5 super human achievements in Cricket:

I remember I started watching Cricket with India-England ‘92 world cup match in which Indian team was attired in dark blue outfits, in fact the darkest one, which could have been more suitable for white players of Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa (all players were white in SA team in 92 world cup) or even Pakistan than for dark Indian players. After that Cricket become my continuous obsession that changed into a passionate love which held me in its grasp for almost a decade, for my childhood to adolescence. Though I have left following cricket religiously, here, from my memory, I am trying to list down 5 achievements which I think are super human and very difficult or rather almost impossible to break.

1.       Maximum number of centuries in First class Cricket: What was your reaction when AnilKapoor asked the same question in ‘Slumdog Millionaire’?  Jamal chaiwala, the slumdog to be millionaire, would have been happy and would have stroke out, when Anil had hinted him to answer Ricky Ponting as Anil, Jamal would have known, could not have given the right answer. The record is with Sir Jack Hobbs for more than 78 years with 199 centuries and 61K runs. With modest bowling ability and great skill in fielding, he was a complete package for a team with his batting abilities. He was the most sought player, who became one of the richest sportsmen of the UK. He could surely have crossed magical 200 mile stone if his career had not been halted during First World War. So, when you applause Sachin Tendulkar for his ‘century for centuries’, you should remember Jack Hobbs for his contribution to Cricket.

2.       Best bowling performance in a Test match: Anil Kumble shares a unique record of taking all 10 wickets in an inning with Jim Laker. Incidentally both made their records in the second inning. The only difference is Jim had taken 9 more wickets in first inning to the contrast of 4 taken by Kumble in his match. This makes the count of 19 wickets in a test match which has stood unbeatable till date. The 20^th wicket was taken by Tony Lock, a left arm orthodox slower. It is interesting or you may call it fate that Tony bowled 69 overs for his single wicket whereas Jim 68 for his 19. If it gives you the impression that Tony was just a mediocre then let me tell you that he has 174 wickets in 49 matches with an average of 3.55, better than the average of most of Indian bowlers of the current team. Score card is here.

3.       The Hat tricks: Chetan Sharma suddenly became famous ( or notorious) when he was hit for 6 by Miandad on the last ball and the match slipped out of India’s hand which looked to be sure shot victory before the last ball. I mean in how many matches in those days the team batting second would make 40 plus run and win with a SIX on the last ball. Very rare and very disappointing for the losing team! After a year, Chetan Sharma became the first bowler to take a hat-trick in the world cups. Now coming to the main focus area - the hat tricks. I summarize you some of the important and unusual hat-tricks that happened till now.

a.       4 hat-tricks by Wasim Akram: Wasim Akram is the only bowler who has 4 hat-tricks under his name – 2 in one-days and 2 in Test matches. The gap between ‘first and second’ and ‘third and fourth’ was within half year, though the gap between second and third ones was around 9 years. Though LatishMalinga has got 3 in ODI but he did not start his account in test cricket. With 4, Akram still tops the list of best bowlers the cricket world has ever seen. 

b.      Double hat-trick in a test match: Jimmy Matthews from Australia took two hat-tricks on the same day in the first and the second innings against South Africa on 28 May 1912. Interestingly, he took all six wickets by himself (b, lbw, lbw & b, c & b, c & b). 100 years have passed till now but no one could break this record.

c.       3 wickets in 3 different overs: Though CourtneyWalsh had to wait for more than 48 hours to complete is his hat-trick and his one is considered one of its kinds, the credit for the most bizarre and unusual one goes to Merv Hughes. He took his three wickets in the different overs. Being unaware of it, He had to be informed of his achievement. For more details click here.

4.       Maximum score in a one-day match without a boundary: In October 1994, New Zealand team came to India to play in a tri-series with India and West-Indies. The tri-series was placed between India-West Indies ODI series, in which both were 1-1.  New Zealand under the captaincy of Ken Rutherford played their first match against India in Baroda. With 27-2, touring team was in trouble when Ken and Adam started taking their ship for sail. However, Sachin’s Second century wasted the efforts of aggressive 108 from the visiting captain, what became significant is the score of 96 by Parore on 138 balls. Considering that he did not hit a single boundary his strike rate was not bad for the match of the 90s. Though anything can happen in Cricket, with very high scoring ODI matches, aggressive players, long batting orders make this record invulnerable. Check out the scorecard of this match.

5.       Centuries by two players on debut in the same inning: In ’96 summer, both India and Pakistan toured England, but it was not as favorable for India as it was for Pakistan. India did not even win a single match whereas Pakistan thrashed England by 2-0 in test matches. Anil Kumble struggle to take wickets whereas Mustaq Ahmed made feasts on English batsmen. The most positive output for India was the entry of Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguli in the team. Both had a dream start with 96 and 131 respectively in the Lords test match, the second one of the tour. But what they could not achieve were the centuries by two batmen in the same inning playing their first matches. If Dravid had made 4 more runs, India would have been the first country in the test Cricket to make this record. Later on, Ali Naqvi, a lesser known name, and Azhar Mahmood, number-8 batsman in the match, made this record against South Africa in Rawalpindi. You can check the scorecard here. It is worth mentioning that Azhar Mahmood made it against fiery pace of Allen Donald and Shaun Pollock, supported by McMillan and Kallis. His inning of 132 against South Africa in Durban 8^th best inning of all the time and probably the best one by any number-7. He seemed to have enjoyed SA bowling attack as his all three test centuries came against South Africa. He was one of them who could fit in the Pakistani side like pieces of a Jigsaw-puzzle, but for some unknown reason he was left out of the team. No matter what, he shares a record which looks unbreakable.

            There are many records which you can see with awesomeness and expect them to be included in this list, but what I tried here is to bring out the ones which are less known or have been forgotten. Please feel free to comment and mention about such records which you think are rare, unknown and impossible or difficult to achieve.