1877 was the year when for the very first time the international game was played. It’s almost been more than a hundred years in the establishment of cricket and the game has progressed in many ways.
It seems to be improving and evolving each and every day. More than 7500 international games have played in these 100 years of cricket history, which includes 2365 Test matches, more than 4210 ODIs, and 985+ T20Is.
There are only a few rare cases in which we can find little common coincidences. Some rare occurrences, where we can find similar situations between two games which are separated by years and decades.
Even some players get compared for thei r score and consistent performance in the game. And this coincidences of scores and circumstances between the players can also occur from two different eras as well.
Thus here are the five most interesting coincidences in the history of the gentlemen’s game.
1. The special score of 183 to qualify captain spot.
183 is a special and interesting number that gained attention in Indian cricket. It is the highest score in ODI format which is achieved by the three great players of India, Sourav Ganguly, MS Dhoni, and Virat Kohli. Another interesting fact besides this is that, after scoring their career-best of 183, very soon all three of them became the Indian captain.
In 1999, Sourav Ganguly made this special score during the World Cup. He smashed Sri Lanka in the 21st game of the tournament while hitting 183 off 159 balls. And then in the very next year, the spot-fixing scandal broke out and Ganguly became the Indian captain in 2000.
2005 was the year for Dhoni, he smashed an unbeaten 183 runs against Sri Lanka to chase a score of 299. After a couple of years, Dhoni became the captain, when most of the senior players opted out of the T20 World Cup in 2007. Right after the tournament, he promoted as the ODI captain as well but had to wait for a year to reach the Test cricket.
In 2012, Virat Kohli hit an excellent 183 while chasing 330 runs against Pakistan during an Asia Cup game and led his team to win. And after one year he made his appearance as a captain in December 2014 when Dhoni retired from Test cricket. He became captain of all formats in January 2017.
2. Double century coincidence of Sachin Sehwag and Rohit
Before the year 2010, there were a few players who appeared close to break the double century mark in ODI cricket.
But when the mission was accomplished of breaking the 200-run record, the first three players to achieve this were all Indians. There is a big coincidence regarding all the three players of these double hundreds.
The precious player of India, Sachin Tendulkar became the first man in the cricket history to register a double century in ODI. He made this record against South Africa in 2010.
And after one and a half years, Virender Sehwag followed the footsteps of “God of cricket” and became the second man to achieve double tons in ODI cricket when he smacked 219 runs against West Indies.
Rohit Sharma did it again in 2013 against Australia, he became the first man to score two double century in ODI cricket after a year. He beat Sri Lanka in 2014 and scored a record-shattering 264.
3. The 11 Theory Of Unusual Four Innings Test Match
We always see two innings in a single day of a Test match but in November 2011 four innings were a part of a single day’s play (Day two of the Test match). The first Test between South Africa and Australia which took place in Cape Town was an unusual and very interesting one that broke multiple records.
At the beginning of the 2nd day, Australia was at 214 for 8. And were bowled out for 284 before lunch. However, the South Africa batting line collapsed and was dismissed for 96 in just 24.3 overs.
Meanwhile, Australia in their third innings suffered a collapse which was worse than that of South Africa. The innings lasted for only 18 overs as they were shot out for a mere 47 runs. Hence, South Africa batted for 18 more overs in the second innings and ended the day on 81.
A very interesting and strange incident occurred on the third day of the Test. Nelson who was at 111, struck from all corners. South Africa needed 111 runs to win at exactly 11:11 on the 11th day of the 11th month in 2011.
If we see the date, it was like 11/11/11 and time was 11:11. To add more fun to this cricket, South Africa asked its fans in the stadium to stand on one leg.
4. Summing Micheal Clarke And Alastair Cook To Get Tendulkar
We all know that Sachin Tendulkar is one of the best batsmen that cricket could ever have. Without any doubt, we can say that there is no player in the history of cricket who has scored more runs than this Indian gem in Tests and ODIs. He has scored 18426 runs in ODIs and 15921 runs in Test cricket.
In 2013, Tendulkar saddened his fans by taking retirement from all formats cricket after adding exactly 200 Test matches to his name. However, in December 2013, Alastair Cook and Michael Clarke played their 100th Test match together and made an interesting coincidence. It was the third Test of Ashes that was played in Perth.
After the first innings of that Test match, Cook assembled 7955 runs in his Test career with that he made 25 Test hundreds. At the same time, Alistair made 7964 runs with 26 Test tons.
After adding these figures, it gives 15,919 Test runs and 51 Test hundreds which are the nearby score of Tendulkar. He had 15,921 runs and 51 centuries in Test cricket. Hence, at that point in time, it was indeed Michael Clarke + Alistair Cook = Sachin Tendulkar.
5. Same Team And Result In The 1st And 100th Test
Australia and England are the oldest Test teams who played the first-ever Test match in the history of the game.
They played the game in Melbourne Cricket Ground back in 1877. After a hundred years, both the teams played a Test match to mark the 100th anniversary of Test cricket at the same venue where it all started.
In the year 1877, Australia batted first and made 245 to which England replied by scoring 196 and giving a 49-run lead to Australia.
However, the bowlers made a strong come back and beat out Australia for 104. England needed 154 to start the Test history with a win but was bundled out for 108.
In the 100th anniversary, Team Australia was dismissed for 138. And the England team failed to take the advantage and was bowled out for 95 in return. Australia reversed the event and declared at 419 for 9.
England needed 463 but fell short as they were all out for 417. In both games, the result went in Australia’s favor. Not only that, they won both games by 45 runs.
