Rajneesh Gupta lists some more amazing coincidences in cricket -- a feature guaranteed to amuse you in these anxious times.
- Part 1 of the series: A cricket feature to make you smile
In February 1895, England's Bobby Peel was dismissed for a pair against Australia at Sydney.
Interestingly, he got both his ducks on the same day off the same bowler (Charlie Turner) and in the same manner (stumped by Affie Jarvis).
There has been only one other instance in Test history when a player was dismissed for ducks in both innings on duck on the same day.
In 1912, South Africa Tommy Ward was dismissed twice by Jimmy Matthews on a duck on the second day of the Old Trafford Test.
To make for his failure in getting out in an identical manner, Ward ensured he was the third victim in Matthews's hat-tricks in the match!
***
In the first Test between South Africa and England at Port Elizabeth in February 1896, Joseph Willoughby, making his Test debut for South Africa, and George Lohmann, of England, dismissed each other for pairs in the same Test, a unique feat in Test chronicles.
***
The two rival captains in the 1905 Ashes -- England's Stanley Jackson and Australia's Joe Darling -- were both born on the same day: November 21, 1870.
Darling died in 1946, Jackson in 1947.
***
Albert Relf's first class averages on the 1905/06 MCC tour of South Africa:
| Batting | Innings 17 | Not Out 1 | Runs 404 | Average 25.25 |
| Bowling | Overs 162.1 | Wickets 16 | Runs 404 | Avg 25.25 |
***
In three consecutive Test matches (2nd, 3rd and 4th) in Australia in 1924/25 the total of the Australian second innings was 250.
***
In the Australia versus England 1924/25 series, A J Richardson scored 248 runs in 8 innings and took 8 wickets for 248 runs for Australia.
Thus averaging 31.00 with both bat and ball.
***
Off-spinner Ghulam Ahmed made his Test debut on New Year's Eve, 1948, against the West Indies at Calcutta.
Exactly ten years later, he began what was his final Test, on New Year's Eve, 1958, also against the West Indies at Calcutta.
Paul Harris -- the South African left-arm spinner -- did something similar: He made his Test debut against India in Cape Town on January 2, 2007 and started his final Test also against India in Cape Town on January 2, 2011.
***
Australia's Ian Chappell scored Test cricket's 1,000th hundred against the West Indies at Melbourne in 1968/69.
By an odd coincidence, Chappell was dismissed for 165, the same score on which Charles Bannerman was compelled to retire hurt having completed the very first hundred in the inaugural Test on the same ground in March 1877.
***
Spinner Bapu Nadkarni dismissed West Indian opener Easton McMorris on April 4, 1962.
It was Nadkarni's birthday. Quite remarkably, it was also McMorris's birthday.
A similar incident happened on November 25, 2012 at Adelaide.
South Africa's Alviro Petersen on his 32nd birthday was dismissed by Peter Siddle who also turned 28th the same day!
***
The first one-day international was played between Australia and England at Melbourne in 1970/71.
England were dismissed for 190 and Australia replied with 191/5.
The next time these two teams faced each other in ODIs in Australia was in 1974-75, again at Melbourne.
The roles were reversed this time. Australia were dismissed for 190 and England replied with 191/7.
***
Ian and Greg Chappell both achieved the milestone of 2,000 runs against England in the same number of Tests (29) and during the same series (1979/80).
***
In the 1983 World Cup Sunil Gavaskar was not in great form scoring only 59 runs in the entire tournament.
It was, therefore, no surprise that he had to sit out of the playing eleven on a couple of occasions.
However, as luck would have it, India won all the games in which he played and lost both the games in which he was dropped!
***
When India were bowled out for 103 by the West Indies at Ahmedabad in 1983/84, no batsman made a zero, but six were dismissed for 1.
***
Clive Lloyd's 100th Test, against Australia at Kingston in 1983/84, was also the 100th Test match in the West Indies.
***
Following an innings of 33 in a one-day international against India at Sharjah in 1986/87, Sri Lanka's Aravinda de Silva then put together successive innings of 3, 3, 3 and 3.
***
On the 8th day of the 8th month in 1988, Lancashire was reduced to 88/8 in its Championship match with Middlesex at Manchester.
***
Australia's 100th victory over England, at Old Trafford in 1989, was also Australia's 200th Test win overall.
***
Bob Woolmer is believed to be the only man to have seen both Hanif Mohammad's 499 (Karachi 1958/59) and also Brian Lara's record-breaking 501* (Edgbaston 1994).
Woolmer was 10 years old when his father -- working in Karachi -- dropped him at the ground with Hanif closing in on the record and went to work.
Woolmer was Warwickshire's coach when Lara bettered Hanif's record.
