Interesting Facts about Cricket You Never Knew

1) The marriage that prevented a record

Bhausaheb Babasaheb Nimbalkar who played for Maharashtra vs. Kathiawar scored 443*. At 443, he was within striking distance of Don Bradman’s then world record score of 452, made 19 years earlier when the Kathiawar captain, Thakore Sahib of Rajkot, decided to concede the match with the Maharashtra score 826 for 4. The match thus came to an abrupt end and Nimbalkar was deprived of a famous world record. Another quiet preplexing theory doing the rounds is that Nimbalkar himself had to go get married and so would not have been able to bat on Day 3 anyway.
2) A rare occurrence – History of the tied Test

In the 145 year history of Test cricket there are only two occasions when a Test matches have ever been tied – the first between West Indies and Australia at Brisbane in 1960-61 and the second between Australia and India in Madras in 1986-87. In addition to the two tied Tests, there have been two Test matches which ended when time expired with the scores level in the fourth innings, but with the batting side still having wickets in hand. These matches are considered to be draws, rather than ties. These matches were: In 1996, a Test between England and Zimbabwe was the first instance of a Test to finish drawn with scores level, with England finishing on 204–5 with 5 wickets remaining. In 2011, the third Test between the West Indies and India in Mumbai ended with the scores level and India finishing on 242–9 with one remaining wicket.
3) All four innings on same day

The second day of the Lord’s Test match between England and West Indies in 2000 is the only time in the history of Test cricket that a part of all 4 innings have been played on the same day.

4) Bowling two consecutive overs

In cricket bowlers can only bowl from one end at a time and cannot bowl two overs consecutively. However, in a 1951 in a Test versus England, Alex Moir of New Zealand bowled 2 successive overs, the last before tea and the first after the interval! The only other time this happened in Test cricket was on 15 August 1982. It was Engvand vs Pakistan Test match when Imran Khan bowled Robin Jackman LBW from the Pavilion end with the last ball of the first over of the day, as England were bundled out 201 runs behind Pakistan. Having invited the opposition to follow-on, Imran bowled the first over of the second innings from the Nursery end to Derek Randall.

5) The cricketer who stole socks!

On the 1974 tour to England, Indian opener, Sudhir Naik allegedly stealed a pair of socks from Marks & Spencers.

6) History of cricket bats

The first laws of cricket were written in 1774. Since then they have been changed on numerous occasions. Pretty much everything has changed since then. The early cricket bats were long curved pieces of wood resembling a thick hockey stick. The stumps consisted of two wickets and one bail in between.

7) The story behind the term – Wickets

In the 17th century in England shepherds would bat in-front of a tree stump, hence the term ‘stumps’. As the game progressed it was at times played in front of a wicket-gate – which led to the term ‘wickets’.

8) The shortest Test match

n February 2009 England and West Indies played the shortest ever test match. Only ten balls were bowled before the match was then called off due to an unsafe outfield.

9) The longest Test match

The longest Test match of all time was played between England and South Africa at Durban in 1938-39. This was a timeless test which lasted for 9 days, despite which the match ended in a draw since the England players had to leave to catch the boat back to England! Set 696 runs to win in the fourth innings they had reached an astonishing 654/5 and had a real chance of winning the match when they had to leave.

10) Evolution of bowling

Early bowlers would bowl the ball underarm – and cricket records tell stories of great underarm lob bowlers. Overarm bowling was initially illegal. It was introduced to cricket by a Kent cricketer, John Willes. He actually learnt it from his sister, Christina Willes who found her skirt was getting in the way when she tried to bowl underarm!

11) World Cup win as a player and as a coach

Geoff Marsh is the only player who has achieved this feat in cricket, winning 1987 World Cup as a player and in 1999 again as coach.

12) Cricket before the Ashes

In 1868 an Englishman called Charles Lawrence based in Australia put together a team of aborigines and took them to England. This was the first ever Australian tour to England, and each player wore a cap of a different colour so that the spectators could identify them. The team played 47 matches against a number of local teams of which they won 14, lost 14 and drew the rest. Apart from playing cricket the aborigines showcased a number of unique sports including the backwards race, boomerang throwing and cricket ball dodging.

13) Modes of dismissal in cricket

There are 10 modes in which a batsman can get out in cricket: Caught, Bowled, Leg Before Wicket, Run Out, Stumped, Handling the ball, Obstructing the field, Hit the ball twice, Hit Wicket, Timed out.

14) A rarest dismissal in cricket – Obstructing the field

There are only six occurrences of obstructing the field. In Test cricket Sir Len Hutton is the only man to be given out Obstructing the Field in Test cricket. In ODI cricket there are five instances of batsman given out in this rare way. Four of them are Pakistanis and one is India. Here are the name of players who were out obstructing the field – Rameez Raja, Mohinder Amarnath, Inzamam-ul-Haq,   Mohammad Hafeez, and Anwar Ali.

15) How cricket filled Charles Dickens’ shoes

 In 1876-77 the English cricket team toured Australia. It is believed that the cricket tour was organized to replace a cancelled tour by Charles Dickens to Australia!

16) Charles Bannerman and his list of records

Charles Bannerman of Australia set a number of records when he faced the first ball in Test cricket in 1877, he scored the first run, the first four and the first century. He scored 165 not out in Australia’s 245 all out. Of all the records he set in that match one record still holds – his 165 constituted 67.34% of Australia’s total (245) – the highest percentage by a batsman in a completed test innings.

17) Centenary Test match

The match that is now recognized as the first official Test match was played between Australia and England in Melbourne, March 15th – 19th 1877. Australia won by 45 runs. 100 years later many of the great English and Australian cricket legends descended upon Melbourne to watch the Centenary test match between Australia and England. After a remarkable match Australia beat England by 45 runs – the exact same margin by which they had won the inaugural match 100 years earlier.

18) A Test win after follow-on

Only thrice in the history of Test cricket has a team come back from following on to win a Test match. Strangely enough Australia has been at the receiving end on all three occasions. At the SCG in 1894-95 Australia lost by 10 runs, having scored 586 in the first innings (the highest score by a losing team) and asking England to follow-on. The second time it happened was at Headingley in 1981 when an inspired Ian Botham and a devastating Bob Willis helped England win by 18 runs. The last occasion was in 2000-01 at Calcutta when a VVS Laxman master-class helped by Rahul Dravid and Harbhajan Singh helped India win by an amazing 171 runs after following on.

19) The first black man to play for SA

Makhaya Ntini is the first black man to play test cricket for South Africa. Henry Olonga was the first black Zimbabwean test cricketer.

20) The Test that gave birth to the ODI

The first one-day international was held between England and Australia at Melbourne in 1971. Actually the first four days of a test match had been rained out, so on the final day the first ever one-day international was organized. Australia won the match.