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Joe Denly's spilled catch for England against New Zealand has been rated among the worst in Test cricket, attracting humour and anguish in equal measure.

It drew laughter from crowd, disbelief from New Zealand's premier batsman and bewilderment from England's beaten cricketers.

Visiting captain Joe Root simply described Joe Denly's astonishing dropped catch in the second Test in Hamilton as a "goober".

Is this the easiest dropped catch of all time? #NZvENG pic.twitter.com/y6V7XrzYy9

— TAB (@tabcomau) December 2, 2019

The bungled chance came when Black Caps captain Kane Williamson lobbed a straightforward chance to Denly at midwicket early on day five of the drawn Test, when England were still hunting victory.

The ball somehow popped through the hands, stunning everybody at Seddon Park, including bowler Jofra Archer who had completed his celebrations before realising what had happened.

Root was just as perplexed.

"It's something we pride ourselves on and work hard on, is taking those chances," he said.

"I don't know in terms of Joe's. I think that's just a one-off goober that doesn't happen very often.

"Very frustrating. I'm sure Joe will not hear the end of that one for a while."

Observers compared the spill to arguably the worst piece of fielding in Test history, when another Englishman, Mike Gatting, hashed a chance that ballooned to him at short leg against India in Madras 26 years ago.

Williamson was on 62 and went on to record an unbeaten 104 to help his team clinch the series.

"It was fairly simple wasn't it?" Williamson said of the chance.

"I note how he was disappointed. Certainly Jofra was a bit disappointed."