***
At the end of their 98 Tests, both Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar had made 8,158 runs with 29 centuries and 10 ducks.
***
Bangladesh's Hannan Sarkar is one of only two batsmen to have been dismissed off the very first ball of a Test match thrice (the other being India's Sunil Gavaskar).
The bowler who got Sarkar out was Pedro Collins of the West Indies on all three occasions!
***
Playing against the West Indies at Edgbaston in 2004, England's Andrew Flintoff made his highest Test score of 167.
He lofted Jermaine Lawson high in to the top tier, only to see his father Colin standing up to take the catch from a crowd of 20,000. The catch was dropped though.
***
Reaching 99 and then see the last man getting dismissed leaving you high and dry is unfortunate enough.
But to suffer this fate twice in the same season makes the misfortune really heart-rending.
Brett Geeves of Tasmania suffered the double blow in 2008/09, first against Victoria and then against New South Wales, the dismissed last man on each occasion being Tim MacDonald.
***
In India's second innings total of 216/9 at Mohali in 2010/11 that gave them a thrilling one-wicket win, each of the Australian bowlers's economy rate was a whole number.
The only previous instance -- in which at least four bowlers were used -- had been at Kolkata (then Calcutta) in 1952/53 when India needed just six overs to beat Pakistan.
| Bowler | Overs | Maidens | Runs | Wickets | Economy |
| Hilfenhaus | 19 | 3 | 57 | 4 | 3.00 |
| Bollinger | 8 | 0 | 32 | 3 | 4.00 |
| Johnson | 16.4 | 2 | 50 | 0 | 3.00 |
| Hauritz | 9 | 1 | 45 | 1 | 5.00 |
| North | 4 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 2.00 |
| Watson | 2 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 3.00 |
***
In a 50-over match in Pakistan's domestic cricket in 2010/11 two players named Hasan Mahmood turned out for Faisalabad Wolves against National Bank of Pakistan.
Both made 53 with 5 fours and both were dismissed by Mohammad Talha.
***
In the 2011 World Cup, Virender Sehwag hit the first ball of the innings for a four in five consecutive games.
***
England faced Australia at Perth in 2013/14.
This was the 100th Test for both Michael Clarke and Alastair Cook who were also leading their respective sides.
After both teams had played their first innings, the statistics of these two made an interesting reading vis-a-vis Sachin Tendulkar who retired just a month ago.
***
In the first innings of their Ranji Trophy quarter-final match against Uttar Pradesh in January 2014, three of the first six Karnataka batsmen scored exactly 100 and the other three scored ducks! A unique event in the first-class cricket.
Karnataka vs Uttar Pradesh (Bengaluru, January 8-11, 2014)
Karnataka 1st innings
R V Uthappa st Dwivedi b Murtaza 100
K L Rahul c Dwivedi b Rajpoot 0
R Samarth c & b Amit Mishra 0
M K Pandey c Kaif b Amit Mishra 0
K K Nair lbw b Murtaza 100
C M Gautam b Amit Mishra 100
***
In one-day internationals Pakistan have beaten India by one wicket on two occasions -- in 1985/86 and 2013/14.
The similarities between the two matches are hard to ignore: Both times it was the final of the tournament, both times Pakistan won the toss and elected to field, both times India ended with a total of 245, both times number 11 batsman took a crucial single to give the strike back to the reputed batsman.
Both times, the match ended with a six!
***
Sachin Tendulkar completed 1,000 Test runs against Australia at Melbourne on December 28, 1999.
Exactly 15 years later on December 28, 2014 Virat Kohli also completed 1,000 Test runs against Australia at Melbourne.
Both Sachin and Virat took the same number of Tests (11) and the same number of innings (19) to reach this mark.
Remarkably, both had the same number of 100s (5) and the same number of fifties (2) at the end of the innings and both of them were 26 years old at the time!
***
In 2018 at North Sound, West Indies Captain Jason Holder caught the opposing captain Shakib Al Hasan in both innings.
In the next Test at Kingston, Holder bowled Shakib twice in the match.
***
Rahul Dravid and Cheteshwar Pujara have reached the milestones of 3,000, 4,000 and 5,000 runs in the same number of innings.
3,000 runs in 67 innings
4,000 runs in 84 innings
5,000 runs in 108 innings
***
Pakistan's fortunes in the 1992 and 2019 World Cups were eerily similar even though the final outcome for them was significantly different in the two tournaments.
| 1992 | 2019 | |
| Match 1 | Lost | Lost |
| Match 2 | Won | Won |
| Match 3 | Rained out | Rained out |
| Match 4 | Lost | Lost |
| Match 5 | Lost | Lost |
| Match 6 | Won | Won |
| Match 7 | Won | Won |
| Match 8 | Won | Won |
| Match 9 | Won | Won |
