Australia were given the win precisely because they had beaten South Africa in the earlier match.
Even the home team moaned the drop
Clive Lloyd dropped Geoffrey Boycott and Mike Brearley in the final of the 1979 World Cup. The West Indies captain was quoted as saying, “I could have watched both Brearley and Boycott all day because I knew every over they batted was another nail in their coffin." It was said that Lloyd had purposely dropped those catches, so Brearley and Boycott could continue with their hopelessly slow scoring, though Lloyd denies this. By the time England’s first wicket fell, the score was at 129 from 39 overs, and the asking rate for England had gone up to 7.5 an over.
Big drop, big runs
New Zealand’s Ross Taylor was dropped twice in the space of three balls by Pakistan wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal during a 2011 World Cup match. Apart from triggering a spate of Akmal jokes (for example, “behind every successful batsman, there is a Kamran Akmal"), it allowed Taylor to launch a blistering attack; hitting 8 fours and 7 sixes to score a career-best 131 and take New Zealand to a massive total of 302, and an emphatic win.
Do you know whose catch you dropped?
India were 57 for 2 when Pakistan’s Abdul Razzaq dropped Sachin Tendulkar off the bowling of Wasim Akram in the 2003 World Cup. Tendulkar was batting at 32 at the time. Akram screamed: “Tujhe pata hai tune kiska catch chhoda hai (Do you know whose catch you have dropped)?" Chasing 274 to win, and having lost Virender Sehwag and Sourav Ganguly off successive balls in the previous over, this catch would have been a disaster for India. Instead, Tendulkar scored 98, and India won the match.
Butterfingers all
The 2011 World Cup semi-final against India would be one of the matches Pakistan most want to forget. No one could hold on to a catch in what turned out to be a comedy of errors for Pakistan on the field. Tendulkar alone was dropped four times on his way to 85—on 27 by Misbah-ul-Haq, 45 by Younis Khan, 70 by Kamran Akmal, amd 81 by Umar Akmal. Needless to say, Pakistan lost.
Compiled by Manoj Madhavan/Mint; Source: Espncricinfo
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