Bouch takes Heals' record.

[Donny]

Today, Mark Boucher passed Ian Healy for most dismissals by a keeper in Tests.

Player                 Span       Mat    Inns     Dis     Ct      St      

MV Boucher (ICC/SA)  1997-2007    103     196     396     378     18
IA Healy (Aus)       1988-1999    119     224     395     366     29
AC Gilchrist (Aus)   1999-2007     90     179     381     344     37
RW Marsh (Aus)       1970-1984     96     182     355     343     12     
PJL Dujon (WI)       1981-1991     81     150     270     265      5     
APE Knott (Eng)      1967-1981     95     174     269     250     19
AJ Stewart (Eng)     1990-2003    133     141     241     227     14
Wasim Bari (Pak)     1967-1984     81     146     228     201     27
RD Jacobs (WI)       1998-2004     65     122     219     207     12
TG Evans (Eng)       1946-1959     91     175     219     173     46     
AC Parore (NZ)       1990-2002     78     121     201     194      7     
SMH Kirmani (India)  1976-1986     88     151     198     160     38 
DL Murray (WI)       1963-1980     62     119     189     181      8     
ATW Grout (Aus)      1957-1966     51      98     187     163     24     
IDS Smith (NZ)       1980-1992     63     109     176     168      8     
RW Taylor (Eng)      1971-1984     57     106     174     167      7     
RC Russell (Eng)     1988-1998     54      96     165     153     12     
DJ Richardson (SA)   1992-1998     42      77     152     150      2     
A Flower (Zim)       1992-2002     63      96     151     142      9     
KC Sangakkara (SL)   2000-2007     67      90     147     127     20

[Chandan]

This is a fantastic milestone. He'll go on have 450 dismissals against his name. How I wish, we had a wicketkeeper with that longevity. Many have come and gone, hence having no chance to even creep above 100 dismissal mark!

[observer1]

Looks like Gilchrist is just behind him. None of the current keepers are even close. Wonder if AG will catch up and overtake MB - the 2009 Ashes may be the series for this.

[Holysmoke]

Looks like Gilchrist is just behind him. None of the current keepers are even close. Wonder if AG will catch up and overtake MB - the 2009 Ashes may be the series for this.

Dont think so.. GIlly is quite old, altho he is very fit...

[Lurker]

Today, Mark Boucher passed Ian Healy for most dismissals by a keeper in Tests.

Player                 Span       Mat    Inns     Dis     Ct      St      
 
MV Boucher (ICC/SA)  1997-2007    103     196     396     378     18
IA Healy (Aus)       1988-1999    119     224     395     366     29
AC Gilchrist (Aus)   1999-2007     90     179     381     344     37
RW Marsh (Aus)       1970-1984     96     182     355     343     12     
[B]PJL Dujon (WI)       1981-1991     81     150     270     265      5[/B]     
APE Knott (Eng)      1967-1981     95     174     269     250     19
AJ Stewart (Eng)     1990-2003    133     141     241     227     14
Wasim Bari (Pak)     1967-1984     81     146     228     201     27
RD Jacobs (WI)       1998-2004     65     122     219     207     12
[B]TG Evans (Eng)       1946-1959     91     175     219     173     46[/B]     
AC Parore (NZ)       1990-2002     78     121     201     194      7     
[B]SMH Kirmani (India)  1976-1986     88     151     198     160     38[/B] 
DL Murray (WI)       1963-1980     62     119     189     181      8     
ATW Grout (Aus)      1957-1966     51      98     187     163     24     
IDS Smith (NZ)       1980-1992     63     109     176     168      8     
RW Taylor (Eng)      1971-1984     57     106     174     167      7     
RC Russell (Eng)     1988-1998     54      96     165     153     12     
DJ Richardson (SA)   1992-1998     42      77     152     150      2     
A Flower (Zim)       1992-2002     63      96     151     142      9     
KC Sangakkara (SL)   2000-2007     67      90     147     127     20

