Finally Dravid breaks Mark Waugh's Test catches record

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Rahul Dravid's wait to be the fielder with highest Test catches got prolonged and the Indian has none but himself to blame. More... Dravid still waiting to 'catch' the world record Agencies Posted: Mar 26, 2009 at 1410 hrs IST Napier: Rahul Dravid's wait to be the fielder with highest Test catches got prolonged on Thursday and the Indian has none but himself to blame. Levelled with retired Australian Mark Waugh on 181 catches, Dravid had an opportunity to pull ahead in the 51st over of the second India-New Zealand Test match but the record literally slipped through his fingers. Batting at 92, Ross Taylor was evidently nervous in his nineties as he went for a cut shot off Yuvraj Singh and the edge flew to Dravid's left at the lone slip. Dravid did dive but the ball only brushed his fingers before running for four and the Indian didn't get another chance to go ahead of Waugh. This was second reprieve for Taylor who had been dropped in the slip by Yuvraj when the right-hander was on just four runs. It proved a costly blunder as Taylor went on to hit 151, adding 271 runs with Jesse Ryder (137 not out).

[mister]

Dravid not a natural catcher: Mark Waugh Sydney: Australian Mark Waugh, whose record of catches is about to be broken by Rahul Dravid, feels the Indian is not a natural catcher but he makes up for it with his high level of concentration. Dravid has edged level with Waugh on 181 catches. He has taken the vast majority of his catches from spinners - 99 from Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh alone - a feat that Waugh rates highly because there is often less time to react. "You might only get one ball in the field all day and you've got to catch it an inch off the ground. That's a concentration thing, switching on and off between deliveries," Waugh was quoted as saying in Sydney Morning Herald. "Dravid is good but he's got a funny style. He's not a natural catcher but he's got great concentration and he's in the right place at the right time," Waugh said, while predicting Ricky Ponting, who has racked up 148 catches in 131 Tests, would one day dislodge the Indian. Among current players, only Graeme Smith (104 catches from 77 Tests) is likely to challenge the top order. Waugh and Bob Simpson, another renowned slips catcher and former holder of the record, believe they learned their skills as kids with tennis balls, which Simpson says teach you to use soft hands. Separating catching quality from longevity is hard, although catches per innings is a pointer - and one that ranks Simpson (.940) significantly above Waugh (.738), Dravid (.738) and Ponting (.575). The missing feature is the number of catches shelled. On that, Waugh and Simpson are in perfect agreement. "You don't judge a slipper on the great catches they take - sometimes, you judge them on the percentage they drop," Simpson said. Waugh admits: "I actually think they should have a statistic of how many catches you drop, like baseball - that's probably the best judge of how good a catcher you are."

[Desi Cartman]

sore loser ...

[zubinpepsi]

Mark Waugh has a point..watever hes suggesting makes sense... the no.of catches that have been dropped by the fielder will show how good/bad the fielder is..

[Shane]

Mark if so, imagine the no. of catches he would have taken if he was one :finger:

[Bumblebee]

Mark Waugh has a point..watever hes suggesting makes sense... the no.of catches that have been dropped by the fielder will show how good/bad the fielder is..

well why dont u straight say that u dont like dravid...... :eyedance:

[Shehezaada]

yes and you aren't a natural weatherman are you now mark?

[Rajan]

hmmmmmmmm, i think he has a point. certainly Dravid is not in the league of Mark Waugh, Mark Taylor, Ian Botham, Kallis, G.Smith, Richie Richardson, Carl Hooper.... I think he is not as good as natural a catcher as Azhar too. But Dravid is pretty good when compared to many other indian/asian cricketers when it comes to catching.He had certainly taken some very good catches but I had seen Mark Waugh- Carl Hooper in the list above take blinders after blinders and almost rarely miss catches, especially 'must take catches at test level" that Dravid misses these days. Now all this is my humble opinion and i am entitled to.

[riya]

Dravid was good in the past .Now he lost his reflexes and become mediocre. Very poor in the ongoing test .However i don't agree with Waugh,Dravid is a wicket keeper.He must be a natural.

[diegovegaz]

dravid should not chase the record

[Macj]

Its not that catches dont come his way , [removed] has his hands laced with grease looks like.

[beetle]

Sore loser coming out with a plan when he is on the verge of losing the record.How come he didn't mind when his record wasn't threatened.

[Show_stopper]

Its true..lets face it the only reason why he is in with a shot is coz he kept wickets for 3-4 years.The timing of this comment shows Waugh in poor light though. He was definitely the best i ever saw in the slips.

[veer]

Dravid isnt great in slips like it or not.. people shouldnt take this as an insult though..

[coffee_rules]

Cmon, it was a uncatchable. A fierce cut short flees past his hands..he was able to touch it. Bit if it was coming his way and he drops it..then we can blame him. But this was to the left hand (not his natural side). You must be superman to catch such ones.

[Kohum]

Dravid was good in the past .Now he lost his reflexes and become mediocre. Very poor in the ongoing test .However i don't agree with Waugh' date='Dravid is a wicket keeper.He must be a natural.[/quote'] ++

[varun]

Interesting stat: Of the top 25 non-keeper catchers, if you calculate catches per innings, still Dravid is at the 6th place. That's rather good. Also Jayawardene at 4th is a bit of a surprise (for me atleast)

+------------------+---------+---------+-----------------+
| name             | catches | innings | catches/innings |
+------------------+---------+---------+-----------------+
| RB Simpson       |     110 |     117 |            0.94 | 
| SP Fleming       |     171 |     201 |            0.85 | 
| MA Taylor        |     157 |     197 |            0.80 | 
| DPMD Jayawardene |     142 |     187 |            0.76 | 
| ME Waugh         |     181 |     245 |            0.74 | 
| R Dravid         |     181 |     247 |            0.73 | 
| GS Chappell      |     122 |     166 |            0.73 | 
| IM Chappell      |     105 |     145 |            0.72 | 
| WR Hammond       |     110 |     156 |            0.71 | 
| BC Lara          |     164 |     242 |            0.68 | 
| IT Botham        |     120 |     180 |            0.67 | 
| GS Sobers        |     109 |     172 |            0.63 | 
| ML Hayden        |     128 |     205 |            0.62 | 
| CL Hooper        |     115 |     190 |            0.61 | 
| JH Kallis        |     147 |     249 |            0.59 | 
| M Azharuddin     |     105 |     180 |            0.58 | 
| GP Thorpe        |     105 |     181 |            0.58 | 
| RT Ponting       |     148 |     257 |            0.58 | 
| VVS Laxman       |     111 |     194 |            0.57 | 
| MC Cowdrey       |     120 |     216 |            0.56 | 
| AR Border        |     156 |     277 |            0.56 | 
| IVA Richards     |     122 |     233 |            0.52 | 
| SM Gavaskar      |     108 |     216 |            0.50 | 
| SK Warne         |     125 |     281 |            0.44 | 
| SR Waugh         |     112 |     318 |            0.35 | 
+------------------+---------+---------+-----------------+

[atul]

just like his batting he is not natural , but credit to his confidence , concetration he is one of the best batter and catcher around. but as Mark also agree there need more reflexes to catch when spinner is bowling i think he is safe bet until recently.

[Anakin]

Dravid isn't as good as MW and the % of dropped catches is a valid point.

[Kohum]

| ME Waugh | 181 | 245 | 0.74 | | R Dravid | 181 | 247 | 0.73 | I take this as a complement to RD and a slap to MW. Same no. of innings [2 more] and same no. of catches as Mwaugh.