After Joe Denly's missed chance in Hamilton last night, The Cricketer looks back at some of our favourite dropped catches in international cricket
If England's tour of New Zealand is remembered for one thing in the YouTube compilations of the future, it will certainly be Joe Denly spilling a simple chance from Kane Williamson as the Hamilton Test petered out towards an inevitable draw.
With Jofra Archer caught mid-celebration after nailing a knuckleball, Stuart Broad producing his most aghast facial expression since that morning at Trent Bridge, and commentators bemused at the match being lit up by the "gobbler" of an opportunity, everything ingredient Denly's fumble suggests it will be one for the ages.
Don't really know how to describe this.
— The Cricketer (@TheCricketerMag) December 2, 2019
Guess we've all been there...#NZvENG pic.twitter.com/im9knizXSo
Denly is, of course, far from the only player to have found themselves in the right place at the right time but without the ability to hang on to the ball. In honour of a moment that may unfairly commit him to cricketing infamy, The Cricketer team has delved through the archives to select XI of our favourite missed chances in the international game.
Cast your votes for the biggest clangers in the list below, and make sure to head to our England hub to catch up on all the latest news from the winter calendar.
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Posted by John Baxter on 14/08/2020 at 23:22
Until I read David Rimmer’s comment I thought I was the only one who remembered the Lance cairns drop. Ritchie Benaud was on commentary as it happened and after a period of silence while we all tried to take in what had just happened Benaud said, “And, there isn’t one us who hasn’t done that.” In the one moment of commentary he managed to embrace the whole cricket playing community from the most exalted Test cricketer to the humble village player.
Posted by David Rimmer on 04/12/2019 at 10:03
Without naming the instances I would say that there are two or three worse spills dug out by yourselves than that of Denly's. I wish you could have dug out the one of Lance Cairns dropping David Gower at Lord's in 1983. However, your piece certainly lends balance to the dropped catches debate. It is also worth pointing out that there must have been at least another 20 or 30 bad dropped catches back in Test Cricket between 1877 and 1960 when not much of Test Cricket was recorded on camera. And that is taking into account 10 years when there were no Test played because of two World Wars and the fact that fewer Tests were played in the above time period. This should be borne in mind when people come out with headlines of the worst ever drop and that stricture does not apply to The Cricketer. Casual readers (the non-cognoscenti) are given the wrong impression and then form an incorrect opinion. There needs to be a codicil of within the modern game though I concede this makes a clunkier headline. That criticism of sloppy headlines applies to the non-specialist cricket media.
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