Cricket is one of the sport which has seen some unbelivable moments, records, and scenes over the years. There is a saying that records are meant to be broken and the sport of cricket proves it time and again. However, there have been records that are highly unlikely to be broken in morden day cricket and one of such feats is of scoring 286 runs on a single delivery without any boundary or six. Today, we will delve into the topic and know about this incident in more detail.
On January 15, 1984, during a match between the Victoria team and 'Scratch-XI' from Western Australia at the Bonbury ground, a fascinating incident happened that has enthralled cricket fans for not just decades, but the centuries when two batter ran 286 runs from just one ball.
The Victorian batters were on the crease and one of the batters smashed a delivery in the which lodged in a tree within the field. Following this, the batters began to run across the field in an attempt to score runs. The ball was lodged quite high, making it impossible to retrieve. The opposition team requested the umpire to declare the ball lost, thereby halting the batsmen's attempts to score.
Forget about Travis Birt‘s 20 runs in one ball and Virender Sehwag‘s 17 run in one ball. Here is the World Record of most runs being scored off a single ball.
— Rocket Scientist 🇮🇳 (@Rockumon) May 21, 2021
286 Runs in One Ball pic.twitter.com/drlEk8gUQ1
However, the umpire declined the request, stating that the ball was visible to both teams, thus it could not be considered lost.
There have been some reports in media which states that the fielding team had requested for an axe to cut a tree and drop the ball, but no axe was available. Instead, a rifle was used to dislodged the ball, which was then dropped by the desperate players. Interestingly, despite this, the bowling team didn't consider catching the ball and claim for a wicket. They let the ball come down and amidst all of this, batters had scored 286 runs by running around six kilometers on the pitch, setting a new world record for the highest number of runs scored off a single delivery. This event still astonishes many and is hard to believe.
However, there are no solid evidences to substantiate the occurrrence of this event. This miraculous record was mentioned in ESPNcricinfo's report published in January 1894 in the 'Pal-Mal Gazette' newspaper, London.
Scoring 286 runs on the pitch equates to traversing nearly 6 kilometers while retrieving the ball from the tree. This scenario appears illogical, yet it persists as an extraordinary tale.
