Cricket: 10 Interesting Facts That You Might Not Know

Are you a Crazy Cricket Fan? Do you follow cricket regularly, keeping in touch with all the on-goings in either International or League matches being played worldwide? And do you like to gather information regarding the most interesting game-plays and moments of the match? If yes, then we have some astounding facts for you which made the history and are not famously known by the youth.

Here are 10 Interesting Cricket Facts That You Might Not Have Known:

1. Asia’s Little Master Hanif Mohammad, from Pakistan, holds the world record for longest innings in International (and domestic) Test History, an astonishing (nerve deadening) 970 Minute (approximately, over 16 hours) 337* against the leading bowlers of West Indies in 1957-58.

By the end of his career, Hanif Muhammad had surpassed all the imaginable possibilities in the game of Cricket. With an impressive career average of 52.32, he scored 55 first-class centuries. Furthermore, the ambidextrous Hanif was not only two-handed in batting but also, he was capable of bowling with either arm, as well as, keeping wickets on several occasions for Pakistan.

2. A timeless Test has been played 99 times between 1877 and 1939. The rules are based under no time limitation, played until one side wins or the match is tied, leaving no possibility of a draw, theoretically. The last and longest timeless test was played between England and South Africa at Durban in 1939.

South Africa had set a target of 696 for England to win, played for 2 weeks with England to score 654 for 5 (the highest ever first-class fourth innings score), which was abandoned and concluded as a draw after the England team had to leave otherwise they would have missed their ship sailing back home.

3. Known as “The Master” of Cricket, Sir Jack Hobbs scored 199 centuries in his entire First-Class career. During his early performances, he gained some mixed reviews, but after his batting against South Africa’s googlybowlers made his place secure in England’s Cricket Team.

Between 1911–12, he scored three centuries in a Test series against Australia, which led him to the title of “The World’s Best Batsman” by Judge Critics.

4. The greatest number of runs ever scored in an over is not 36. Contrary to popular belief nowadays, but actually, it is ‘77’ which was scored in an over by RH Vance during the game between Canterbury and Wellington. During the over which RH Vance bowled, the number of runs he gave to the opponent overall adding up to 77 has been drafted below

0 4 4 4 6 6 4 6 1 4 1 0 6 6 6 6 6 0 0 4 0 1

5. During the United States Civil War, cricket had a massive outreach and began to compete with baseball for participants, but slowly declined in popularity. In the brief golden age, the ritual was followed again by the Philadelphian cricket team which lasted until the beginning of World War-I.

Although America is famous for its most engaging bat and ball game, baseball. Earlier, the first and foremost game to be played in the U.S using a bat and ball was cricket. During its popularity in the entire country, between 1834 and 1914, there were over 1000 cricket clubs across 46 states. Later on, in the 20th century, immigrants from other nations including South Asia and the West Indies brought life in the game’s popularity.

6. During a test match in Edgbaston, Birmingham, 1994, West Indian Brian Lara, while playing for Warwickshire against Durham, achieved immortality by achieving the highest score of 501* and creating a history which seems to be inevitable. After having a few near misses, he was bowled off to a no-ball while on 12, later on, dropped by wicketkeeper Chris Scott on 18.

This is when they knew that he will score at least a hundred. But who knew he would go on and create history by exceeding Pakistani Batsman Hanif Muhammad’s Record of 499. And he doesn’t stop here, Lara also was the first man to make seven centuries in eight first-class innings. In 2003, he lost his Test record briefly to Matthew Hayden but reconciled it back in 2004 with 400 while batting against England.

7. Since the inception of Cricket, the fastest thrown ball in 400 years of history for a cricket ball by any bowler, is precisely (electronically measured) 161.3 km/h (100.23 mph) by Pakistan’s Shoaib Akhtar to England’s Nick Knite, during the World Cup hosted by South Africa on the 22nd February 2003.

Shoaib Akhtar is famous for his ‘Double jeopardy’ deliveries. During his first International impact and the first time Shoaib Akhtar and Sachin Tendulkar faced each other, he bowled reverse swinging delivery that knocked Tendulkar’s middle wicket off the ground sending him back to the pavilion with a Golden Duck. On his previous ball, he had bowled Rahul Dravid, with a similar reverse swing.

Sachin Tendulkar’s batting stats against Shoaib Akhtar are 251 runs by 328 balls, with 8 dismissals, an average of 27.14 with a Strike Rate of 76.

8. The King of Cricket, Sachin Tendulkar played for the Pakistani Cricket Team before the Indian team! This happened during a festival match between India and Pakistan at the Brabourne Stadium in 1987 when Javed Miandad and Abdul Qadir left the Stadium, due to which Tendulkar (13) was sent as a substitute.

In his book, “Playing It My Way”, Sachin recalls his time when he missed the catch of Kapil Dev after Pakistani Captain Imran Khan positioned him in the long-on instead of mid-on. Later on, stating as if he doesn’t know whether Imran Khan remembers that he (Sachin) once played in his team.

9. Widely regarded as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game, Shane Warne is praised worldwide with a list of titles including “Wisden Cricketer of the Century”. What people do not know is that Shane Warne had 293 wickets in total 194 ODI matches and was successful in taking only one five-wicket haul in his ODI career.

Whereas Sri Lanka’s tempestuous batsman, Sanath Jayasuriya scalped 323 wickets in the 445 One Day Internationals (ODI) he played. He has also been credited for bringing revolutionary change to the one-day international cricket with his explosive batting in collaboration with Romesh Kaluwitharana in 1996, initiating the hard-hitting modern-day batting strategy adopted by all of the nations.

Warne’s bowling economy rate is 4.25, meanwhile, Jayasuriya bowled with an impressive economy rate of 4.79 and benched four five-wicket hauls in the ODIs with 251 matches more than Warne.

On the other hand, Pakistan’s Wasim Akram has scalped 200 more ODI wickets than Shane Warne. However, Warne is ahead of Akram by 95 wickets in ODI+Test Wickets Combined.

Akram’s highest Test innings score of 257 beats Sachin Tendulkar’s highest Test score of 248*.

10. Boom Boom Afridi is famous for many accolades in Cricket including his Fastest ODI Century which was unbeaten for over a decade. But did you know that the bat which Shahid Afridi played with to score his Fastest Century In ODI, was borrowed from Waqar Younis who had received it as a gift from Indian Star, Sachin Tendulkar.

Not only this, Shahid Afridi is the youngest player to score a maiden century in ODI at the age of 16 years. Also, he has gotten the largest number of ducks in ODIs (30).

While comparing to the legendary Imran Khan, Shahid Afridi has scored twice as many runs and wickets. With 7619 runs and 378 wickets, he surpassed Imran Khan’s 182 ODI wickets 3709 runs, with a robust strike rate of 115.7 while 72.65 that of Imran Khan.

By reading all these facts, you must be very enthusiastic to play cricket. All those who became a star and created a history started from the lowest point and through their hard work and dedication they left a benchmark for others to follow.

You can now go and buy a cricket bat online  to make your dreams come true of becoming a shining star in cricket.

Watch this space for updates in the Facts category on Running Wolf’s Rant.

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