The world of cricket has its own governing body and rules to go with, but every now and then, there are certain incidents, statistics and moments that have ranged from the slightly weird to the utterly bizarre. Here are 10 such cases:
- Inzamam-Ul-Haq took a wicket off the first ball he bowled in international cricket.
In 1991, during a Pakistan-West Indies ODI match, Brian Lara was batting on 45 and looking set for a big score. A 21 year old Inzamam was tossed the ball by his captain, the legendary Imran Khan. Keep in mind, it was only Inzamam’s second ODI ever. His first ball was a mellow left arm spin delivery, which managed to catch Lara’s edge and was pouched by Moin Khan.
2. Sachin Tendulkar has been duck out only once in Ranji Trophy cricket. To Bhuvaneshwar Kumar.
In 2009, Sachin Tendulkar was handed his first duck in his whole Ranji Trophy career when Buvaneshwar Kumar, playing for UP bowled a beauty of a seamer that nicked the Little Master’s edge, hit his pad and was then picked up at short leg.
3. Virender Sehwag’s highest scores in the three formats respectively are 119, 219 and 319.
The Sultan of Multan broke records all around him during his time, and his scorecard also looks quite amazing. In T20s, ODIs and Tests, his highest personal scores are 119, 219 (which was the second ever double century in ODI cricket), and 319 (when he became the first Indian to make a triple century in Test cricket.)
4. Wasim Akram’s highest Test score is higher than Sachin Tendulkar’s
Wasim Akram has a highest Test score of 257 against Zimbabwe, which he scored in October 1996. The shocking thing is that, this is 9 runs higher than Sachin Tendulkar’s highest of 257.
5. Sunil Gavaskar’s snail paced innings
Once, during a World Cup game against England at Lord’s in 1975, England set India a stiff target of 335 to chase in 60 overs, and to the shock of everyone, Sunil Gavaskar came out and played a knock of 36 runs off 175 balls, at a strike rate of merely 20.57.
6. Dirk Nannes has played internationally for 2 countries
Dirk Nannes, born and brought up in Melbourne, Australia, grew up playing junior and county cricket in the country. However, as both his parents had citizenship in Netherlands, he was eligible to represent them in two T20Is in 2009, before he decided to make a switch to the Australian team in the same year.
7. Oldest person to make an international test debut
James Southerton, an English cricketer from the 19th century holds the record of the oldest person to make a test match debut, having played his first match for England against Australia at the age of 49 years and 119 days, which is a record that hasn’t been broken ever since.
8. Inzamam-Ul-haq has been given out for obstructing the field
In an ODI match against India in 2006, Inzamam played a forward shot towards Suresh Raina at mid-off, and started for a run. Raina was quick to collect the ball and throw it at the striker’s end, where Inzamam was walking backwards to his crease. The ball came towards him, and inexplicably he blocked the ball with his bat. His reason was to avoid injury, while the Indian team successfully appealed for a field obstruction.
9. No out-fielders
Twice in cricket history, the captain has set up a field so attacking that there are no fielders in the out field. Yes, you read that right. The eleven players are split like this. One wicket keeper, one bowler, and NINE slips. One of the instances was on Dennis Lillee’s bowling in an Australia New Zealand test game, and the other was also Australia, during Damian Fleming’s bowling in an ODI against Zimbabwe.
10. MS Dhoni has never scored a hundred in any format outside Asia.
While he has a sparkling record as captain, one thing that not many people know about MS Dhoni is that, out of his 15 international hundreds, not a single one has come outside the Asian continent, having scored centuries outside India only in Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
