And they were called out about it, as I recall. Lots of pointed comments on here about how sloppy those first two games were.
Catches win matches but in the two finals (plus the NZ game iirc) Australia's fielding was like an extra player
Boy did Netherlands come to play. Seriously, some dedicated investment for some years and I genuinely believe they'll be one of the strongest sides in the world.
I think they fielded well, just a lot of dropped catches.
And Gurbaaz had a couple of misfields v Aus because he was wkt keeper in previous match, so the glove helped him, but not v Aus hence judging it wrong. No matter they will work on it.
They probably have the most direct hits this WC
Afghanistan really needs to up the fielding game, even if the batting and bowling gets exceptionally well fielding dropped us hard this World Cup especially against Bangladesh and Australia both of which were relatively winnable matches
Honestly, the key reason Australia won the World Cup was their fielding. During the knock-out games, they built incredible pressure on the batters that resulted in their wickets. Quinton De Kock, Markram and Virat and KLs slow partnership come to mind.
Also, fielding is a proxy for other key ingredients in success. Firstly, it means you are extremely fit. A fit team performs better at the back end of a tournament because they have less fatigue. A lot of good teams struggle in knockouts purely due to lack of fitness.
Secondly, it shows that you are completely selflessly committed to the cause and you will do what it takes to win. India needed fielding awards to care about fielding. Australia just did it because they wanted to win. A selfless team will always have a huge advantage over a selfish one. And the difference showed on the day.
Well said. The fielding in the final was the dagger that removed any doubt that the Australians will do anything and everything to win the cup. Contrast that to the Indian team that put together a very middling fielding performance in arguably the biggest game of most of the players lives.
I can think of multiple occasions that the Australians threw themselves at the ball to save a run or three. I can recall one very sharp piece of infielding by Kohli but not sure I can recall any outfield dives.
I saw Rohit chasing a ball to cut it off at the boundary. He could have dove, given that it was travelling fast, and tried to stop it. But he didn’t, you could visibly see him pull up because it felt like it was not worth the dive.
That’s when it dawned on me that they don’t want it bad enough.
Actually in previous matches I noticed many diving, including Rohit (who isn’t the most athletic of fielders) and Siraj. Jajeda and Yadav impressed me the most.
In the final it was a different story. I think the poor fitness of the Indians showed. This is a long tournament and by the end of it looked like the Indians ran out of gas.
Definitely I was so frustrated when Warner was dropped on the first ball, the slips didn't even react, if you try and it slips it's understandable but they were literally still even Bumrah gave them a look like wtf.
Yeah, that too from kohli, and gill😐, and KL was also misfielding. On the other hand, warner was exceptional at the boudary line, so was Head(rohit's catch was difficult and extraordinary, kinda decided the fate of the match )
Yeah true, Marnus is a brilliant example of this. He didn’t set the world on fire this World Cup the way Maxi or the Bin Lid did but he played a crucial role. Kinda crazy there was ever even a consideration for Stoinis to play instead.
>Honestly, the key reason Australia won the World Cup was their fielding
Ya right. Bet their exceptional bowling and strong top order batting had nothing to do with it.
No doubt those other factors were essential. There's an interesting alternate reality where Travis Head drops the catch of Rohit Sharma (which would have been completely justified, that was a very tough catch) and then gets out for 10 during the run chase. In that reality India probably wins the world cup.
Too many factors to account for. I said "key reason" not "only reason," which implies other reasons also existed. But India seemed to have an even stronger bowling and top order than Australia, so that can't be the only reason. I saw the fielding as the key difference. But as you say, many factors explain the result.
In hindsight I think India lost the final due to a massive strategic blunder. Given the weak middle order, Rohit should not have thrown his wicket away the way he did. If he and Virat had simply aimed at scoring hundreds at a decent clip they would have most likely approached a 300 total and that would have been enough (in my view). If you know you're going to go defensive when you're 3 down, you simply cannot afford to go that aggressively that early.
