New Delhi. In Test cricket, many bowlers have done wonders by taking wickets on the first and last ball of the innings. The achievement of wicket on the first and last ball of the innings in Test was achieved for the first time by the legendary fast bowler of West Indies (West Indies cricket team) Andy Roberts, he dismissed Sudhir on the first ball of the innings against India in Calcutta (Kolkata) in December 1974. Naik and Erapalli Prasanna were dismissed on the last ball. Since then, more than a dozen bowlers have achieved this feat in Tests. West Indies’ left-arm fast bowler Pedro Collins has done this at most 3 times in his career of 32 Tests. The special thing is that he achieved this feat all three times against Bangladesh and during this time the batsman who got out on his first ball was also the same.
Dale Steyn of South Africa has taken wicket twice on the first and last ball of the innings. Since the first over of the innings is usually bowled by fast bowlers, hence all except one in the list are speedsters. So far, the one spinner who has done the wonders of taking wickets on the first and last ball of the innings is India’s offbreak bowler Ravichandran Ashwin. In 2021-22, Ashwin had registered his name in this special club against England in his home ground Chennai.
Collins became a cricketer after starting with football.
Born in 1976 in Barbados, Collins initially played football but later, like other youth of that era in the Caribbean island, he chose cricket. Apart from bowling at a good pace, he was also adept at swinging, hence it was not easy for the veteran batsmen to face him. Despite this, due to fitness reasons, Collins’ career could not last long and between 1999 and 2006 he could play only 32 Tests and 30 ODIs. He has 106 wickets in his name at an average of 34.63 (best 6/53) in Tests and 39 wickets in ODIs at an average of 31.07 (best 5/43).
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2002: Government on first ball, Haq became victim on last ball
Collis first took a wicket on the first and last ball of the innings in the Dhaka Test in December 2002 against Bangladesh. After this, it was done in St. Lucia and Kingston Test in 2004. In the Dhaka Test, the Indies team won the toss and chose to field first and Collins made this decision meaningful by bowling out Hannan Sarkar on the very first ball of the match and innings. The last wicket of the innings also went to Collins’ account in the form of Enamul Haq. He took 5 wickets for 26 runs in the innings and bundled out Bangladesh’s first innings for 139 runs and played an important role in the team’s innings victory.
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2004: Repeated achievement in St. Lucia and Kingston Test
In the year 2004, Collins again repeated this feat in the two Tests of Bangladesh team’s tour of Indies. In the first Test of St. Lucia starting from 28 May 2004, he again dismissed Hannan Sarkar on the first ball of the match and innings. This Bangladeshi opener was LBW this time. Collins ended the opposition team’s innings by bowling Mohammad Rafiq as the 10th wicket. The only consolation for Bangladesh, which achieved its first win after playing 34 tests, was that it was successful in drawing this test.
In the Kingston Test held in June 2004, in the match between Hannan Sarkar and Collins, the Caribbean bowler again took a wicket on the first ball. He LBWed Sarkar on the first ball of the match and innings and as the 10th wicket, he got Tapas Baishya caught by Dwayne Smith on the last ball of the 95th over of the innings. Bangladesh’s first innings ended at 284. Collins again dismissed 6 batsmen including Sarkar (10) in the second innings of Bangladesh. By taking 9 wickets in the match, he played a special role in the team’s innings victory. He also became the first bowler in the world to achieve the feat of taking a wicket on the first and last ball of the innings thrice.
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Dale Steyn did this miracle twice in test
South Africa’s legendary fast bowler Dale Steyn had achieved the feat of taking a wicket on the first and last ball of the innings in 2009 and 2016. In the Johannesburg Test of January 2010, he got England captain Andrew Strauss caught by Amla on the first ball of the match and innings and then also took the last wicket of the innings in the form of Graeme Swann. This test was won by South Africa by innings difference. In the Centurion Test of August 2016, Steyn again took a wicket on the first and last ball of the innings against New Zealand. Starting the bowling in the second innings of the Kiwi team, he bowled Tom Lotham on the first ball and then got Henry Nicholls caught by Rabada and reduced the guests’ innings to 195 runs. South African team won the test by 204 runs.
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India’s Ashwin is the only spinner in this list
Ravichandran Ashwin is the only spinner in the list of bowlers with wickets on the first and last ball of the Test innings. He achieved this feat in the test which started from 5 February 2021 at his home ground Chennai. In the second innings of England at Chepauk, he opened the bowling for India and got Rory Burns caught by Ajinkya Rahane on the very first ball of the first over of the innings. In the same innings, he caught James Anderson on his own ball as the last i.e. 10th wicket. Ashwin took 6 wickets for 61 runs in this innings. However, despite this, India had to face defeat by 227 runs in the test.
Tags: Bangladesh Cricketer, R ashwin, Ravichandran ashwin, Test cricket, West Indies Cricketer
FIRST PUBLISHED : September 23, 2024, 09:47 IST