3 Most Expensive Missed Chances in Test Cricket

The game of cricket has three important aspects to it: batting, bowling and fielding. To emerge as a champion, a team needs to perform well in all the three departments.

In the past, fielding was given the least importance and teams would primarily focus on batting and bowling. On a contrary though, recently teams have realized the vitality of fielding and this is evident from the fact that now every team has a specialized fielding coach so that the players could master the art of fielding.

There have been numerous instances where a team has ended up losing the game because they dropped an easy catch or missed a stumping. Here are the top three instances where the batsman capitalized on a missed chance and it proved very costly for the opponent.

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# 3 Inzamam-Ul Haq

Inzamam-ul Haq

Inzamam was one of finest batsmen who played for Pakistan in all formats of the game.

It was during the 38th over of the Test match against the Blackcaps in the year 2003, when Inzamam was dropped on a score of 32 off the bowling of Chris Harris. Harris managed to find the elusive outside edge of Inzamam's bat only to be given a reprieve by the Kiwi wicket-keeper Robbie Hart.

Inzamam went on to score a match-winning triple century and added another 297 runs to his tally before being dismissed on a score of 329. He suffered cramps while he was batting on 211, but the Kiwi skipper, Stephen Fleming denied him a runner.

However, Fleming's decision did not affect the stalwart. He carried on and helped Pakistan to post a total of 653. Eventually, Pakistan won the match by an innings and 324 runs.

#2 Mark Taylor

Mark Taylor

Mark Taylor was one of the most talented and skilled opening batsmen for Australia who scored tons of runs at the top of the batting order alongside Michael Slater.

In a Test match against Pakistan in the year 1998, the Australian skipper was dropped twice on the individual scores of 18 and 27 by Saeed Anwar.

Taylor capitalized on the dropped chances and scored a brilliant 334* (not out ) against a strong Pakistan bowling attack consisting of the likes of Shoaib Akhtar and Mushtaq Ahmed. His batting depicted extraordinary elegance and supreme class.

#1 Len Hutton

Len Hutton

Sir Leonardo Hutton was arguably the best batsman to represent England in the history of cricket. Hutton played 79 Test matches for England scoring 6971 runs at an excellent average of 56.67. Interestingly, Hutton scored over 40000 runs in his 513 matches First-Class career. The mountain of runs consists of 129 centuries.

In a Test match between England and Australia in the year 1938, Ben Barnett, the Australian wicket-keeper, missed a simple stumping chance of Hutton when he was batting on 40. Hutton made the most of the opportunity and went on to score a mammoth 364 runs.