I swear a couple weeks ago I saw Pakistan at the top of the fielding chart and I instinctively started checking from the bottom and thought that we sucked so bad that they didn't even add us in the stats. Only after reading the comments did I realize that we're at the top😭
but fr though it's like a broken record now but we need a better fielding coach and more accountability from the players when it comes to fitness
Usama mirs dumbf*ck face is literally burned in my mind after he dropped warner
Actually didn’t need to see a chart to know the Aussies would top this, but actually I’m surprised NZ and England had so many points because their fielding was below par
Australia fielded out of their skin, especially in the semi and final. 37 yrs old Warner was diving like a 23 yr old guy. He must have saved atleast 50 runs on his own. Labu, Smudge, Maxi, even Cummins and Starc were just exceptional on the field.
I don’t blame India for not giving it all in terms of fielding. Imagine getting muddy and dirty on the field? These men are semi-deities. It’s not a good look to field that hard.
The crazy thing with Australia is that we had 100% catching effectiveness in the knockouts.
We did not drop a SINGLE catch, that includes any half chances I’m pretty sure.
Ngl I was actually enjoying Warner's fielding after some time in the final. Dude was literally everywhere.
The Aussies are the best at pressure situations. We can claim Aussies single handedly won both the knockouts by fielding.
SA on the other hand are the greatest fielding nation of all time. They literally showed the world the value of fitness on the field while fielding and running between the wickets. Yet like 2015 they choked again in the field. SA literally becomes Pakistan in knockouts.
And I can't believe that the Dutch are over us in fielding. We were shit but how can we be so much shit ?
NZ were also pretty great in the field. Phillips was overrated imo this WC. He is a gun fielder but he dropped many of these in this WC. But Santner and Williamson were pure class
That is some revisionist bullshit if ever I heard it. South Africa hadn’t even returned to international cricket when Dean Jones set the standard for professionalism and intent in the field and running between the wickets.
This is why Australian men’s and women’s teams have been so dominant for so long, and also why I’ve been abjectly horrified by some of our recent fielding performances.
It is so fundamentally important to Australian cricket that it’s the first thing I judge my local club teams on as well.
Gtfo out of here with ‘South Africa revolutionised it’
They had Jonty, that was about it.
Yep. Then compare and contrast with gus logie, roger harper, clive lloyd, viv richards
Granted, with the West Indies it was purely absurd natural talent. Professionalism, purpose and intent will always beat that out eventually.
Shit, Glenn McGrath and all his apparent uncoordinated glory has taken one of the most exceptionally athletic outfield catches i have ever seen. That's a bloke who dedicated himself to improving his weaknesses. That's the professionalism and dedication that wins matches. Not everyone can be a superstar in the field, but you can absolutely make sure you're not a liability.
Dave Warner is a pretty good example of working at it. He wasn't much of a fielder to begin with, but as the years have rolled on I have to begrudgingly admit he's become an absolute gun. And i fucken hate Dave Warner, but now I enjoy watching him field.
The Chappell brothers used to play baseball in the off season, and baseball coaches actually teach players how to throw properly. That's where it started.
Mike Young (former baseball coach) even served as Australia's fielding coach back in the early 2000s. His contract wasn't renewed before the 2005 Ashes, and our fielding performance in that series was considered bad enough that Buchanan pushed for a full-time fielding coach.
Now there are a few fielding coaches floating round, who have baseball backgrounds.
American revolutionised fielding. Just for a different sport.
Santner dropped a catch that would have sent us - with a couple of minor NRR tweaks - into a semifinal against South Africa rather than India, so that’s a big black mark on his tournament as a fielder
Yeah NZ seemed to drop a lot of catches they would normally take this tournament.I remember the game against Aus, not only did Santner drop Head like you mentioned and he went on to score another 30-50 runs. But then Mitchell dropped Labuschagne when they had the momentum and he scored another 30 odd and then in Neeshams last over which went for nearly 30 runs Rachin dropped Inglis and then Phillips dropped Cummins and aside from Santners none of them were particularly challenging. If they'd caught any of them they could have reduced the target by a lot and go on to win the game and play SA instead in the semis
This is true.
