Dravid breaks test catches record.

Apologies if there's been a thread on this but I haven't noticed it.

Afghanistan had held the record for quite a while until Dravid, who's surely in his twilight test years broke it the other day.

Out of the top ten catchers, only four are still active.

Rahul Dravid India 1996-2009 134 182
Mark Waugh Australia 1991-2002 128 181
Stephen Fleming New Zealand 1994-2008 111 171
Brian Lara West Indies 1990-2006 131 164
Mark Taylor Australia 1989-1999 104 157
Allan Border Australia 1978-1994 156 156
Ricky Ponting Australia 1995-2009 131 148
Jacques Kallis South Africa 1995-2009 131 147
Mahela Jayawardene Sri Lanka 1997-2009 102 142
Matthew Hayden Australia 1994-2009 103 128

Jesus how good is Flemming?

Bradman wrote:Jesus how good is Flemming?

And cue the 'Is Fleming better than Jesus' thread...

Well his hands obviously hold up better.

I thought blood would be sticky.

That might be his secret. Unlike Atherton he's used something the same colour as the ball.

Bit of a bugger in DN matches.

Not really. "Infallalibity (is that a word)" and all that.

I know where youre coming from, but I think there's a superfluous syllable somewhere.

Probably more than one.

IMO in order of the best catchers.

Mark Waugh
Ricky Ponting
Mark Taylor
Stephen Fleming
Matthew Hayden
Allan Border
Jacques Kallis
Brian Lara
Rahul Dravid
Mahela Jayawardene

Zat wrote:I thought blood would be sticky.

An appropriately Eastery post.

Congrats to the Fence.

did Dravid keep wicket in Test matches?

skully wrote:

Zat wrote:I thought blood would be sticky.

An appropriately Eastery post.

Congrats to the Fence.

Did he take many miraculous catches?

The word is he can walk on water.

Paul Keating wrote:IMO in order of the best catchers.

Mark Waugh
Ricky Ponting
Mark Taylor
Stephen Fleming
Matthew Hayden
Allan Border
Jacques Kallis
Brian Lara
Rahul Dravid
Mahela Jayawardene

No, Afghanistan dropped too many catches to be considered the best. He might have taken some blinders and looked good in doing it, but I think people conveniently forget that he also dropped a lot. Tubby had safe hands but often didn't get to catches more nimble teammates might have.

Farkin bullshit. Mark Waugh had the safest hands I ever saw. I remember seeing him shell a pretty straight forward one at the SCG and nobody could believe it.

MEW was the cleanest catcher of the lot. If you can scratch up evidence of 10 dropped catches in his career, I'd be happy to read it.

skully wrote:Farkin bullshit. Mark Waugh had the safest hands I ever saw. I remember seeing him shell a pretty straight forward one at the SCG and nobody could believe it.

MEW was the cleanest catcher of the lot. If you can scratch up evidence of 10 dropped catches in his career, I'd be happy to read it.

I recall one tour of the sub-continent where Tim Lane said at least four times, "Mark Waugh dropped a catch - how often do you see that?"

Warnie's bowling probably obliterated the fact that he was an extremely talented fielder.

Hayden and Ponting are probably the best catchers of screamers I've ever seen.

Just as a matter of interest, junior said this about Dravid.

'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.

Waugh believes that Ponting will eventually break Dravid's mark but among current players, only Graeme Smith - is likely to challenge the top order.

While Bob Simpson said

Separating catching quality from longevity is hard, although catches per innings is a pointer - and one that ranks Simpson - significantly above Waugh -, Dravid - and Ponting -. The missing feature is the number of catches shelled. On that, Waugh and Simpson are in perfect agreement.

'You don't judge a [color:03e7=#9a0003! important][color:03e7=#9a0003! important]slipper on the great catches they take - sometimes, you judge them on the percentage they drop,' Simpson said.

Bradman wrote:Warnie's bowling probably obliterated the fact that he was an extremely talented fielder.

Hayden and Ponting are probably the best catchers of screamers I've ever seen.

I think Warnie also dropped a lot but on balance Greg Chappell is the best slipper we've had in the modern era. He took all the bread and butter ones and screamers as well. I have a lot of these on tapes/DVDs. And he said in his biography that he probably only ever dropped one he should have taken and a few half chances. He took 122 from 87 matches despite sometimes fielding away from the slips.

Mark Taylor in contrast, ALWAYS fielded in slips.

Bradman wrote:Warnie's bowling probably obliterated the fact that he was an extremely talented fielder.

Hayden and Ponting are probably the best catchers of screamers I've ever seen.

Yeah, Ponting has taken some absolute pearlers . . .

That's why I rate Punter and Hayden. They were great away from the slips.

Actually now skully's lurking didn't taylor take a world record number of catches in a JAMODI on his first night as captain and we still lost?

I think you might be referring to a JAMODI on a wet deck at the SCG between Aus & WI in the early 90s. Tubby took 4 catches at first slip. Aus's 105 or so beat the Windies 93 or so. Tubby was MoM by virtue of his 4 catches.

But he got a duck?