Tests gets a catching Mark

The catch of England's Darren Gough, off the bowling of Jason Gillespie, by Mark Waugh on July 22, 2001 in the second Ashes Test at Lord's made the Australian the fielder with the maximum catches in Test cricket history.

Playing in 113th Test, Waugh claimed his 158th catch as a fielder, which took him past the previous record of 157 catches (in 104 matches) by former Australian Mark Taylor. Taylor had incidentally held the record since January 1999, when he held the catch offered by Englishman Mark Ramprakash of the bowling of Glenn McGrath in the Sydney Test match. It was Taylor's last Test of his career. Taylor, in fact, had bettered the previous tally of 156 catches by Allan Border, who had held the record since December 1989.

For the record, Englishman Walter Hammond held the record the longest - 33 years and five months - from 1935 to 1968, while another Englishman Arthur Shrewsbury held it for just one day - on August 13, 1886.

Mark Waugh, with still few more years to go in the Test cricket scene, may, perhaps, extend his tally to another 50-odd catches.

However, it is unlikely if he will surpass Hammond's reign of this record for over 30 years. Among the contemporary players only West Indians Brian Lara and Carl Hooper have over 100 Test catches.

The table below lists the names of fielders who held the record for most catches in a career in Test cricket history. It also provides details of how the records have changed hands since 1877 to this day.

Cts	Mts	Fielder (For)	Against	Venue	Date	Previous record holders
1	1	A Hill (Eng)	v Australia	Melbourne	15-3-1877	-
2	1	BB Cooper (Aust)	v England	Melbourne	16-3-1877	(several players with one catch each)
3	1	T Emmett (Eng)	v Australia	Melbourne	17-3-1877	BB Cooper (Aus) / J Southerton (Eng) - 2 catches
10	9	HF Boyle (Aust)	v England	Manchester	11-7-1884	(T Emmett - Eng - 9 catches in 7 Tests)
11	13	AC Bannerman (Aust)	v England	The Oval	13-8-1884	(several players with 10 catches each)
15	13	W Barnes (Eng)	v Australia	Melbourne	5-1-1885	(AC Bannerman - Aus - 14 catches in 17 Tests)
16	15	A Shrewsbury (Eng)	v Australia	The Oval	13-8-1886	(W Barnes - Eng - 15 catches in 15 Tests)
17	8	WG Grace (Eng)	v Australia	The Oval	14-8-1886	(A Shrewsbury 16 cts in 15 Tests -same match)
19	16	A Shrewsbury (Eng)	v Australia	Sydney	29-1-1887	(WG Grace - Eng - 18 catches in 8 Tests)
27	12	WG Grace (Eng)	v Australia	Lord's	21-7-1890	(A Shrewsbury - Eng - 26 catches in 19 Tests)
40	27	H Trumble (Aust)	v England	The Oval	13-8-1902	(WG Grace - Eng - 39 catches in 22 Tests)
46	45	W Rhodes (Eng)	v South Africa	Johannesburg (Old)	2-1-1914	(H Trumble - Aus - 45 catches in 32 Tests)
58	51	FE Woolley (Eng)	v Australia	Manchester	26-7-1926	(W Rhodes - Eng - 57 catches in 53 Tests)
65	48	WR Hammond (Eng)	v West Indies	POS	26-1-1935	(FE Woolley - Eng - 64 catches in 64 Tests)
111	99	MC Cowdrey (Eng)	v Australia	Lord's	25-6-1968	(WR Hammond - Eng -110 catches in 85 Tests)
121	87	GS Chappell (Aust)	v Pakistan	Sydney	5-1-1984	(MC Cowdrey - Eng - 120 cts in 114 Tests)
123	111	AR Border (Aust)	v Sri Lanka	Hobart (BO)	17-12-1989	(GS Chappell - Aus - 122 catches in 87 Tests)
157	104	MA Taylor (Aust)	v England	Sydney	5-1-1999	(AR Border - Aus -156 catches in 156 Tests)
158	113	ME Waugh (Aust)	v England	Lord's	22-7-2001	(MA Taylor - Aus - 157 catches in 104 Tests)

The table below looks at Mark Waugh's progress towards this record.

Catch	Test No	Opponent	Venue	Month/Year	Victim	Bowler
1st	1	England	Adelaide	January 1991	MA Atherton	BA Reid
50th	39	Pakistan	Lahore	November 1994	Basit Ali	SK Warne
100th	86	England	Sydney	January 1999	N Hussain	CR Miller
150th	111	India	Chennai	March 2001	SC Ganguly	JN Gillespie
158th	113	England	Lord's	July 2001	D Gough	JN Gillespie

The summary of his catches against each country.

Opponents	Mts	Cts	Batsmen "caught" on most occasions
West Indies	28	45	6 - BC Lara
England	26	40	5 - MA Atherton & JP Crawley
India	14	29	4 - SC Ganguly
Pakistan	12	15	3 - Yousuf Youhana
South Africa	12	9	2 - WJ Cronje
New Zealand	11	8	2 - NJ Astle & CD McMillan
Sri Lanka	9	7	1 - seven batsmen in all
Zimbabwe	1	5	2 - NC Johnson
Total	113	158

Frequent catches were held of the following bowlers

Catches	Bowlers
30	GD McGrath
29	SK Warne
17	CJ McDermott
11	MG Hughes
11	PR Reiffel
11	JN Gillespie
8	CR Miller
5	BA Reid, TBA May, SCG MacGill
4	DW Fleming
3	ME Waugh (self), AJ Bichel

The 100-catches club

Players	For	Tests	Cts	Aus	Eng	Ind	NZ	Pak	SA	SL	WI	Zim	Ban
ME Waugh	Aus	113	158	x	40	29	8	15	9	7	45	5	-
MA Taylor	Aus	104	157	x	46	10	25	20	17	11	28	-	-
AR Border	Aus	156	156	x	57	14	31	22	5	8	19	-	-
GS Chappell	Aus	87	122	x	61	5	18	22	-	0	16	-	-
IVA Richards	WI	121	122	24	29	39	7	23	-	-	x	-	-
MC Cowdrey	Eng	114	120	40	x	11	15	11	22	-	21	-	-
IT Botham	Eng	102	120	57	x	14	14	14	-	2	19	-	-
WR Hammond	Eng	85	110	43	x	6	9	-	30	-	22	-	-
RB Simpson	Aus	62	110	x	30	21	-	3	27	-	29	-	-
GS Sobers	WI	93	109	27	40	27	11	4	-	-	x	-	-
SM Gavaskar	Ind	125	108	19	35	x	11	19	-	7	17	-	-
BC Lara	WI	80	106	30	36	7	6	7	15	5	x	-	-
IM Chappell	Aus	75	105	x	31	17	16	6	11	-	24	-	-
M Azharuddin	Ind	99	105	14	9	x	4	14	13	27	20	4	-
GA Gooch	Eng	118	103	29	x	21	13	7	1	4	28	-	-
CL Hooper	WI	86	101	38	24	10	-	11	14	3	x	1	-

Note: all records are updated upto 22-7-2001 (including the Lord's and Bulawayo Test match)

Also read:
Mark Waugh breaks world record