What's the costliest dropped catch in cricket history?

Chris Scott dropped Brian Lara on 18 at Edgbaston when he went on to score 501* in a first-class game. Is this the costliest drop in cricket? Any other instances like this in International cricket? From Sagar Mishra on Instagram

There are several instances in Test cricket where a batsman, earlier in his innings was dropped not just once, but twice, and has gone on to make a huge score. Len Hutton during his record- breaking 364 in the Ashes Test at the Oval in 1938, was missed on 40 – an easy stumping by Australian 'keeper Ben Barnett. He went on to register a massive score, while his team, England then became the first Test side to cross a total of 900-plus (903/7d). The home side won by an innings and 579 runs – till date the biggest victory margin in Test cricket history! 

Australia's Mark Taylor was dropped - twice - early on during his 334 not out against Pakistan in Peshawar in 1998-99. Wisden says it was a chanceless knock, but Taylor admits in his autobiography that he was dropped twice by Saeed Anwar off Mushtaq Ahmed - "a tough one-handed chance" in the covers when he had 18, and "a sitter at bat-pad" when he had 25 (some sources say 27). "The next chance I gave was on 325," wrote Taylor. Taylor, therefore, was dropped on three occasions, but the last chance did not prove costly as he declared the innings so that to can be on par with the great Don Bradman’s highest score for Australia. 

Graham Gooch during his 333 against India at Lord’s in 1990 was dropped by Kiran More on 36 off the bowling of Sanjeev Sharma. This allowed the batsman to add 297 more runs to his tally and allowed his side to reach 653/4d – then their highest against India and it remains England’s highest against any visiting side at the Lord’s Cricket Ground.

How do these four allrounders - Kapil, Imran, Botham and Hadlee - stack up against each other at different stages of their careers? From Blunt 2.0 on Instagram

What is the maximum number of ducks in a Test innings and a Test match? From Ritika on Instagram

The maximum number of ducks in a Test innings is six, which have occurred on five occasions in Test cricket. 

- The first time this happened was at the National Stadium in Karachi on 24 December 1980, when Pakistan was dismissed for 128 in 61.1 overs by the quartet of West Indian pacemen (Sylvester Clarke 4/27, Colin Croft 3/27, Joel Garner 2/27, Malcolm Marshall 1/38). Six Pakistani batsmen made ducks – the openers (Shafiq Ahmed and Sadiq Mohammad), the #5 (Majid Khan), the #8 (Ijaz Faqih) and finally the numbers 10 and 11 (Iqbal Qasim and Mohd Nazir). Interestingly, among the six batsmen, the #11 Mohd Nazir batted the longest for 27 minutes and 19 balls!  With the first day rained off, Pakistan managed to save the match, when Wasim Raja and #11 Mohd Nazir put on an unbeaten 26 runs in an hour. Nazir on this occasion batted 40 balls to remain unbeaten on two!

The next four instances of six ducks in an innings

- By South Africa (105) against India in Ahmedabad 23 November 1996 (lost by 64 runs). The only four bowlers who bowled in this match were from Karnataka – Javagal Srinath (6/21), Anil Kumble (3/34), Sunil Joshi (1/28) and Venkatesh Prasad (0/18).

- By Bangladesh (87) against West Indies in Dhaka on 10 December 2002 (lost by an innings & 310 runs), when Jermaine Lawson claimed 6 wickets for 3 runs in 6.5 overs.

- By India (152) against England in the Manchester Test, when Stuart Broad claimed 6/25 and James Anderson 3/46 on 7 August 2014 (lost by innings & 54 runs). India’s total is now the highest by a Test side with six ducks in the innings and also by a side with six ducks on the opening day of a Test match! 

- By New Zealand (90) against Pakistan in Dubai on 26 November 2018. Leggie Yasir Shah claimed 8/41 – the best ever bowling figures in an innings in any Test match played in the UAE! (Lost by an innings & 16 runs).

The maximum ducks in a Test match is 11. This has occurred on 12 occasions in Test cricket since the first instance in August 1888. The full list of 11 ducks in a Test match is given below:

Notes: 

- In three successive years (1998, 1999, 2000) – this has occurred in Test matches in the Caribbean.

- In the first 113 years, this has occurred on four occasions. In the last 30 years, since 1990, on eight occasions!

- For the record, the most by a side in a Test match is nine ducks – by Sri Lanka (5+4) against India at Chandigarh in November 1990 and by West Indies (5+4) against Australia at Brisbane in November 2000. 

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All records mentioned above are updated until 11 May 2020.

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