SJ Desk
ith crores of viewers in India Itself, the gentleman’s game is rightly on a lighter note, compared to religion in our nation. IPL 2019 is the 12th edition of the power-packed T20 tournament organized by BCCI. We bring you 21 amazing cricketing facts that will surely leave all you cricket fans bedazzled for a long time.
1. Viv Richards, the legendary West Indies batsman, is widely known as someone who has accomplished so many milestones in the history of cricket. Something that remains oblivious about him is the fact that he played football for Antigua in a world cup qualifier match.
2. The iconic Indian cricket team captain back in 1983 Kapil Dev, who guided team India in their first world cup victory is the only player with over 5,000 runs along with 434 wickets in Tests.
3. After England VS Pakistan match was over on September 1, 1996, the entire world was shocked by one of the most astonishing decisions of cricket history. The entire playing squad of 11 members of team Pakistan was awarded the man of the match award, citing their brilliant teamwork.
4. A. R. Gover, during a match at Kingston in 1946 was putting on his sweater, when the batsman lofted the ball towards him. The disappointed fans thought that he was going to miss a facile catch. But the alert cricketer took a stunning catch by grabbing the ball between his legs.
5. Age is just a number, we all have heard this famous cliché. But William Adam proved it by playing cricket at the unfathomable age of 104 at Taunton Somerset, way back in the year 1888.
6. With an imperishable batting average of 99.94. Sir Don Bradman is arguably considered the best batsman ever in the history of cricket. But do you know this cricketing phenom merely hit 6 sixes in his entire career!
7. One of the best all-round cricketer of his time, Andrew Symonds of Australia On 13 June 1995 smacked the same lady spectator, not once but twice in the same match while hitting sixes.
8. The god of cricket, master blaster Sachin Tendulkar has more 5 wicket heave in ODIs when compared to the epitome of spin bowling, Australia’s Shane Warne.
9. Talking about perfection, Charles fry who became England cricket captain in 1912 was an extraordinary sportsperson. In 1893 he made the world record in the long jump. Moving on, In 1901, he played soccer for England and even rugby for the team Barbarians. When he joined the England cricket team as a captain, he clearly made his presence felt internationally, when he scored the highest number of runs compared to any English player for six seasons.
10. John Berry Hobbs, commonly known as Sir Jack Hobbs from England had scored 199 centuries in his first-class cricketing career. He is also the highest run-scorer in the first-class format with an unbelievable 61,760 runs.
11. Jack Hobbs apparently was not just the highest run-scorer but also one of the most honest sportspeople of all time. During a match played at the oval, Jack Hobbs of England declared himself out even though the Australian umpire insisted he wasn’t.
12. Talking about IPL, while playing from Punjab Kings XI, Gilchrist and Shaun Marsh added 206 for the 2nd wicket vs RCB in 2011. Not only it is the highest partnership for any wicket in the T20 format but it also seems like a record, that will take a long time to break.
13. The legendary fielder Jhonty Rhodes who revolutionized fielding standards in international cricket also played hockey for South Africa in 1992 Olympic qualifiers.
14. A creepy discovery was made In July 1998 during an archaeologist survey at Chelsea, London. The extraction team stumbled upon what apparently resembled a cricket bat and the carbon dating proved it to be from around 3500 BC. It was made of oak wood and was roughly75 cm long.
15. One of the most underrated records in the history of cricket was accomplished by an Indian spinner Bapu Nadkarni On 12th January 1964. He bowled 21 straight maiden overs during one of his bowling spells at a match in Chennai.
16. In 1893 W. G. Grace got out at an impressive score of 93. However, the fact that made this score qualify in our list is that by scoring 93, he had literally scored every score between 0 & 100 in his graceful career.
17. There have been a lot of hattricks in the history of cricket. But have you ever heard of a hattrick in just 2 balls? During an IPL match, Pravin Tambe picked up a rare 2 ball hattrick. He got the wicket of Manish Pandey via stumping on a wide ball and later bagged the wickets of Yusuf Pathan and Ryan Tendesochate on the next 2 deliveries that were perfectly legal. HOWWZZZATTT!
18. Believe it or not, In 1974, Alvin Kallicharran of the West Indies had to wait for two and a half hours for the umpires to take a decision on whether he was out or not during a test against England. FYI, the decision was given in his favor and Alvin remained not out. Thank god we have such an advanced technology to review such close decisions nowadays.
19. Another cool fact regarding hat-trick. Peter Siddle is the only bowler in the history of cricket who took a hat-trick on his birthday. Now that is a classic example of icing on top of the cake.
20. The first test cricketer to officially wear a helmet was Australian batsman Graeme Yallop during the test match against the West Indies at Barbados in March 1978. It was a great initiative as we have seen a lot of injuries of players on the field due to insufficient safety equipment.
21. Showing a remarkable display of skills, Zimbabwe's Tatenda Taibu and India’s skipper Virat Kohli are the only 2 players to have done Batting, bowling, and wicket-keeping during the same ODI match.