Indian pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar said that had India successfully converted all their dropped catches and misses into wickets, things could have been different for the Men in Blue, who succumbed to a five-wicket loss to South Africa in their ICC T20 World Cup 2022 match in Perth on Sunday.
Brilliant half-centuries from Aiden Markram and David Miller helped South Africa overcome early hiccups and defeat India by five wickets in their Group 2, Super 12 match. “If you take those catches, it is a different thing,” ICC quoted Bhuvneshwar as saying in a media conference after the match.
“The catches we dropped, or the misses, I think that is where, not the moment specifically, but we knew if we could have got those it would have changed things, things could have been different.” “But I don’t think there was any particular moment where we can say that things shifted towards their side (South Africa),” he added.
Bhuvneshwar is indeed right. Catches do win matches, and with every missed catch or run-out, India’s chances of defeating South Africa were reduced, despite having them trapped at 24/3 in their powerplay overs.
Yadav had missed a chance to run out Makram earlier, and Rohit wasted a golden run-out opportunity as he failed to hit the target.
Perhaps the most disappointing miss came when Markram was on 35 and was dropped by Virat Kohli in the outfield. Kohli tried to juggle it back into his hands, but it fell to the ground. The cameras captured a shocked Ravichandran Ashwin, who could not believe that one of the finest fielders of the era had dropped a dolly.
