The most expensive dropped chances in all forms of cricket

Minor cricket

Wonder kid A.E.J. Collins and the scorecard of that match

When Pranav Dhanawade scored his record-breaking 1009, it was reported that he had offered more than 20 chances. The batsman himself said that it w five or six at the most. There was no mention of Dhanawade's score when those chances were missed.

Hence, we would still stick with the dropped chances that helped A.E.J. Collins make 628 runs in an innings in 1899.

Collins was born in India, in a place near Calcutta. His father was in the Bengal Civil Service but died before his young son could join Clifton College in England.

In June 1899, he opened the batting for Clark's House Junior team against the North Town Junior team in the Clifton College ground. Collins batted on four weekdays and on a day in the weekend to score a mammoth 628*. He was still undefeated at the end but had to stop as he ran out of partners.

It was reported that Collins was dropped twice or thrice after he went past 500 but, more importantly, he was dropped at least once even before he had reached his hundred. It has been found that he was first dropped when his score was 50. The reports on a minor match played almost 120 years ago can be dicey but this is the best possible information to be gathered to date.

On the basis of that, the dropped catch cost the North Town team 578 runs!

Collins then came back and took eleven wickets in the match to lead his team to a victory by an innings and 688 runs.

Sadly, he was killed in action in the Great War. He was only 29 at that time.