On this day in 1992: Curtly Ambrose bowls a 13-ball over
Northamptonshire toured Bournemouth to face hosts Hampshire at the Dean Park during the 1992 County Championship. The match was a special one as it involved Malcolm Marshall for the home team led by Mark Nicholas, while Curtly Ambrose was representing Northampton led by the England International Allan Lamb. Hampshire elected to bat first and got off to a great start with fifties from Kevan James (74) and Robin Smith (62).
The duo added 100 runs for the 3rd wicket as the home team moved to 238/4 close to batting out 100 overs. At this stage, Kevin Curran began a dream spell as Hampshire lost their last six wickets for only 22 runs. Curran took five of the last six wickets of the Hampshire innings and ended up with bowling figures of 6/45. Hampshire, as a result, were bowled out for 260 runs by the end of the opening day’s play.
Skipper Allan Lamb helped the Northants with a big knock after a couple of early wickets. Lamb scored 160 alone by sharing a 109-run stand for the 4th wicket followed by a 59-run partnership for the 5th wicket. Wicketkeeper David Ripley also contributed to Hampshire’s total with 57 runs. They eventually declared the innings on 338/8 shortly before the stumps on day two.
Hampshire, in reply, lost a wicket before the close of play. The match resumed on August 17th after a reserve day where the Hampshire team overcame the deficit losing three wickets. Just when the home team moved to 79/3 with a lead of one run in hand, the pacer Paul Taylor kicked off a ruthless spell. In a matter of time, Hampshire’s total became 80/9 as they lost six wickets for just one run.
Back to back dismissals off no-balls!
Skipper Nicholas was dismissed for a duck by Ambrose to push Hampshire into trouble. It marked the start of a huge over of no-balls from Curtly Ambrose. The exact number of no-balls bowled by Ambrose in an over varied according to various sources. Some claim Ambrose bowled only six no-balls while few say that it was three no-balls. However, two of those no-balls did some favour to the lower-order batsman Kevin Shine.
The No.11 batsman of Hampshire was out caught and was dismissed bowled in successive deliveries but both of them turned out to be no-balls. Hampshire were eventually bowled out for 100 runs as Taylor finished with bowling figures of 7/23. The visiting Northamptonshire team got a target of 23 which they chased down in only 7.3 overs without losing a wicket. They earned 22 points from this fixture while Hampshire got only five.
