“Catches win matches,” the pundits say. And time and again, Cricket itself has proved the very essence of the aforementioned statement. Who can forget Steve Waugh’s “You’ve just dropped the World Cup, mate,” after Herschelle Gibbs dropped a sitter at mid-wicket.
It was the final match of the Super Sixes at the 1999 World Cup and Australia was chasing 272 when Gibbs gifted Steve Waugh who was batting at 56, a second life. Needless to say, the Kangaroos didn’t only go on to win that particular fixture but a few days later they lifted the coveted trophy as well.
Having said that, there is no denying the fact that fielding- undoubtedly- is the most underrated department as far as the sport is concerned. Also, it won’t be a remiss to say that fielding itself wasn’t quite India’s forte until a few years back.
However with the advent of modern day cricket, the Indian cricket aficionados have witnessed a number of sensational fielders in the recent past; the likes of Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Virat Kohli and others. Moreover, the athletic fielding efforts of former Indian cricketers like Robin Singh and Mohammad Kaif are still fresh in the minds of the Indian cricket fans.
That being said, here are five catches which changed Indian cricket forever:
#5 Ravichandran Ashwin vs. England (2013)
The hosts England took on India in the final match of the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy in Birmingham. After having won the toss, England displayed superb bowling performance to restrict Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men to 129 at the end of the allotted 20 overs.
Barring the likes of Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja none of the Indian batsmen could reach the double figures on a dampened Birmingham pitch.
In reply, England were dealt a setback after they lost a couple of early wickets (Alastair Cook and Ian Bell). However, they soon steadied their innings and looked to have regained control as both Eoin Morgan (33) and Ravi Bopara (30) were mauling the Indian bowling line-up, when Ishant Sharma, India’s most expensive bowler of the match took back-to-back wickets in his final over to turn the fixture on its head.
And it was Ashwin who had taken both the catches. The dismissals changed the entire complexion of the match as England who were- at one stage- cruising at 110 for 4, ended their chase at 124 for 8.
#4 S. Sreesanth vs. Pakistan (2007)
2007 was a mixed bag of a year for both the fierce South Asian rivals, India and Pakistan. Both the neighbours had crashed out of the 2007 Cricket World Cup in the very first round of the tournament. However, a couple of months later it was the ‘Men in Blue’ and the ‘Men in Green’ who had booked the final two spots in order to battle it out for the ultimate glory in the inaugural ICC T20 World Cup in South Africa.
Propelled by Gautam Gambhir’s 54-ball 75, Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men had put on 157 runs on the board after their captain won the toss. In reply, Pakistan who had lost the early wickets of Mohammad Hafeez and Kamran Akmal soon steadied their ship, scoring runs at a consistent rate. Though they were losing wickets at a pretty regular interval, it seemed that Misbah-ul-Haq would successfully steer them over the final hurdle.
Come the final over and Pakistan needed 13 runs to win the coveted trophy. However, the Pakistanis just had a single wicket in hand. After a wide first ball, Misbah went on to completely miss the second Joginder Sharma delivery. However, the second legitimate ball of the over was belted over long-off for a massive six. Now with six to win off the final three deliveries, Misbah tried to scoop one over the deep fine leg and S. Sreesanth completed the catch.
The catch- in many ways- was a turning point in the contemporary history of Indian cricket.
#3 Yuvraj Singh vs. South Africa (2002)
India took on South Africa in the first semi-final encounter of the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy at the R. Premadasa Stadium (RPS) in Colombo. The Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly who had won the toss decided to have a go with the bat first and set the Proteas a mammoth target. The ‘Men in Blue’ had gone on to post a formidable 261 runs on the board courtesy Virender Sehwag’s 59 and Yuvraj Singh’s 62.
In reply, the South Africans were poised to dance into the finals as their score stood at 192 for 1 at one stage after losing the early wicket of Graeme Smith. Thanks to Herschelle Gibbs’ 116 and Jacques Kallis’ 97, the Proteas just needed 68 runs to win the match in 71 balls with 9 wickets remaining. However, lady luck was with India as dehydration took toll on Gibbs as he had to retire hurt momentarily.
The batsman to follow however failed to guide the ship home as the momentum turned on its when Jonty Rhodes mistimed a sweep off a Harbhajan Singh delivery and Yuvraj Singh completed a stunning diving catch to give the Men in Blue hope.
The entire match turned on its head after the dismissal as the South Africans went on to lose wickets at regular intervals to finish their innings at 251 for 6. Later, India went on to win the trophy jointly with Sri Lanka, after both the final and the reserve day was washed out due to rain.
#2 Hemang Badani vs. Australia (2001)
The historic ground of Eden Gardens (Kolkata) witnessed a historic Test match between India and Australia in the early summers of 2001. After having scored 445 runs in the first innings, the Australians restricted Sourav Ganguly’s men to a paltry 171 and enforced them to follow-on.
The Indian second innings witnessed a couple of tremendous batting performances (VVS Laxman’s 281 and Rahul Dravid’s 180) and a record 376 runs’ partnership for the fifth wicket.
With a target of 384 runs to chase down on the final day of the Test match, the Australians were in no mood to settle the fixture for a stalemate. Propelled by the likes of Matthew Hayden, Michael Slater, Justin Langer and Steve Waugh, the Australians were at 166 for 3 at one stage. It was quite clear that Steve Waugh’s boys were in a really strong position to deny the Indians of a fairytale result.
It was then that Hemang Badani (who was on the field in place of an injured Nayan Mongia) took a superb catch at short leg to get rid of the Aussie skipper. And soon unexpectedly, the collapse started. The likes of Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, Jason Gillespie and Shane Warne could add just six runs on the board as India went on to bundle Australia for a total of 212 and win the Test match by 171 runs.
It was the first Test that the Australians had lost after winning 16 consecutive matches under the able captaincy of Steve Waugh. In fact, the Australians went on to lose the 2001 Border-Gavaskar series to India by 2-1.
#1 Kapil Dev vs. West Indies (1983)
The 1983 Cricket World Cup had changed Indian cricket forever. Kapil Dev’s men who had started that particular World Cup campaign as underdogs went on to raise quite a number of eyebrows over the course of the tournament to reach the finals.
The Indians- after being put into bat- went on set the West Indians a target of 184 runs in their allotted 60 overs. The opening bowling pair of Madan Lal and Balwinder Sandhu started the proceedings quite well for the Indians as they went to dismiss the likes of Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes for 1 and 13 respectively.
However, Viv Richards- who was batting at 33 (7 fours and 0 sixes) seemed to take the match away from Kapil Dev’s men. The Indians had to pull off something magical if they were to win the match and that too, fast.
And as they say, cometh the hour, cometh the man. The Indian skipper, Kapil Dev himself pulled off a sensational catch to get rid of the danger man. Kapil Dev, who was fielding at mid-wicket had to sprint a fair amount of distance backwards to take the catch which would later, change the face of Indian cricket forever.
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