Published: Jul 09, 2016, 07:00 AM (IST)
Edited: Jul 11, 2016, 11:10 AM (IST)
In the previous instalment of cricket coincidences we have seen instances of similar margins of victory in cricket. This time we will look back at instances were teams made identical scores. In some of the instances involved teams participating in the same match; in some others, playing similar teams on the same day. Let us have a look.
The term ‘Minor Cricket’ is perhaps somewhat misleading because the format has been known historically to include a wide variety of interesting and uncanny incidents. In a match between Woking and Shere in the year 1818, both sides had identical scores of 71 in each innings, a total of four team scores of 71 in the match.
There are other such instances:
– Tenby vs Fusiliers, four 51s, 1885
– Toteridge vs Fortress, four 94s, 1929
– Heathcote Schoolboys vs Cornulla RSL Club, four 55s, 1982
An amazing sequence of incidents unfolded on July 6, 1929, when Bollington First XI travelled to Winnington Park to play the local First XI in a one-innings match. Both teams scored 89, the match resulting in a tie. There is not a lot in that, for there are a lot of tied matches, but there was something more to it.
On the very same day, Winnington Park Second XI travelled to Bollington to do battle with the local Second XI, each team scored 83 and that match was tied as well!
[read-also]468833,468848,468858[/read-also]
There was an uncanny Nelson connection in the Western Province v KwaZulu-Natal match at Newlands in October 2007. In the Western Province second innings total of 333, they lost their 5th wicket on 111, their 7th wicket on 222 and their last wicket on 333. They had also lost a wicket, their 3rd, on 111 in their first innings.
The Warwickshire team was in the thick of things in the County Championship season 2010, winning their away match against Essex at Southend-on-Sea in the first week of August after scoring 155 and 155 for 3 and winning the match by 7 wickets. In the return match, the home fixture later in the same month, they won the match by 7 wickets again, scoring 155 and 155 for 3 at Edgbaston.
With the volume of Test cricket increasing by the day, it is no great surprise to find two of them starting on the same day in different parts of the world. On February 16, 1973, two separate Tests got underway simultaneously — the 3rd Test between New Zealand and Pakistan at Eden Park, and the 1st Test between West Indies and Australia at Sabina Park. What followed was quite astounding: New Zealand and Pakistan had identical scores of 402 in their respective first innings, whilst Australia declared their first innings closed at 428 for 7 and West Indies totalled 428 in their first innings.
Who can explain these things?
(Pradip Dhole is a retired medical doctor with a life-long interest in cricket history and statistics)