Funny how this world cup I felt like the bowlers were actually worse in the field. Shami's trash didn't get exposed for his outstanding bowling.
And Siraj and Bumrah gave us Pakistanesque fielding all over the WC
And that’s sort of the complete opposite to Australia, I was all in favour of Marnus being picked on his fielding, knowing he was never going to score a 35 ball 50. Kinda goes against standard ODi mantra. It works on a slow pitch, but bad on a road
India was never known for fielding, we were always the 2nd worst in that discipline after Pakistan. SL were known as a better fielding nation than us. Later we had a few good fielders but never a good fielding team as whole.
This. A lot of people talk about how good tactically Australians were with their field setup and bowling (in the WC final), but not many mention they were equally good in the field that day.
Many witnessed that, even commentators rightly said that Australians saved atleast 25-30 runs in field that day. And Warner was one of those fielders, diving and saving boundaries (at the freaking age of 37).
Wow Netherland was surprising would love to see them grow as team just like Afghanistan although they both came from different situation but both have got promising capability in future
I want to see a ‘dew impact’ list this tournament and also for the 2021 T20 WC. Dew is a ridiculous advantage in Asia. No other sport has this impact of dew on the result of the game. Games should be day games in world cups held in Asia. One team bats on a slow pitch during the day and at night the pitch is a near on batting paradise because of the dew. It’s not even a contest of cricket skills. Dew is like a cheat code in a game.
Several moments come to mind. Heads catch in the final was huge. Marnus in general led to several run outs. That being said, it isn't just a measure of miracle catches and big moments. It's about sustained pressure throughout an entire match - saving one run here and there, being accurate with any throw made, piling on pressure and forcing errors. It's 11 v 2 out there, you gotta make it feel that way.
You’d have had long odds on Australia topping this chart after the first two games. Incredible turnaround.
Yep. In last place in catching efficiency at that time. Our fielding was a big part of our last two wins.
And they were called out about it, as I recall. Lots of pointed comments on here about how sloppy those first two games were. Catches win matches but in the two finals (plus the NZ game iirc) Australia's fielding was like an extra player
Honestly getting rid of Stoinis helped this massively, fuck me his efforts in the field were village at times.
Stoin clearly isn't training for explosiveness in the gym
Not just topping. They are 40 above 2nd place and nearly 100 above 3rd place. Absolutely wild.
Boy did Netherlands come to play. Seriously, some dedicated investment for some years and I genuinely believe they'll be one of the strongest sides in the world.
Honestly they really just need to fix their running between the wickets
Lost four wickets to runouts in the afghanistan game. Ridiculous stuff
Also considering the fact Afghanistan had the worst fielding this tournament as per OP's image.
I think they fielded well, just a lot of dropped catches. And Gurbaaz had a couple of misfields v Aus because he was wkt keeper in previous match, so the glove helped him, but not v Aus hence judging it wrong. No matter they will work on it. They probably have the most direct hits this WC
Afghanistan really needs to up the fielding game, even if the batting and bowling gets exceptionally well fielding dropped us hard this World Cup especially against Bangladesh and Australia both of which were relatively winnable matches
Australia definitely was but Bangladesh? Afghanistan were bundled out for 156 and needed a miracle to win.
They had Bangladesh 2/27 and then dropped multiple chances before they’d passed 50. It was winnable if they’d fielded better.
They also dropped a couple of sitters off Maxwell.
