Despite cricket being a game of consistency and a sport for the strongest nerves, we have always stayed witness to bizarre incidents that unfolded on the pitch.
Spanning from stickers invading the pitch to showcase his guts to cricketers suffering an invisible brain fade, the 22 yards have been a boiling cauldron of surreal activities that has always entertained the fans barring their daily dose of bat and ball duels. We will look at five such incidents which may sound or seem to be absolutely incredulous but as a matter of fact, it did unfold on the pitch.
Adam Gilchrist’s Squash ball technique
Gilchrist was simply insuperable in the truncated 2007 World Cup final as he hammered the Sri Lankan bowlers with zero mercy.
In 38-over innings, Gilchrist rocked the Lankan bowling with his prolific and aggressive batting that witnessed the Aussie opener garnering 149 off 104 deliveries, also helping Australia to set up a massive total of 281.
Sri Lanka couldn’t even look at Australia in the eye and fell short by a whopping margin, thereby making them the World Champions for the third time in a row.
However, after playing the tempestuous knock in the biggest stage of all, Gilly revealed a technique that was least expected of the southpaw. He played with a squash ball in his glove. With 13 boundaries and 8 over-boundaries, Gilchrist confessed to the fact that the impulse created in his glove with the presence of the squash ball helped him to induce much more power and ferocity to his already gilt-edged stroke play.
It was later divulged by Gilchrist that he did this on the sole advice of his batting coach in Perth. The opening stand which he shared of 172 runs did the most of the critical damage to the Islanders.
Mohammad Sami bowled 17 deliveries in an over
According to popular belief, Sami was one of Pakistan’s most underrated bowler who got unlucky due to his frequent injuries. However, on his heydays, he was absolutely unplayable and could raze down the opposition’s batting order with consummate ease.
This was an infamous incident on one of his most ordinary days, where he went on to chronicle 17 deliveries in a single over against Bangladesh in the 2004 Asia Cup. It was the third over of the Bangladeshi innings and Sami lost track of his direction and line and lengths as he bowled seven wides and four no balls.
Despite drawing considerable humiliation for his magnanimous second over, he ended his spell on a decent note that featured the wickets of Mohammad Ashraful and Khaled Mashud and also a couple of maiden overs.
Bangladeshi bowler conceded 92 runs off just 4 deliveries
This was probably the worst of records that a bowler will like next to his name. Though this incident was done deliberately as an act of protest against the umpires.
In May 2017, Sujon Mahmud, a Bangladeshi bowler conceded 92 runs off just 4 deliveries in a domestic affair.
Plying his trade for Lalmatia Club in a 50 over the game, his astonishing over helped the Axiom cricketers chase down 88 in a span of just 4 deliveries. Sujan bowled 13 wides and 3 no balls, all of which ran down for boundaries.
Later the Bangladeshi cricket board, found him guilty and slapped a 10-year ban on Sujan. The Club and the management was also condemned to 5-year-old-bans and was debarred from participating in the Dhaka Second League division.
All four innings of a Test was played on the same day
In November 2011, in a freak show of total impatience, South Africa and Australia played out all the four innings in just one single day.
After playing for 20 overs, Australia was bowled out for 284 on the second day. However, all it took South Africa and Australia to be bundled out was 42.3 overs as all they could manage were 96 and 47 runs respectively. Set with a target of 236, which seemed like an uphill task, in the beginning, was easily turned into a cakewalk as Graeme Smith and Hashim Amla both slammed tons to win it for the South Africans with consummate ease.
