(Photo by Hamish Blair/Getty Images)
During the Super Six stage match of 1999 World Cup in England between South Africa and Australia, Herchelle Gibbs of South Africa missed out a sitter catch of Australia’s captain Steve Waugh, who went on to make an unbeaten match-winning century.
It was a must-win match for Australia to qualify for the semi-finals while South Africa were already into the final four.
The moment Steve Waugh was relieved after watching the easiest of catch going down by Gibbs, he said to him boy, and you have dropped the World Cup for your country.
Australia went on to beat South Africa in the Super Six match and in the Semi-final as well. Waugh was right. Had Gibbs not dropped the catch, Australia was out of the competition and South Africa was the ultimate favorite to lift the trophy.
As they say, Catches win matches and if you miss dolly catches in crunch matches, then fortune seldom gives you a second chance to prevail.
Similar thing was happened with the captain of Pakistan Cricket team, Younus Khan, when he dropped a simple catch of Grant Elliot, who was named man of the match at the end of a crucial Semi-final of ICC Champions Trophy 2009 in South Africa on Oct. 3.
One phrase suits Younus Khan more than anyone else at the moment and that is ‘Hero becomes Zero.'
Only 3 and a half months ago, he led his side to lift the T20 world Championship in England out of nowhere. They were down and out completely and no one was giving them even the slightest of chances to make it into semi finals.
The team had internal rifts too according to some reliable sources. After being defeated in the first couple of warm-up games and then to England in their first tournament game, along with internal politics was not an ideal thing to go further deep into the competition.
But the way, Younus led his side and made some harsh and bold decisions at the right time were enough to make Pakistan T20 Champions.
Luck was at his side too. Every strategy that he made was paying off. Promotion of Shahid Afridi at the top order, bringing in a rookie Shahzeib Hassan instead of experienced Salman Butt.
Giving the new ball to youngster Muhammad Aamer and playing him ahead of T20 specialist Sohail Tanvir, and making a risky strategy in the final game of getting Dilshan out with a bouncer who was devastating through out the championship and that too with fine-leg up where most of his runs came, are a few instances of brilliance as a leader by Younus Khan.
He was lucky as well because he had the likes of Gul, Ajmal and Afridi as dangerous T20 bowlers and Afridi fired at right time with the bat for him. His own batting form was not bad at all.
The decision of retirement from T20 with honor gave him more respect as he was criticized by former players for not being a T20 material before the start of the tournament and he proved everyone wrong.
All in all, Younus had a dream T20 championship where everything he seemed to have touched turned into gold. But the glory is not forever.
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