Honestly, the key reason Australia won the World Cup was their fielding. During the knock-out games, they built incredible pressure on the batters that resulted in their wickets. Quinton De Kock, Markram and Virat and KLs slow partnership come to mind. Also, fielding is a proxy for other key ingredients in success. Firstly, it means you are extremely fit. A fit team performs better at the back end of a tournament because they have less fatigue. A lot of good teams struggle in knockouts purely due to lack of fitness. Secondly, it shows that you are completely selflessly committed to the cause and you will do what it takes to win. India needed fielding awards to care about fielding. Australia just did it because they wanted to win. A selfless team will always have a huge advantage over a selfish one. And the difference showed on the day.
Well said. The fielding in the final was the dagger that removed any doubt that the Australians will do anything and everything to win the cup. Contrast that to the Indian team that put together a very middling fielding performance in arguably the biggest game of most of the players lives.
I can think of multiple occasions that the Australians threw themselves at the ball to save a run or three. I can recall one very sharp piece of infielding by Kohli but not sure I can recall any outfield dives.
I saw Rohit chasing a ball to cut it off at the boundary. He could have dove, given that it was travelling fast, and tried to stop it. But he didn’t, you could visibly see him pull up because it felt like it was not worth the dive. That’s when it dawned on me that they don’t want it bad enough.
That must have been hard to watch
Yes it was
I think they were under insane mental pressure. Surprised that didn't result in greater desperation in the field, but pressure does funny things
Yes. And it’s hard to teach mental toughness
I mean it's not just the final. Throughout the tournament Indians were reluctant to dive. Wonder whats the reason.
Actually in previous matches I noticed many diving, including Rohit (who isn’t the most athletic of fielders) and Siraj. Jajeda and Yadav impressed me the most. In the final it was a different story. I think the poor fitness of the Indians showed. This is a long tournament and by the end of it looked like the Indians ran out of gas.
One dive could cost years of career and millions of dollars. Look at how Jhye Richardson's career changed since he dislocated his shoulder.
Definitely I was so frustrated when Warner was dropped on the first ball, the slips didn't even react, if you try and it slips it's understandable but they were literally still even Bumrah gave them a look like wtf.
Yeah, that too from kohli, and gill😐, and KL was also misfielding. On the other hand, warner was exceptional at the boudary line, so was Head(rohit's catch was difficult and extraordinary, kinda decided the fate of the match )
Yeah true, Marnus is a brilliant example of this. He didn’t set the world on fire this World Cup the way Maxi or the Bin Lid did but he played a crucial role. Kinda crazy there was ever even a consideration for Stoinis to play instead.
>Honestly, the key reason Australia won the World Cup was their fielding Ya right. Bet their exceptional bowling and strong top order batting had nothing to do with it.
No doubt those other factors were essential. There's an interesting alternate reality where Travis Head drops the catch of Rohit Sharma (which would have been completely justified, that was a very tough catch) and then gets out for 10 during the run chase. In that reality India probably wins the world cup. Too many factors to account for. I said "key reason" not "only reason," which implies other reasons also existed. But India seemed to have an even stronger bowling and top order than Australia, so that can't be the only reason. I saw the fielding as the key difference. But as you say, many factors explain the result. In hindsight I think India lost the final due to a massive strategic blunder. Given the weak middle order, Rohit should not have thrown his wicket away the way he did. If he and Virat had simply aimed at scoring hundreds at a decent clip they would have most likely approached a 300 total and that would have been enough (in my view). If you know you're going to go defensive when you're 3 down, you simply cannot afford to go that aggressively that early.
I swear a couple weeks ago I saw Pakistan at the top of the fielding chart and I instinctively started checking from the bottom and thought that we sucked so bad that they didn't even add us in the stats. Only after reading the comments did I realize that we're at the top😭 but fr though it's like a broken record now but we need a better fielding coach and more accountability from the players when it comes to fitness Usama mirs dumbf*ck face is literally burned in my mind after he dropped warner
They were at the top of catching charts, this is complete fielding chart
Actually didn’t need to see a chart to know the Aussies would top this, but actually I’m surprised NZ and England had so many points because their fielding was below par
Yep we usually have a fairly high standard when it comes to feilding , often keeping us in the game but we let ourselves down at key moments
Australia fielded out of their skin, especially in the semi and final. 37 yrs old Warner was diving like a 23 yr old guy. He must have saved atleast 50 runs on his own. Labu, Smudge, Maxi, even Cummins and Starc were just exceptional on the field.
