Dropped Catches!

[Chris_]

I had 4 players drop 2 catches each in the FC season I just finished. All 4 were players towards the top of my fielding order and usually in the slips or other close up positions, depending on who was in the team and how aggressive my field was. I have 2 slips for most overs, though 3 or 1 if I'm trying to push for wickets or reduce run rates.

One was my primary wicket keeper who made 35 catches, so the 2 drops out of 37 opportunities were 5.4% dropped.
The next two were opening batsmen who both spend most of the time in the slips. They made 18 and 13 catches each so the 2 drops represented 10% and 13.3% dropped.
The final player is a bowler who drops in at #1 or #2 slip when not bowling. He made 12 catches, so the 2 drops made it 14.2% of chances dropped.

A few other players dropped 1 each, in various positions.

I don't think any of those are out of the ordinary, and there were plenty of innings where I either had no drops or maybe a half chance where the animation shows the player diving one handed at full stretch.

Obviously some of them were frustrating - such as dropping a batsman at 17 runs and seeing him go on to score a century - but that's cricket. It's not like anyone was being placed in the slips and dropping 7 catches.

[Chris_]

Just to add to the above (as a quick edit will get the post marked for moderation):

The wicket keeper has a 2nd XI 3-Day CpM of 5.23, which I class as very reliable. The 3 others mentioned above who are usually the top 3 in my fielding order have 2nd XI CpM stats of 1.15, 1.12 and 1.11 so they're pretty close together.

It's interesting to note that my part-time keeper who plays as a regular #5 batsman in my team has a 2nd XI CpM of 3.47 but is always right at the bottom of the fielding list, so whatever ability he's given for wicket keeping isn't translating to the fielding list.

[Wilted]

I found an interesting article that tries to quantify dropped catches as a statistic. It looks at chances missed from 2003-2015. The author separates missed chances into 'normal' and 'difficult' but then doesn't split the data into those categories due to the difficulty of the chance being unverifiable (not everyone is Robelinda). Basically anytime a finger touches a ball is considered a chance.

http://sportstats.com.au/articles/droppedcatches2016.pdf

Biggest stat is how often each position drops a chance:

These include any chance including those that barely brush past a fielder's fingertips. Bowlers, short leg, slips, etc. of course have tougher chances than the likes of mid off getting a scooped drive.

Some countries have more drops than others:

Spinners naturally get chances put down more often by the keeper than quicks. This is exacerbated with Asian pitches so of course countries with flat decks that favour quicks take chances than countries with spinning decks. The best keeper in this time frame, Boucher, missed 10% of chances. Other African, New Zealand, Aussie keepers missed 11-12% of chances. On the other hand the best Asian keeper in the article was Dhoni with 18% of chances being missed while most other Asian keepers missed 20-22% of chances. Also keepers dropped more with age. Some top keepers from flat deck countries missed just 7% of chances early in their career such as Gilchrist. Their percentage dropped as their career progressed.

Without actually keeping track of my own stats in CC, I'd wager that there are actually less dropped catches. There would be more sitters that are put down but as others have said, this is probably due to animations. Maybe the animation that plays for dropped keeper and slip catches could be balanced to have more diving animations instead of sitters going down.

[Wilted]

The animation showed two dollies being dropped from scooped drives. I now hate the dropped catch mechanic.

[saviopaes]

The animation showed two dollies being dropped from scooped drives. I now hate the dropped catch mechanic.

It is HORRIBLE! I hate it myself. So many matches lost that way

[cde]

I’ve started keeping tabs on dropped catches and over half a dozen seasons I found that between 6-7% were put down. Most players, even in the key positions held on to at least 90%, most higher. I do have one player who keeps finding his way into the slips despite putting down 14% of his catches though!

I have noticed that putting catches down tends to spread like Covid through the team. I seldom have a match where just one gets put down and if I do then it tends to be on a flat wicket when I am getting few chances.

[Wilted]

I’ve started keeping tabs on dropped catches and over half a dozen seasons I found that between 6-7% were put down. Most players, even in the key positions held on to at least 90%, most higher. I do have one player who keeps finding his way into the slips despite putting down 14% of his catches though!

I have noticed that putting catches down tends to spread like Covid through the team. I seldom have a match where just one gets put down and if I do then it tends to be on a flat wicket when I am getting few chances.

Those numbers are pretty good compared to real life. Just out of interest what comp/team was that for?

[cde]

The majority of the games are playing as Glamorgan, across the three formats. I played some international matches and what not too and kept the overall success rate for those too.

What I found surprising is that I have always been frustrated by the number of catches both Selman and Labuschagne would put down and assumed they were awful. Once I kept tabs they are almost always above 90% and they had the majority of catches coming their way.

It seems about right overall and it can often happen in real life that teams have shocking matches in the field for not particular reason. I’ve also found that I notice drops much more in LO matches because it makes so much more of an impact.

[Wilted]

You can also argue there are a lot more chances in the short forms so you'd expect a higher rate of catches and drops.