Given Brad Haddin's "unexpected" dropped catch off Joe Root and that "Hadds usually takes more than he drops" and that Josh Hazlewood doesn't think Australia is "used to dropping catches at the moment," how about we keep track of Australia's dropped chances in this Ashes:
FIRST TEST
14.5 |
Starc to Root, no run, dropped, and it's all happening here. Very full outside off, and Root jams his bat down on it, and the bat hits the ground and the ball kisses his outside edge. Haddin throws himself to his right and it clangs off his glove. |
SECOND TEST
63.1 |
Johnson to Cook, no run, short ball, Cook puts it away on the pul- not, he's been dropped by Smith at backward square leg! Think it went straight into his gut and out again, must go down as a bit of a sitter, though Cook struck it firmly. Smith was sprawling on his backside as the ball ran away between his legs. |
20.2 |
Johnson to Bell, 1 run, edged and dropped! But whose catch was it? Nevill half-committed, Voges at first slip reached it with one uncertain hand, and couldn't cling on.... |
THIRD TEST
6.6 |
Starc to Bell, 1 run, edged and dropped by Clarke at slip! Bell was trying to run it off the face, the ball went low to Clarke's right at second slip but it hit the fingers and went straight to earth. Not quite Warne off Pietersen but should have been taken. |
FOURTH TEST
19.2 |
Starc to Cook, FOUR, edged between second and third slip. Back of a length and curling away outside off with extra bounce, Smith dives to his right from third slip, gets a hand to it but can't cling on. It looked like it was Clarke's take at second slip. That will go down as a drop. |
71.1 |
Johnson to Wood, FOUR, edged, but wide of second slip! Over the wicket, full outside off, Wood reaches out for a drive and the thick edge evades a diving Smith. (It was actually dropped.) |
It has to be said:
Posted by: The Mongrel | Thursday, July 09, 2015 at 02:29 PM
Saw his comment at the SMH:
I dont know what's worse. NSW's defence or Brad Haddin's wicket keeping.
CommenterStephenR Location Date and time July 09, 2015, 9:27AM
Posted by: Cam is Nosferatu | Thursday, July 09, 2015 at 04:21 PM
They dropped a few in the West Indies. It was one of my worries. Haddin made a meal of that. He misjudged it pretty much.
Posted by: lou | Thursday, July 09, 2015 at 04:28 PM
Have you added Voges to the list? Was difficult but most definitely a drop. Johnson has had little to no luck in this match.
Posted by: lou | Saturday, July 11, 2015 at 10:10 AM
Do you mean the one which scuffed the ground?
Posted by: Tony Tea | Saturday, July 11, 2015 at 10:48 AM
Not forgetting, of course, Australia's fiasco in the Middle East:
Posted by: Tony Tea | Saturday, July 11, 2015 at 01:10 PM
Josh Hazlewood from the link in the main post:
Bunkum. If you're wearing the gloves then those catches from edged "full" deliveries are bread and butter. Sure, you wouldn't want to be day dreaming, the ball can indeed appear to "fly off the bat". But standing back to a quick bowler gave Haddin puh-lenty of time to track it into his glove[s].
Furthermore, edges like that are easier in a lot of respects. The ball flies fast and true, so the 'keeper doesn't have to consider whether it's going to carry or if he needs to move forward. And those edges don't ever get late swing thru the air or dip or any other confounding factors. Just going by my experience, happy to be corrected [I did play one season of cricket as full time 'keeper].
That sort of nick should be anything but "always tough" for a professional wicket-keeper to catch. An unusual edge? Yes. Tough for the crowd to work out if it was a catch or bump ball? Yes. Umpire requires slightly more think music? Yes. But it wasn't a tough catch. I'm with you, lou. The ball hit near the heel of Haddin's hand. A total clanger.
The Josh-speak was yet another example of Aussie Test squad mutual ass covering when a player is seriously out of form or makes a big stuff up. Christ it ANNOYS me. They sound about as believable as politicians. I'm not saying they should bag their team mates, but please stop it with the puff and the make believe [ps: team balance
].
Posted by: Big Ramifications | Sunday, July 12, 2015 at 06:46 AM
TT, this latest test match second innings is one for the List I believe. Not looking forward to more.
Posted by: lou | Sunday, July 12, 2015 at 07:36 AM
The simple, unalloyed, raw fact is that Haddin should have swallowed that chance without even having to dive. (And yes, List Time.)
Posted by: Tony Tea | Sunday, July 12, 2015 at 10:02 AM
Speaking of lists, I'm sure there must be a list floating about ranking batsmen and the %percentage of times they refer their own LBW decisions.
I think the coach or his team mates might have been forced to tell him to pull his head in, but when the new law was introduced it seemed like Shane Watson was in automatic referral mode, as if he thought he was entitled to use up a valuable referral every time. If there was a chance of saving his own ass then why not? It absolutely smacked of selfishness and ego.
Was I imagining that? There's no real way I can double check.
