Often the credit of winning a match is given to batsmen, bowlers or captains but very rarely do fielders get credit for winning matches. The only credit that fielders get is when they take a catch, the catch is recorded in their names. However the number of runs saved by them or the run outs effected by them is never ever recorded.
Earlier matches used to be won by bowlers, most of whom were legends in their own right. Most teams in the world boasted of atleast a couple of bowlers who were capable of slicing through the opposition on their own like Imran Khan. Wasim Akram, Waqar Youinis, Mc Grath, Richard Hadlee, Shane Warne and the fearsome pace quartet of West Indian bowers to name a few. The list is endless for almost every major team boasted of such a bowler. If you look at the following points one would agree that it is fielders who make a bigger contribution in winning matches for their countries especially in Test Matches.
Fielders take brilliant catches of ordinary deliveries:- The bowling standards have deteriorated these days. However bowlers still pick up wickets. While ordinary bowlers pick up sufficient wickets at a decent bowling average and strike rate, the better ones have picked up pickets on a more consistent basis than their illustrious predecessors. This is due to the fact these days there are exceptional fielders in the world like Yuvraj Singh, Gibbs, AB De Villers Ponting. These fielders ensure that the moment a ball is in the air for a fraction of a second, the gobble the catch. It could be a poor delivery from a bowlers and a very good flick shoot from the batsman but if the ball is just half a inch over the ground and only for fraction of second in the air, then these fielders ensure that the bowler gets a wicket which he actually does not deserve to.
Creating pressure by saving boundaries and stopping singles:- In the last 10 years or so, there have been many shots stopped by brilliant out fielders inches near the boundary line and which has fetched just a single run. Sometimes a sure boundary is just a dot ball if the fielder stands inside the circle. The batsmen especially those with a aggressive mindset are bound to lose their patience and rythym and play a loose shot and get out. The batsman indirectly gives his wicket to the fielder, though the wicket is credited in bowlers account and improves the bowlers wicket tally and bowling figures.
The key key factors to winning a Test match are early breakthroughs and middle order wickets. Brilliant fielders in slips ensure that a bowlers effort is not wasted, while outfielders agilities and brilliance ensure that even bad deliveries fetch wickets during the middle stage of innings when a bowler is not able to do much.
Like how good fielders win matches for their teams, bad fielders ensure that their teams are either able to force a draw or sometimes even lose it. The captain of a bad fielding team would have got the field setting right, and bowler might have executed the plan perfectly, but if fielders spill catches, then the batsmen of opposing team keep piling runs because of dropped catches. This puts pressure on their team because their batsman have to play catch up cricket especially if the opponents have scored a big total in the region of around 600 in first innings when means their team can only hope their batting to come good to force a draw and if that does not happen they stand to lose the match.
If a team wins matches on a consistent basis, the fielders deserve the credit for that.
Regards
Satish