There have been many instances when the most interesting feats with the cricket ball have been produced under surprising circumstances and by the unlikeliest of players. Many of these under-rated records or interesting performances get lost in the dusty corners of yellowing cricket archives. Inzamum-ul-Haq,mostly remembered for being one of Pakistan’s batting greats, should also be remembered as one of very few players (rather batsmen) to have taken their first ODI wicket with the very first delivery of his career.
Such interesting records can even be found in our own cricket history like the time when journalists were confused by Syed Kirmani bowling a single no-ball that gave victory to the West Indies which can be regarded as the shortest spell by a wicket-keeper. (However through scoreboard records, later it was recorded that Kirmani bowled one legitimate ball besides the no-ball thus proving the people in charge of the scoresheet to be more efficient than the journalists.)
This list is an attempt to remember and appreciate 5 such bowling performances and statistics that are interesting simply because they are held not by ‘bowlers’ but by very unlikely players who are not majorly associated with bowling in the arena of international cricket.
1. Sachin’s last over in the Hero Cup semi-final against South Africa in 1993
Sachin Tendulkar has many records to his name but hardly any of those are associated with his bowling prowess. One of the most exciting overs in cricket history has the little master’s name attached to the memories when he was given the ball by Mohammad Azharuddin to defend 5 runs in the last over of in the Hero Cup semi-final against South Africa in 1993.
It was his first over in the match and a huge gamble for India. The first ball yielded a run and a run-out leaving last-wicket pair of Brian McMillan and Allan Donald at the crease. As commentator Henry Blofeld famously states “Tendulkar looks ice cool,” Sachin follows it up with three dot balls and then has a long chat with keeper Vijay Yadav while Brian McMillan suggests something to Allan Donald and he finally gets off the mark with a single.
Vijay Yadav was back on the 30 yard circle to intercept an inside edge. McMillan did produce an inside edge in the last ball which carried to the keeper. All they could manage was a single and Sachin had marvelously bowled at the death to bring up a memorable victory for India.
2. Lala Amarnath is the only player to dismiss Donald Bradman hit wicket
Lala Amarnath, the first cricket captain of independent India, already has considerable acclaim for his century on debut at the Bombay Gymkhana in the same series where he also found bowling success by capturing four wickets at Madras. When asked who the best batsman was in his opinion Amarnath had no doubt : “ … Don Bradman - even in 1947-48, he was still the greatest. In the innings he got his 100th century, he was shaky to start with, but eventually he was just the master.”
However it was against the Don that he would achieve a memorable feat - during a Test at Brisbane in 1947, with the Don batting majestically on 185 from 336 balls with 20 boundaries, Lala Amarnath became the only bowler to dismiss Bradman hit-wicket. His name is further linked with the Don’s when he later led India in Vijay Merchant’s absence and a newspaper praised his 228 and 172 against Victoria and Queensland respectively by writing “People in Australia are flocking to the games not to watch Bradman bat but Amarnath.”
3. MS Dhoni, AB de Villiers become first pair of wicketkeepers to bowl in same Test
It was the first Test of the 2013-14 series between India and South Africa being played at the New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg. Hashim Amla took up the wicket-keeping gloves as AB de Villiers rolled his arm over to bowl the last over before Tea on Day Three in hope of a breakthrough but only cost his team 5 runs. The very next day a small piece of history was written as Mahendra Singh Dhoni decided to bowl towards the concluding stages of Day Four while Virat Kohli kept wickets.
It was the first time in history that wicket-keepers from both sides were bowling in the same match. Dhoni’s away swing conceded just 4 runs and also at that point made him the keeper who had bowled the most number of times in Tests - in 6 innings as of then. Murali Vijay also bowled and gave away 3 runs from one over.
4. Wilf Barber came closest to taking a wicket with his only ball in Test cricket
Gerald Howat described Wilf Barber as "the fourth pillar" of the Yorkshire batting in the mid-1930s while Wisden described his fielding as “first rate”. Though he scored 16,402 runs in his career and took 182 catches, it is due to an interesting bowling statistic that he makes it to this list. He appeared for England in only two Tests, but on his Test debut against H. F. Wade's South African team of 1935 at Leeds, he bowled 2 balls, conceded 0 runs and even picked up the wicket of HB Cameron, denying him his half-century, and having bowled 2 balls in the process just missed out on the record of being in the history books as the player to take a wicket in the only ball of his Test career.
However, on the condition that no qualification criteria be applied, Wilf Barber, along with A. N. Hornby and Bruce Murray, holds the record for the best bowling average, all of them having taken 1 wicket without conceding any runs, thus averaging Zero!
5. Sanath Jayasuriya is the only cricketer with 300+ wickets in ODI’s to have scored 12000+ runs
In 1996 he was Wisden’s Leading Cricketer in the World and in 2005 Cricinfo showed that since the 1996 World Cup, he had effected the seventh highest number of run-outs in ODI cricket of any fieldsman. However for many it comes as a surprise that in the early years of his career, Jayasuriya was considered mainly a bowler who could bat a bit; his selection in the U-19 team was based on his bowling performance and his 440 international wickets is testimony to his bowling ability.
What is incredible in his ODI bowling career is the fact that he is perhaps the only opening batsman to have four five-wicket hauls under his belt with best figures of 6/29 against England at Moratuwa in 1993. The astounding fact is that Sanath Jayasuriya with 323 scalps has more wickets in ODIs than Australian spin legend Shane Warne who has 293 dismissals in his tally!
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