Worcestershire keeper-batter Gareth Roderick has reflected on his award-winning catch against Essex but says there have been others in his career which have given him more satisfaction.
Roderick’s superb one-handed effort away to his left to dismiss Shane Snater in the Vitality County Championship match at Chelmsford earned him the Worcestershire Cricket Society Moment Of The Season award at the county’s Gala Awards Night.
It was a crucial catch off the bowling of Logan van Beek just as Snater was threatening to wrestle control away from Worcestershire before they eventually triumphed by 43 runs in a memorable victory.
But Roderick says there have been other dismissals which he rates higher during a decade of first class cricket with Gloucestershire and Worcestershire.
He said: “How highly do I rate the Snater catch? To be honest, I wouldn’t rate it that highly because the ball was never going anywhere else.
“As soon as the ball came out of Logan’s hand, I was heading down the legside anyway because that’s where it was kind of going.
“I think it was a turning point of the game because we needed a wicket and they were getting a bit of a partnership going.
“We knew if we got that one we were closer to the end so, from that perspective, it was great.
“When you dive and you’ve got one hand stuck out, you never quite know. You need it to go somewhere near the middle to stay in and thankfully it did.”
Roderick added: “It is in the top 10 but not the very top. There have certainly been ones that have been more satisfying for me.
“There was the one to dismiss Joe Clarke off Dillon Pennington a couple of years ago which was a good one. Right in the top left corner.
“Then there was one to get Sam Northeast out in 2014, an inside edge when I was standing very close.
“That would be up there and also a couple in my first year at Gloucestershire against Yorkshire in a Pro40 League game.
“But, like I say, the Snater one was important in the sense of putting the team on the way to victory which was the most important factor.”
