25 wickets in a day Gloucestershire vs Glamorgan — A rare event today, but not as rare as you would think

The Cheltenham Cricket Festival is not what it once was.

Gloucestershire County Cricket Club played their first game at the College ground in 1872, and since then it has been the traditional Cricket Festival on the ground,  one of the oldest traditions of the game. However, in recent years, the charm and the fanfare associated with the event has been rather muted and lukewarm.

And against the dark gloom of overcast skies, the splendour of the uncertain game was etched out yet again this year, bringing an element of near impossibility into the action … uncertainty that characterises much of cricket.

It was Glamorgan who batted first on a seaming wicket under dense cloud cover and were bowled out for 117 in just 32.1 overs. But then Gloucestershire floundered against a truly international seam attack. South African Test player Merchant de Lange, the Australian-born Dutch cricketer Timm van der Gugten, alongside the captain Michael Hogan, who played his initial cricket for New South Wales … the three together restricted the hosts to 141 in 41.2 overs.

In the second innings, Nick Selman and Jacques Rudolph went after David Payne, the most successful Gloucestershire bowler of the first innings. But after a rousing start of 36 in just 8 overs, Glamorgan lost 5 wickets in the last 9, finishing with 59 for 5 at the end of the bizarre day’s cricket. They now lead by 35, and the match hangs on razor’s edge.

25 wickets in a day is really a rare occurrence in the current day.

However, it is by no means as rare as it may seem. In fact, First-Class cricket has seen instances of even all 40 wickets being lost in a day.

It is true that most of these occurrences took place way back in time. Indeed, for the first such instance of a 40-wicket day, we have to go back to Broad Halfpenny Down, Hambledon, the cradle of cricket. Hampshire scored 167, following which England were bowled out for 112; and when Hampshire piled 182 in the second innings, England surrendered to Richard Nyren and Noah Mann for just 88. It is a testimony to his quality that in such a low scoring game John Small, the first man to use a straight bat, got 65 in the first innings.

40 wickets were lost again in 1787 in a Middlesex-Essex game played on the Old Lord’s Ground in Marylebone. In the 19th century it happened four more times, three of them taking place in Cambridge. But 1827 was the last time one witnessed a full monty of wickets in one day.

In contrast, 39 wickets in a day do have a significantly modern instance.

The first such incident did take place in 1806, a match featuring famed cricketers of the era such as William Lambert, Silver Billy Beldham, Tom Walker and Lord Frederick Beauclerk.

However, the fourth and final instance happened as recently as in 1958. And if the weather gods had not allowed the few overs on the first day, in which Derbyshire scored 8 for the loss of 1 wicket, this game at the Ind Coope Ground in Burton-on-Trent could well have seen 40 on the second day. The second saw Derek Shackleton and Malcolm Heath destroy Derbyshire for 74. Following this Leslie Jackson and Harold Rhodes routed Hampshire for 23, the top score being 5  by Harry Barnard. Shackleton and Heath were at the Derbyshire men again, dismissing them for 107. Set 159 to win, Hampshire lost 7 for 46 to Jackson and Rhodes before Derby captain Donald Carr played spoilsport and introduced the first bowling change of the match. Promptly Derek Morgan, who had played the best innings in the game with 46, picked up the last three wickets to give Derbyshire a win by 103 runs.

In fact, the 1950s was a decade when such remarkable matches could be witnessed. Especially at The Oval, where wickets were tailored for the Jim Laker-Tony Lock spin twins. And they came into the fray only if Alec Bedser, Peter Loader and Stuart Surridge had not dismissed the opponents already. So, on Day 3 at The Oval, in the match against Gloucestershire in 1952, 38 wickets fell on the second day as Surrey emerged victorious by 135 runs. Laker and Lock had 8 wickets each.

In all 38 wickets have fallen just 3 times in a day’s play, and the one time in the 20th century was after a long, long gap, following the MCC-Cambridge game of 1848.

37 wickets in a day saw the first time such a feat happening outside England. At Basin Reserve, Wellington, the hosts and Auckland managed to lose that many wickets on the second day in 1873-74.

36 wickets have never been captured in the 20th or 21st centuries. But the last time it happened was in a match featuring an international side. At Aston Lower Grounds, Birmingham, 1884, Fred Spofforth ripped through an England XI, while Dick Barlow returned the compliments for the hosts. But when Spofforth took 7 more in the second innings to dismiss England XI for just 26, the Australians were left with just 33 to win. They lost six wickets for 28 before managing to knock off the runs.