Some very interesting stats there. Seems like Godfrey Evans has the most stumpings in the list(46) while Syed Kirmani comes second with 38. The latter is a tad surprising to me as he played most of his cricket keeping for the great spinners of 70s and 80s. I suppose the only reason I could think of would be that Kirmani was competing with Farokh Engineer at the time and that may have split the numbers. Also interesting, though hardly surprising, that Jeff Dujan had 270 catches and only 5 stumpings. Tells a story right there doesnt it? And yes congratulations Boucher. Very underrated cricketer. xxx

[yoda]

This stat should be credited more to the bowlers who induced those wickets than the man whose "job" is to just hold on.

[Lurker]

This stat should be credited more to the bowlers who induced those wickets than the man whose "job" is to just hold on.

Say that to Kaneria(and Akmal) Yoda. I would disagree with that largely because I have seen some absolute stunners behind the wicket. Put it simply if the rate of success in taking a catch for wicket-keepers were same as that for other fielders, most bowlers will end up with less wickets to their credits. I think wicket-keeping is actually the most thankless job in cricket. By the by who did Godfrey Evans take all those stumpings off? I thought he kept to Bedser, Trueman, Sthatham and Tyson. Did Laker and Lock feature in there as well? :dontknow:

[yoda]

Say that to Kaneria(and Akmal) Yoda. I would disagree with that largely because I have seen some absolute stunners behind the wicket.

Ok, so what percentage of a keeper's catches you think are "stunning"? I would say may be 1 in 10.

[Lurker]

Ok' date=' so what percentage of a keeper's catches you think are "stunning"? I would say may be 1 in 10.[/quote'] That would be hard to quantify and I would hate to say "it depends". I would say it is closer to 30% or so, if not more. Successful keepers, like Healey/Gilly/Boucher/Dujon, routinely take catches landing almost to 1st/2nd slip. Then there is always the catches down the leg side. The faster the bowler the tougher it would be to take such catches. Standing up to any spinner, would add a lot of variables too. Probably 3 out of 10 catches are stunners. I would say hardly 4-5 catches out of 10 are regulation anyways. xx

[Rahul Khan]

certainly its a feather in Bouch's cap...to overhaul Healy's record! still Bouch has much of time to set the new standards...isn't it!

[Gambit]

Boucher as a bat is a mixture of Healy and Gilly. He can be as doughty and gritty as Healy and when needed, can be almost as destructive as Gilly.

[Rahul Khan]

Boucher as a bat is a mixture of Healy and Gilly. He can be as doughty and gritty as Healy and when needed' date=' can be almost as destructive as Gilly.[/quote'] I totally agree with your observation...!

[Dravid]

so b4 this top 3 were aussie well done boucher :appl:

[Ram]

No co-incidence that the list is dominated at the top by a S.African and Aussies , places where conditions are more suitable for fast-bowling.

[The Outsider]

A very telling stat about how the quality of a wicketkeeper matters is the comparison between Latif and Moin Khan. Both kept to similar bowling attacks over similar years ie. early 90s to early 00s and were roughly the same age. The difference in their numbers is staggering : 1. Latif has 130 dismissals in 37 tests. 2. Moin has 147 dismissals in 66 tests as keeper.

[Donny]

Not really definitive though mate. It all depends how many chances came their way. Moin simply wouldn't have played 66 Tests if he was continually dropping catches.

[The Outsider]

Not really definitive though mate. It all depends how many chances came their way. Moin simply wouldn't have played 66 Tests if he was continually dropping catches.

Not definitive, but pretty indicative. Both were roughly the same age, had similar career spans, kept to basically the same set of bowlers, in similar conditions. Given all this the difference in the number of dismissals is pretty staggering. And Moin playing more had to do with being a better batsman and also non cricketing controversies that Latif was involved in. Also, it's not only about dropping catches but taking half or less than half chances which leads to the difference.