Virat Kohli, Kagiso Rabada's Cape Town TiePhoto: File Virat Kohli, Kagiso Rabada's Cape Town TiePhoto: File The year 2024 ebbed and flowed with emotion, drama, entertainment, joy, and despair at every little given chance. With the dust settled on a fantastic cricketing year, we take a look at the stories that deserve to be remembered and etched in history and every fan’s heart. (More Cricket News)
In the first instalment of a 12-part series, we look at some of the memorable storylines including those of David Warner’s Sydney sunset and West Indies’ historic moment on Australian soil.
JAN 4 – SHORTEST MATCH IN TEST CRICKET HISTORY
India and South Africa played out the shortest completed match in the history of Test cricket at Newlands in January 2024.
The New Year Test in Cape Town lasted just 642 deliveries and ended within two days, breaking the record of the 1932 MCG Test between Australia and South Africa which ended in 656 deliveries.
Mohammed Siraj’s career-best 6/15 routed the home team for a paltry 55 in the first innings – their lowest total in 92 years. However, India’s top-order fired but could not convert their starts into significant scores.
The South African pace trio of Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi and Nandre Burger ran through the middle and lower-order as the visitors were dismissed for 153.
In the shootout, skipper Harmanpreet Singh and Sukhjeet Singh scored twice each with Abhishek being the other scorer.
congo cashAiden Markram then produced a counter-attacking hundred in the second innings in what was a heroic solo performance as every other batter failed around him.
South Africa scored 176 in the second innings, setting India a target of 79. India got thereA without breaking much sweat and registered a seven-wicket win, levelling the two-match series at 1-1.
It was India’s first win in seven Tests at Newlands – indeed it was lucky seven.
Interestingly, it was only the second instance of India winning a Test match where none of its batters had registered a half-century – Virat Kohli was their highest scorer in the match with 46.
JAN 6 – WARNER RETIRES FROM TEST CRICKET
David Warner retired from Test cricket at the end of the three-match series against Pakistan which concluded with the New Year Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
David Warner retired from Test and ODI cricket in January 2024. Photo: X/ @mipaltan David Warner retired from Test and ODI cricket in January 2024. Photo: X/ @mipaltanWarner bowed out as the fifth-highest run-getter in Australia’s Test history with an aggregate of 8786 runs in 112 matches at an average of 44.59 with 26 hundreds.
He had a strike rate of 70.19 which places him in the top 10 amongst all batters who have scored a minimum of 2000 runs in Test cricket.
JAN 11 – HASARANGA’S SEVEN-WICKET HAUL IN COLOMBO
Wanindu Hasaranga entrenched his name in the history books as he became only the 15th bowler in ODI cricket history to return with a seven-wicket haul.
Hasaranga achieved the feat against Zimbabwe in the third ODI in Colombo. His figures read 5.5-1-19-7.
Overall, these were the fifth-best figures in the format after Chaminda Vaas, Shahid Afridi, Glenn McGrath and Rashid Khan.
JAN 17 – TWO SUPER OVERS IN A T20I ENCOUNTER
India and Afghanistan created history when they played out the first ever T20I encounter to end with two Super Overs in Bengaluru on the 17th of January.
Rohit Sharma was the star for India as he blasted an unbeaten 121 off 69 deliveries propelling India to 212 before hammering 23 off six deliveries in the two Super Overs combined.
It was only the second instance of a T20 clash ending with two Super Overs – Kings XI Punjab and Mumbai Indians were involved in the first such encounter in Dubai in IPL 2020!
JAN 28 – FIRST TEST WIN FOR WEST INDIES IN AUSTRALIA IN 27 YEARS
West Indies scripted history as they recorded their first win Down Under since 1997 beating the number one ranked Australia by eight runs in a thriller at The Gabba.
The star for the West Indies was Shamar Joseph who returned with 7-68 in 11.5 overs in the fourth innings. It was Australia’s second defeat in their fortress Brisbane in 35 years.
(That concludes part 1 of the 2024 cricket series. The second part will feature Yashasvi Jaiswal’s coming of agetiger go, New Zealand’s ‘time is now’ in South Africa and more.)