Top 10 batting collapses
Nowadays, cricket is all about the batsmen. Big bats, small boundaries, field restrictions and innovative shots have caused the balance between bat and ball to tilt. Most ODIs are considered to be boring if at least 600 runs haven’t been scored. As bowlers keep disappearing over the boundary almost every over, their overall grip on the game has gotten relatively weak. Nobody seems to root for the bowlers anymore, and the batsmen continue to make merry.But it is not always the same. Sometimes, the bowlers roar back. An out-swinging peach, a well-disguised googly or a ferocious yorker is all that takes to prise out even the best of batsmen. When the first one falls, the others often follow like a house of cards. It’s often a tiny spark that begins a collapse, and that is usually a form of brilliance by the bowler or in the field.Let’s take a look at some incidents where the batting side crumbled under some excellent bowling and because of some appalling batting, often going from a position of strength to losing more wickets than the runs they scored.
#1 England 6 wickets for 3 runs, vs. Australia, Melbourne 1990
If it’s an Ashes series, you can be sure of high-octane clashes and tempers running high. From Fred Trueman running through the Aussies and Don Bradman’s Invincibles to Shane Warne’s Ball of the Century and Stuart Broad’s catharsis, the Ashes has always given us moments to savour. But a little away from the heap of the legendary moment, alone and forgotten, is a batting collapse by England that most fans would like to forget.
It was the post-lunch session on the fourth day of the second Test, and England was sitting happy, placed at 147 for 4 and a lead of 193 runs. Wayne Larkins had just made a half century and was batting with keeper Alec Stewart. It was all going well for England, until left-arm seamer Bruce Reid came on. Stewart, who had looked very solid till then tried to play an aggressive drive and was caught at gully. That started the slide.
Reid got rid of the well-set Larkins as well and exposed two new batsmen at the crease. Fellow bowler Greg Matthews gave him good company as England was bundled out for 150, from being 147-4. They had lost 6 wickets for 3 runs, and Australia was given a target of 197 which they easily achieved. Reid had never taken more than 4 wickets in an innings before that match, and his figures read 6-97 and 7-51.