Believe it or not: 5 Interesting co-incidences in cricket
In the 143-year history of international cricket, a lot of records and milestones have taken place while the game kept evolving. Two new formats were adopted in this while which does show how far the sport has come along. This beautiful game, in the process, had also witnessed a wide range of coincidences which is either across a format, within a format, spread over decades or even centuries. Here are the top five coincidences occurred in international cricket:
5. History repeats after 100 years:
The first-ever Test match was played between Australia and England at the Melbourne Cricket ground in 1877 where the hosts won the game by 45 runs. The two teams came against each other in the Centenary Test in 1977 at the iconic MCG ground to mark the completion of 100 years of the format. Australia declared their 2nd innings on 419/9 to set a target of 463 for England who made only 95 in the first essay. England fought hard this time but lost the game by 45 runs; astonishingly same as the first-ever Test in 1877.
4. Indian captains and the ‘183’ factor:
3 successful indian captains .
Highest individual ODI score of Ganguly , Dhoni & kohli – 183. #HappyBirthdayDhoni #HappyBirthdayDada pic.twitter.com/YTuvRnfnhY
— Akhil Rebelli (@akhilrebelli) July 8, 2019
Sourav Ganguly, MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli, all three have been very popular as the leader of the Indian cricket team. Another fact that joins Ganguly, Dhoni and Kohli is that their highest ODI score is exactly 183. Sourav and Virat scored 183 before getting dismissed while Dhoni remained unbeaten. All the three players had made their captaincy debut for India inside two years after their respective highest ODI score.
3. Breaking the individual record with same victory margin:
Until the start of 2009, the highest individual score in Men’s ODI cricket was held by Saeed Anwar’s 194 scored back in 1997. Later, Zimbabwe’s Charles Coventry got 194* in 2009 during an ODI against Zimbabwe. But from the beginning of 2010, it was all about the Indian domination as five out of eight Men’s ODI double tons came from them.
#OnThisDay in 2014: Rohit Sharma hit 264 off 173 v Sri Lanka at Eden Gardens. He hit 33 fours & 9 sixes in that innings. SL scored 251
India won by 153 runs — the same margin when Tendulkar hit 200* v SA in 2010 & when Sehwag hit 219 v WI in 2011pic.twitter.com/6M3wIoxN9u
— Sarang Bhalerao (@bhaleraosarang) November 13, 2020
Sachin Tendulkar scored 200* against South Africa in 2010 to bag the record before Virender Sehwag came up with 219 against West Indies in the very next year. Two years later, Rohit Sharma came close by smashing 209 before he went past Sehwag with 264 against Sri Lanka in 2014. Interestingly, India’s winning margin was exactly 153 runs in all the three matches where the record for the highest individual Men’s ODI score was broken.
2. Amla and milestone wickets:
During the Potchefstroom Test in 2017, Hashim Amla became the 70,000th dismissal of Men’s Test cricket when he got out to Shafiul Islam. Quite interestingly, Amla was also the 60,000th dismissal in Men’s Test cricket back in 2011 when he was dismissed by Shane Shillingford in the 2010 St Lucia Test match. Dramatically, Hashim Amla became the 10,000th LBW dismissal in Men’s Test cricket during the 2016 Boxing Day Test against Sri Lanka.
1. Nelsons galore:
The 2011 Cape Town Test between South Africa and Australia saw the fall of as many as 23 wickets on the 2nd day’s play. South Africa were bundled out for only 96 in reply to Australia’s 284 but came back to bowl out the Aussies to only 47. South Africa began the 3rd day on 81/1 in pursuit of a 236-run target. Little into an hour on 3rd day morning, South Africa stood at 125/1 and needed another 111 runs to win. The time at that point the time read 11:11 AM and the date was 11/11/11 (November 11, 2011).