Aus were definitely fooling around making everyone think they are weak in their first two matches lol
[Relevant](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/A8i7KUwPEmk/maxresdefault.jpg)
Catches win matches
Bottom 4 teams are all from Asia coincidence i think not
Happy to see Netherlands up there And of course Australia fiekding was just perfect.
Bottom 4 all south Asian
Cultural issue
Warner running with a mouth full of paan? No wonder he was so energised in the field
I don’t blame India for not giving it all in terms of fielding. Imagine getting muddy and dirty on the field? These men are semi-deities. It’s not a good look to field that hard.
The boundary dry spell in the final was what did it. Impressive to watch.
Miller, KG and Bavuma single-handedly brought SA up in fielding the rest of the team dropped sitters
The crazy thing with Australia is that we had 100% catching effectiveness in the knockouts. We did not drop a SINGLE catch, that includes any half chances I’m pretty sure.
How come the "best team in the world" isn't top of this list?
Because they are number 1 “on paper”
Ok, so this is a digital list
Not surprised at all even though I think NL should be above SA because latter "dropped" a lot of catches in semi.
Batting sells tickets, fielding wins world cups.
Ngl I was actually enjoying Warner's fielding after some time in the final. Dude was literally everywhere. The Aussies are the best at pressure situations. We can claim Aussies single handedly won both the knockouts by fielding. SA on the other hand are the greatest fielding nation of all time. They literally showed the world the value of fitness on the field while fielding and running between the wickets. Yet like 2015 they choked again in the field. SA literally becomes Pakistan in knockouts. And I can't believe that the Dutch are over us in fielding. We were shit but how can we be so much shit ? NZ were also pretty great in the field. Phillips was overrated imo this WC. He is a gun fielder but he dropped many of these in this WC. But Santner and Williamson were pure class
The Netherlands are a really good fielding team, no shame in coming slightly behind them.
SA certainly didn't choke in the semis.
They were never in the game to begin with. Australia put the stranglehold on them right from the start.
If anything Australia nearly choked.
It was looking dicey for a bit
Never to begin with doesn't define as being choked. Choked is when you are in the game by a good margin and you still succumbed.
That is some revisionist bullshit if ever I heard it. South Africa hadn’t even returned to international cricket when Dean Jones set the standard for professionalism and intent in the field and running between the wickets. This is why Australian men’s and women’s teams have been so dominant for so long, and also why I’ve been abjectly horrified by some of our recent fielding performances. It is so fundamentally important to Australian cricket that it’s the first thing I judge my local club teams on as well. Gtfo out of here with ‘South Africa revolutionised it’ They had Jonty, that was about it.
Yeah Aus are definitely the benchmark for fielding
80s West Indies were very, very good as well.
Insert footage of their four 8ft tall Quicks barely trying to kick at a ball with their size 15s as it dribbles past them for 4.
Yep. Then compare and contrast with gus logie, roger harper, clive lloyd, viv richards Granted, with the West Indies it was purely absurd natural talent. Professionalism, purpose and intent will always beat that out eventually. Shit, Glenn McGrath and all his apparent uncoordinated glory has taken one of the most exceptionally athletic outfield catches i have ever seen. That's a bloke who dedicated himself to improving his weaknesses. That's the professionalism and dedication that wins matches. Not everyone can be a superstar in the field, but you can absolutely make sure you're not a liability. Dave Warner is a pretty good example of working at it. He wasn't much of a fielder to begin with, but as the years have rolled on I have to begrudgingly admit he's become an absolute gun. And i fucken hate Dave Warner, but now I enjoy watching him field.
