Your favourite and least favourite batting collapses

[Jono]

I was thankfully at work and never witnessed that awful stain on Indian cricket

 

[Fenil]

The worst has to be 2004 Mumbai when Australia failed to chase the target of 107 on a pitch that would was probably as bad as what England got on their tour of Bangladesh late last year.

Best would be a match in which Australia were 135 or 136/0 and then they lost all their wickets in the next 99 runs against India.

Another best would be the Capetown Test in 2011 which saw South Africa give Australia 188 run lead but still winning it in the end. South Africa collpased for 96 in the first innings followed by Australia getting knocked out for 47. Amazing turn around in the match that was.

If we count ODIs, I would say Sri Lanka v Australia at MCG in 2010 when Mathews and Malinga stitched 132 for the ninth wicket has to be the best. Worst would possibly be the India v England match at Jamshedpur in 2006. It was a match where Indians were batting as if they didn't want to with the heat on that day. Dhoni opened the batting and even got a supposed ;'ice bag' which looked more like a table fan in his jersey. He got out first ball after that though. Sehwag was India's captain and England was led by Strauss. Surprisingly England were looking pretty comfortable fielding in the heat while the Indians struggled. I thought the opposite should have happened given India were used to the climate as compared to England players.

 

[Daemon]

Did he? He was still smiling when he got that howler.

@Topic Shaun Udal, anyone?

Shouted come on loudly when Ponting was caught down the leg side but given not out iirc. Yelled something when he was wrongly given against Symonds as well.

Man **** that match, seriously. Symonds caught behind, Symonds stumped, umpire taking Ponting's word when the **** literally didn't walk to a blatant edge, Dravid caught behind, third umpire giving a stumping not out, Jaffer out on a no-ball. waahhh.

 

[honestbharani]

Did he? He was still smiling when he got that howler.

@Topic Shaun Udal, anyone?

That one, the home collapses against Pak and Eng under Chappell-Dravid. Those are the top 3 for me..

 

[OverratedSanity]

Shouted come on loudly when Ponting was caught down the leg side but given not out iirc. Yelled something when he was wrongly given against Symonds as well.

Man **** that match, seriously. Symonds caught behind, Symonds stumped, umpire taking Ponting's word when the **** literally didn't walk to a blatant edge, Dravid caught behind, third umpire giving a stumping not out, Jaffer out on a no-ball. waahhh.

Clarke grounding Ganguly's catch. Ruined a pretty competitive series. I will forever be bitter.

 

[Burgey]

I do want to see an angle which shows he grounded that catch. Clarke had some shocking non-catches in his time (one in an ODI against Nz springs to mind) but I can't recall an angle which showed for sure he didn't take that cleanly. Mind you, I'm not saying he did, just that I didn't think it was definitive.

I used to think the idea of taking a fielder's word was a good one re catches, but I don't any more. You have those ones where they don't know, and otherwise you're relying on the word of the least honest player to make sure it all goes smoothly.

 

[OverratedSanity]

I think he caught it cleanly initially but grounded it as he rolled over.

Agree that the dumb pact was a bad idea. Most of the times they don't really know, and there are dishonest ****s on both sides who always choose to believe they have no doubt they caught it.

 

[duffer]

Collapses suck as a fan, but for me, letting the tail get away is more gut-wrenching. Generally a collapse has some aspect of awesome bowling involved. Tailender batting and recovering a score sometimes involves good batting, but generally is just woeful bowling plans / captains becoming idiots.

Not to distract from the thread though. One of the worst collapses as an Indian fan was this:

3rd Test: Australia v India at Melbourne, Dec 26-30, 2003 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo

First innings went from 1-278 to all out 366. Cost India a first ever series win in Australia. Woeful.

Was there for the whole match. Viru was imperious but the lolapse was brutal to watch. The beers were lite as well. Lame.

 

[Daemon]

I do want to see an angle which shows he grounded that catch. Clarke had some shocking non-catches in his time (one in an ODI against Nz springs to mind) but I can't recall an angle which showed for sure he didn't take that cleanly. Mind you, I'm not saying he did, just that I didn't think it was definitive.

I used to think the idea of taking a fielder's word was a good one re catches, but I don't any more. You have those ones where they don't know, and otherwise you're relying on the word of the least honest player to make sure it all goes smoothly.

It's a shame that the numerous and vocal "aussies and umps r cheaterz" contingent from India completely destroyed all credibility of the rest who were just voicing out their frustration with the umpiring blunders.

Pretty sure this Test accelerated the introduction of DRS (despite India ironically refusing to use it) so that's one good thing that came out of the match.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Adelaide 2010 in the second innings - we seemed to bat with no interest in a draw, and then the rain came about half an hour afterwards.

 

[OverratedSanity]

It's a shame that the numerous and vocal "aussies and umps r cheaterz" contingent from India completely destroyed all credibility of the rest who were just voicing out their frustration with the umpiring blunders.

Yeah, so annoying. Had every reason to be angry with the umpiring and we even had most of the public opinion on our side. Everyone was shitting on the umpires, neutrals and even most Aussies at the time. ****ed it up and lost support by employing the usual tactic of threatening to cancel the tour and bullying Bucknor out.

 

[honestbharani]

You **** s are forgetting that all the controversy and stupidity of Sydney gave way to one of the greatest ever test wins of an Indian side of all time. To win a test from that situation, on a track that was pretty flat and least suited to the Indians even then and with a totally rejigged batting line up and a young bowling line up, was just immensely immensely memorable. Say all you want, it will forever, to me, be the time Karma stuck it up to everyone who slagged off Indians during and after Sydney. The run that peaked with us being the world Test #1 and World Cup champions at the same time started off there, at Perth.

 

[Bijed]

Collapses suck as a fan, but for me, letting the tail get away is more gut-wrenching. Generally a collapse has some aspect of awesome bowling involved. Tailender batting and recovering a score sometimes involves good batting, but generally is just woeful bowling plans / captains becoming idiots.

Fair shout, letting the tail get away can be pretty awful too - Edgbaston 2005 springs to mind and that was probably worse than any collapse I can think of right now, but generally I don't find them as gut-wrenching as collapses, probably because it's happened less in the matches I've been more emotionally invested in. Or rather, it may well have happened, but hasn't necessarily cost us the game.

 

[Burgey]

You **** s are forgetting that all the controversy and stupidity of Sydney gave way to one of the greatest ever test wins of an Indian side of all time. To win a test from that situation, on a track that was pretty flat and least suited to the Indians even then and with a totally rejigged batting line up and a young bowling line up, was just immensely immensely memorable. Say all you want, it will forever, to me, be the time Karma stuck it up to everyone who slagged off Indians during and after Sydney. The run that peaked with us being the world Test #1 and World Cup champions at the same time started off there, at Perth.

India supporters can take some more comfort knowing the whole episode basically ended Andrew Symonds as a force in international cricket.