Worst delivery to take a wicket

[quincywagstaff]

Chanderpaul getting Steve Waugh out in Adelaide Test in 96/97.

Chanderpaul was bowling leggies iirc, this one almost bounced twice and was on the edge of the pitch; Waugh couldn't resist and whacked it to Carl Hooper who took a superb cover catch.

 

[quincywagstaff]

Simon Katich's full toss that Vaughan swiped down the throat of deep midwicket in 2005. Plenty of full tosses like that do take wickets, so in a sense nothing special about it, but Vaughan had gone into God mode in that innings after passing 100 so was frustrating he fell to such a pie

Katich got Sehwag with a waist-high full toss iirc when he scored his 195 at the 2003 BD Test.

 

[Ali TT]

Katich got Sehwag with a waist-high full toss iirc when he scored his 195 at the 2003 BD Test.

Magic arm

 

[Prince EWS]

Katich got Sehwag with a waist-high full toss iirc when he scored his 195 at the 2003 BD Test.

It's a pattern. Katich's secret weapon.

 

[turnstyle]

This one's up there, jesus.

Was just coming to post this one

 

[Starfighter]

This one's up there, jesus.

That's the one I was thinking of. Wasn't in a position search for the video. Turns out I was waaaay wrong on who the bowler was, I think the six or seven year interval since I last looked it up dulled my memory.

 

[Chin Music]

From the same series and possibly the same test as Swann getting Rogers, Phil Hughes managing to reach a ball from Tim Bresnan that would have surely been a wide if he has let it go.

 

[Howe_zat]

From the same series and possibly the same test as Swann getting Rogers, Phil Hughes managing to reach a ball from Tim Bresnan that would have surely been a wide if he has let it go.

Same innings I think. Just a ridiculous collection of dismissals all round, including those two, Khawaja spooning one to mid off and run outs. All kicked off by a Watson lbw review for bonus points.

Starts about 8 minutes in

 

[Chin Music]

That one didn't look as bad as I remembered!. I had some recollection of Hughes nicking one right at the edge of the return crease! You were right at the comedy of errors from the first innings mind!

 

[Howe_zat]

That one didn't look as bad as I remembered!.

Yeah and to be fair Hughes used to score pretty much all his tons with those angled cut shots that looked bad on dismissals but he would middle a ton of them as well. Was just a really idiosyncratic player. Heartbreaking loss, of course.

 

[Ali TT]

Forgotten about Chef's solitary test wicket, "strangling" Ishant down leg after doing a Bob Willis impersonation in his run up.

 

[Immenso]

There is a Simon Doull one I'll have to dig out. From the mid-90s. IIRC was a leg side full toss that hit the back of the bat.

 

[Shady Slim]

nowhere near the worst but the ball starc got rory burns with first ball of the most recent ashes was a (very fast) rank halfvolley on leg stump

which itself was a harbinger of things to come tbqh

 

[Starfighter]

This classic from Michael Atherton deserves a shout:

Also funny is that he completely changed his bowling action in the interval between the two.

 

[Starfighter]

nowhere near the worst but the ball starc got rory burns with first ball of the most recent ashes was a (very fast) rank halfvolley on leg stump

While it was lost in everyone going gaga over what was frankly a rather ordinary ball (Alastair Cook would've hit it for four), the amazing thing was how far Burns had gotten outside off, to a ball that would've missed leg if it hadn't swung. He must've premeditated that (like Marnus at Hobart).

 

[TheJediBrah]

Katich got Sehwag with a waist-high full toss iirc when he scored his 195 at the 2003 BD Test.

That's just a typical wrist spinner's wicket tbh.

Or a half tracker that gets shanked to the boundary rider

 

[thierry henry]

nowhere near the worst but the ball starc got rory burns with first ball of the most recent ashes was a (very fast) rank halfvolley on leg stump

which itself was a harbinger of things to come tbqh

I argued the point on this one with some friends at the time. Obviously leg stump is not the perfect line, but honestly any out-swinger straightening down the line of the stumps first up is at least somewhat dangerous. Burns both made the ball look better than it was and worse than it was by being so far across. He should have been hitting that to wide mid-on with a straight bat.

 

[TheJediBrah]

I argued the point on this one with some friends at the time. Obviously leg stump is not the perfect line, but honestly any out-swinger straightening down the line of the stumps first up is at least somewhat dangerous. Burns both made the ball look better than it was and worse than it was by being so far across. He should have been hitting that to wide mid-on with a straight bat.

It was quite heavily discussed around the socials. My point of view at the time was that it was basically a leg-stump half-volley that 99% of competent batsmen would have clipped for runs without any trouble. Since then I've been a it more open-minded and am willing to accept that maybe some other Test batsmen may have had some trouble with the swing and potentially been trapped in front and it was mostly Burns' movement and technique that made him look worse.

Still think it was not even a good ball though, let alone a great one like some were claiming

 

[Prince EWS]

It was quite heavily discussed around the socials. My point of view at the time was that it was basically a leg-stump half-volley that 99% of competent batsmen would have clipped for runs without any trouble. Since then I've been a it more open-minded and am willing to accept that maybe some other Test batsmen may have had some trouble with the swing and potentially been trapped in front and it was mostly Burns' movement and technique that made him look worse.

Still think it was not even a good ball though, let alone a great one like some were claiming

Yeah it's the fact that he got bowled by it that was the real embarrassment. Totally acceptable to get out lbw or get a leading edge to that first ball IMO, but to get bowled was a disgrace.

 

[thierry henry]

It was quite heavily discussed around the socials. My point of view at the time was that it was basically a leg-stump half-volley that 99% of competent batsmen would have clipped for runs without any trouble. Since then I've been a it more open-minded and am willing to accept that maybe some other Test batsmen may have had some trouble with the swing and potentially been trapped in front and it was mostly Burns' movement and technique that made him look worse.

Still think it was not even a good ball though, let alone a great one like some were claiming

A leg-stump half volley is generally a ball you can flick away with impunity because with the natural angle it’s not actually going to hit leg stump. The outswinger that is going to hit the stumps is a lot more dangerous.

Not saying it was a good or great ball (too full) but anything swinging and hitting the stumps first up is dangerous and should be given the full face ideally