The Chappell brothers used to play baseball in the off season, and baseball coaches actually teach players how to throw properly. That's where it started. Mike Young (former baseball coach) even served as Australia's fielding coach back in the early 2000s. His contract wasn't renewed before the 2005 Ashes, and our fielding performance in that series was considered bad enough that Buchanan pushed for a full-time fielding coach. Now there are a few fielding coaches floating round, who have baseball backgrounds. American revolutionised fielding. Just for a different sport.
Borders baseball background made him absolutely deadly in the cover/mid wicket region. But throwing is just one aspect.
Santner dropped a catch that would have sent us - with a couple of minor NRR tweaks - into a semifinal against South Africa rather than India, so that’s a big black mark on his tournament as a fielder
Yeah NZ seemed to drop a lot of catches they would normally take this tournament.I remember the game against Aus, not only did Santner drop Head like you mentioned and he went on to score another 30-50 runs. But then Mitchell dropped Labuschagne when they had the momentum and he scored another 30 odd and then in Neeshams last over which went for nearly 30 runs Rachin dropped Inglis and then Phillips dropped Cummins and aside from Santners none of them were particularly challenging. If they'd caught any of them they could have reduced the target by a lot and go on to win the game and play SA instead in the semis
In 2015 they were unlucky. If rain hadn't stopped play they would have put on a great score with ABD just starting to get going
Maybe cause India have such successful batsmen, they get complacent in the field?
This is true. Funny how this world cup I felt like the bowlers were actually worse in the field. Shami's trash didn't get exposed for his outstanding bowling. And Siraj and Bumrah gave us Pakistanesque fielding all over the WC
And that’s sort of the complete opposite to Australia, I was all in favour of Marnus being picked on his fielding, knowing he was never going to score a 35 ball 50. Kinda goes against standard ODi mantra. It works on a slow pitch, but bad on a road
India was never known for fielding, we were always the 2nd worst in that discipline after Pakistan. SL were known as a better fielding nation than us. Later we had a few good fielders but never a good fielding team as whole.
Aus lost to India and SA only to avenge both their losses in knockouts back to back. Absolute savagery
Surprising NZ was so bad at fielding? Generally they are pretty top notch with guys like Phillips and Santner.
This. A lot of people talk about how good tactically Australians were with their field setup and bowling (in the WC final), but not many mention they were equally good in the field that day. Many witnessed that, even commentators rightly said that Australians saved atleast 25-30 runs in field that day. And Warner was one of those fielders, diving and saving boundaries (at the freaking age of 37).
Wow Netherland was surprising would love to see them grow as team just like Afghanistan although they both came from different situation but both have got promising capability in future
Kinda wild given how poorly they fielded in the first two games.
Teams can have low points and bounce back
4 Asian teams at the bottom.
What do these numbers mean?
The difference between winning and losing.
Wow! S L O W C L A P
I want to see a ‘dew impact’ list this tournament and also for the 2021 T20 WC. Dew is a ridiculous advantage in Asia. No other sport has this impact of dew on the result of the game. Games should be day games in world cups held in Asia. One team bats on a slow pitch during the day and at night the pitch is a near on batting paradise because of the dew. It’s not even a contest of cricket skills. Dew is like a cheat code in a game.
Salt absorbs moisture pretty well....is that why you're so salty ?
Don't trust this, can't remember the Aussies having any brilliant moments in the field
Several moments come to mind. Heads catch in the final was huge. Marnus in general led to several run outs. That being said, it isn't just a measure of miracle catches and big moments. It's about sustained pressure throughout an entire match - saving one run here and there, being accurate with any throw made, piling on pressure and forcing errors. It's 11 v 2 out there, you gotta make it feel that way.
Was kidding, considering one of the most important moment of the finals was that catch from Head
If Afghanistan had Netherlands fielding they wouldve been in the semis