Posted by: Big Ramifications | Sunday, July 12, 2015 at 11:19 PM
For your viewing pleasure, here is one of my favourite Sooky Watson moments. Check his body language in the replay at 0:38. He's too busy giving Haddin the hairy eyeball to keep an eye on the play. He's given up, basically.
Then when he wakes up, the dopey prick finds himself loitering in between Clarke and the wickets. And check his stupid-assed expression after he deservedly cops a nice whack on the knee. Pure Watto.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVy924aahYo
Posted by: Big Ramifications | Monday, July 13, 2015 at 12:45 AM
I thought the BCC comentary was fantastic except for McGrath who is a boring as bat's p..s.
Who would have thought Boys is up there with the best of them. Always interesting and fantastic on batting technique!
Posted by: nottrampis | Monday, July 13, 2015 at 08:56 AM
Please at least let this loss be the end of Watto.
How many times have I had the sinking feeling as he walks to the wicket. Please, this time have him concentrate. Let him go on and make a century. Let him not plonk his front leg down the wicket and be out LBW. Let him not rub salt in by wasting a referral.
How many times have I been disappointed.
Watching Watto crash and burn reminds me of the Royal Commission into the Westgate Bridge collapse:
Posted by: The Mongrel | Monday, July 13, 2015 at 10:44 PM
Well, it looks like Haddin won't play the next Test anyway. I would have much preferred him to have been dropped rather than given compassionate leave (or whatever it ends up being), but I think that's at least 50% of our biggest problem out of the way, for one Test at least. Hopefully when they make the inevitable decision about Watson, we'll have actually have our best side on the park at Lord's.
Posted by: Carrot | Wednesday, July 15, 2015 at 03:27 AM
Big Rammers, that youtube vid is very funny. Clarke looks so utterly unapologetic about smacking Watson in the knee. As indeed he should be.
Posted by: lou | Wednesday, July 15, 2015 at 06:16 AM
lou, it was replayed one year at the Alan Border Medal count, that's where I first saw it. Haddin seemed to enjoy watching the replay and all the trouble he caused to poor Watto. I made this triptych at the time which I just found deep in the bowels of my Pictures folders.
Posted by: Big Ramifications | Thursday, July 16, 2015 at 11:02 PM
Along a similar vein of overthinking, Alastair Cook's "super juggling tumbling" catch to dismiss Haddin in the first Test was anything but....
After the initial missed attempt, Cook was diving backwards, falling downwards [gravity], his right hand was shooting upwards grabbing at the loose ball, his body began rotating so his left hand could help clutch the ball.... culminating in a most ungraceful elbow-first landing, the jolt clearly travelling thru his shoulder and neck.
Cook possessed enough catching skill for his plan B to work, enough strength for his lummox landing not to jar the ball loose. But jeez, I cringed. A Mark Waugh type taking a similar catch would have been half as busy, with a landing twice as smooth.
[To use primary school parlance, first impressions.... did that entire catch look rather unco to you guys? My mind flashed back to biomechanics lectures and one of its core tenets: any sporting skill or action should be performed as simply as possible, and its component actions should complement each other.]

My long-winded analysis fills me with much shame. I was overthinking a plate of beans because I hadn't been watching the game live [not one ball in 5 days]. All those missed balls of cricket viewing got focused onto one dropped catch from a video highlights package.Posted by: Big Ramifications | Thursday, July 16, 2015 at 11:17 PM
I'm not a bio-machinist, but I am a genie's arse:
Posted by: Tony Tea | Friday, July 17, 2015 at 08:58 AM
On a positive note, this game was probably my favourite Watto moment. An ODI in 2011.... it had it all. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKY91kK6l3k
** a day/night game at biggest cricket stadium in the world against the old enemy
** Watto opens and gets a BIG ton – carrying his bat for 161 not out
** anchoring Australia's biggest ever run chase at the MCG
** it goes down to the wire
** Watto finishes it in style with a six
Ahh, what could have been. Where did it all go wrong, Shane?
Posted by: Big Ramifications | Friday, July 17, 2015 at 01:58 PM
Votes. Sigh.
Posted by: 2BarRiff | Monday, July 20, 2015 at 12:07 AM
*Voges. Though the commentators are blaming Nevill.
Posted by: 2BarRiff | Monday, July 20, 2015 at 12:10 AM
Well I'll say this for the Aussies-
They've managed to make the drops irrelevant.
Their batting in the first innings of the 3rd and 4th Tests has been so diabolical that they've been stuffed whether or not they hold their catches.
Posted by: The Mongrel | Sunday, August 09, 2015 at 05:39 PM
Haddin dropped the Ashes in the First Test.
Posted by: Tony Tea | Sunday, August 09, 2015 at 05:43 PM
No truer words typed TT
Posted by: philsgone | Monday, August 10, 2015 at 08:40 AM
Haddin dropped the Ashes in the First Test.
Assuming that Australia won in Cardiff (still a stretch)-
We would be 2-2 now.
Hard to see us winning or even drawing the fifth test on current form.
Even if we do win at The Oval, it's a dead rubber now. A different ball game had it been 2-2.
Posted by: The Mongrel | Tuesday, August 11, 2015 at 12:38 AM