India's Rahul Dravid today (6th April) created another world record for the most number of Test catches by a fielder. He achieved this feat when he held on a Tim McIntosh edge off Zaheer Khan on the fourth day of the third and final cricket Test in Wellington. Dravid snapped his 182nd catch in 134th Test, at the third slip during lunch session in New Zealand's second innings. With this he surpassed former Australian batsman Mark Waugh who had the record of 181 catches in 128 Tests.

 

Dravid had opened his 'catch' account by snaring Nasser Hussain off Javagal Srinath in his debut Test at Lords against England in June 1996. After taking 182 catches he is way ahead of Ricky Ponting (148 in 131 Tests), Jacques Kallis (147 in 131) and Mahela Jayawardene (142 in 102) among current players. The milestone had been on his mind for quite a while. Therefore, when he achieved it, he showed rare emotion by planting a kiss on the ball.

 

Besides catches, the prolific batsman has also achieved milestones in batting by scoring 10823 runs from 134 matches at an average of 52.53 with 26 hundreds and 57 fifties. Particularly the current New Zealand tour has been very fantastic for him as he has scored 66, 8 not out, 83, 62, 35 and 60 in his last six innings.