Curiosities of cricket believe it or not!

G L Wijesinghe

Sydney Copley, an unknown member of the Nottinghamshire ground staff was asked to field as a substitute for Larwood who retired to the pavilion with a stomach upset. Larwood was still on his way to the dressing room when the substitute fielder Copley took a grand tumbling catch to dismiss the Australian batsman McCabe for 49. (An incident in the 1st test England vs Australia at Trent Bridge, Nottingham in June 1930. Curiously Copley was not a test player, he had not played any first class cricket upto this point of time).

Dropped five times before reaching 30

Sri Lanka captain Arjuna Ranatunge was dropped five times at 10, 12, 25, 26 and 29 and was fortunate enough to score his career best score of 135 not out in the second innings of the third test Sri Lanka vs Pakistan played at P Saravanamuttu Stadium, Colombo in March, 1986.

Four wicket-keepers in one innings

This oddest occurrence took place when England used four wicket-keepers in the first innings against New Zealand at Lord’s, London in July, 1986. Bruce French, the regular wicket-keeper of England was injured while batting and called on Bill Athey to substitute. He kept wickets for the first two overs and was substituted by non-playing Bob Taylor who kept wickets from the 3rd to the 76th over. Bobby Parks took over from the 77th over to the 140th over. Finally the regular wicket-keeper French kept for the last ball of the innings.

Well-balanced test match innings

South Africa achieved an uniquely balanced innings with five fifties and five ‘ducks’ in the 1st innings of the 1st test South Africa vs England at Old Wanderers, Johannesburg in December, 1938.

B Mitchell 73, A D Nourse 73, K G Viljoen 50, E L Dalton 102, A B C Langton 64, A Melville ‘duck’, N Gordon ‘duck’, W W Wade ‘duck’, G E Bond ‘duck’, E Q Davies ‘duck’.

The West Indian team refused to take the field after tea on the third day of the 2nd test against New Zealand at Lancaster park, Christchurch in February 1980. Although their request for a change of umpire was declined, they took the field 12 minutes later. In the final session which was a work-to-rule session, the fielders completely ignored balls hit in their direction and carried on regardless.

Test innings interrupted 11 times

Denis Compton’s innings of 184 in the 2nd innings of the first test England vs Australia played at Trent Bridge, Nottingham in June, 1948 was interrupted eleven times by rain, bad light and scheduled intervals of lunch and tea which was spread over three days. Compton was finally out when he kicked the wicket while trying to hook a bouncer.

Naked spectator

Occasion: Second test England vs Australia

Venue: Lord’s London

Date: August 4, 1975

Time: 3.20 pm.

The first ever streaker (naked spectator) in England intruded upon the field of play, jumped over both sets of stumps and made a quick vanish on to the Mexican wave.

Marathon over

GOB Allen’s first over in the 2nd innings of the 3rd test England vs Australia played at Old Trafford, Manchester in July 1934 lasted 13 balls as he was called for 3 wides and 4 no-balls in this record breaking over.

Banned from bowling

The ‘idol’ of Pakistan cricket team Imran Khan was banned from bowling in the 1st innings of the 3rd test Pakistan vs New Zealand which was played at National Stadium, Karachchi in October/November 1976 for bowling too many short-pitched balls.

‘Kicked him out’

England double international Denis Compton test cricketer turned soccerite ran out Indian opener Vijaya Merchant by kicking the ball into the stumps in the 3rd test at Kennington Oval, London in August, 1946.

Identical scores

The 2nd test Australia vs England played at SCG Australia in January, 1980 recorded a rare instance of a player from each team making identical scores.

David I Gower (England) 3 and 98 not out.

Greg Chappell (Australia) 3 and 98 not out.