35 wickets have fallen in a day on four occasions in First-Class cricket, only once in the 20th century when Warwickshire fell for 47 on their own turf against Alex Coxon and Bill Bowes in 1947.

The Victoria-Tasmania encounter of 1851-52 saw 34 wickets fall in a day, the highest number to topple in a day in Australia. That was in Emerald Hill, Melbourne. The same number of wickets fell on two separate days at Scarborough, when Yorkshire played Hampshire in 1946 and Middlesex in 1959.

With 33 wickets, we come to very modern times. After a wet first day at Bristol, 1981, Somerset was bowled out twice and Gloucestershire once, the latter conceding a first innings lead of 71. Chasing 252 to win, Gloucestershire ended the second day well placed on 150 for 3 in the second innings, Zaheer Abbas having stroked his way to an unbeaten 50. However, the following morning, Joel Garner ripped through the batting and the hosts were all out for 193.

A similar pattern followed the game between Nottinghamshire and Lancashire two years later at Trent Bridge. With rain allowing Notts to reach 17 without loss on the first day, the second saw the lush green wicket being used to magnificent us by Stephen Jefferies. The Notts were bowled out for 86. But Mike Hendricks and Eddie Hemmings struck back to restrict the Lancashire lead to 72. On an extended day the Nottinghamshire men piled up 294 in the second innings before reducing Lancashire to 27 for 3. Hemmings picked up all 7 the next day and Lancashire were routed for 65.

Among the 17 instances of 32 wickets a day, we find two that have encroached into the current century.

In December 2006, Shabbir Ahmed and Kashif Raza bowled Habib Bank out for 125, the last eight wickets falling on the second day after a curtailed first day’s play at National Bank Sports Complex, Karachi.  Azhar Mahmood and Shahid Afridi returned the favours, and Water and Power Development Authority were skittled for 72. Thereafter Mushtaq Ahmed picked up five wickets for Water and Power, but Afridi struck the ball hard and often to get 100 off 91 balls. By the end of the day, Habib Bank had picked up four second innings wickets and were in the driver’s seat. They won the following morning, by a whopping 178 runs.

At the De Beers Diamond Oval, Jandre Coetzee pulverised the Easterns and Hardus Viljoen did likewise to Griqualand, the first two innings of the match finishing by the 63rd over. After that Charl Pietersen struck with his left arm seamers to vanquish the Easterns again. The 39 run target was chased down by the Griqualand batsmen for the loss of 2 wickets. The match was over within a day.

A day of First-Class cricket has seen 31 wickets fall 25 times, 20 of them before the First World War. But then it happened twice in 1925, the College Ground in Cheltenham witnessing it’s first wicket-falling-festival against Nottinghamshire. Unfortunately for the hosts, Tom Richmond’s 14 wickets got better of the efforts of Charlie Parker and Percy Mills.

Curiously, in 1967 there was a double bill of 31 once again. In late June, in the picturesque County Ground New Road, Worcestershire, Fred Titmus, Brian Brain and the others picked up wickets by the bushel before Peter Parfitt’s unbeaten 162 led Middlesex to a 4-wicket victory. And then in Gillingham, in the second half of August, Don Shepherd and Jeff Jones struck for Glamorgan while Derek Underwood and Alan Brown did so for Kent. Finally the result was a thin 26-run win for the latter.

And finally, in April 2006, Pakistan International Airlines beat Karachi Harbour in a battle between air and sea that saw 31 wickets fall on Day 2.

There have been as many as 30 instances of 30 wickets falling in a day. 7 of them have taken place after the Second World War.

The most recent was at Luton in June 1995. Graham Gooch, Mark Waugh, Nasser Hussain, Ronnie Irani were among the batsmen dismissed for 127 against a seaming David Capel, following which Mark Illott picked up 9 for 19 to rout the Alan Lamb-led Northamptonshire for 46. It was Paul Taylor who did the damage to Essex second time around, and Northampton finished day one on one without loss, requiring 192 to win. After 8 wickets had been lost for 161 on the following day, Lamb and the Indian leg-spinner Anil Kumble batted with plenty of pluck to see the Northants through to a 2-wicket win.

In all 30 or more wickets have fallen during a single day of First-Class cricket on as many as 168 occasions.

So, 25 wickets in a day is rare… but not as rare as one may think.

The complete list of 30 or more wickets in a day is given below.

Source: ACS Cricket