First innings shocker fails to sink Galle's survival hopes
Monday 13 April 2015 17:18, UK
Sky Cricket's statistician Richard Isaacs says you needn't fear an early-season wobble if Galle CC's miraculous turnaround is anything to go by...
It is a crucial game to save yourselves from relegation. You win the toss and put the opposition in to bat. And you bowl them out for just 31 having bowled just 91 deliveries. Game over, right?
Well, not on this occasion.
On Sunday at the Army Ground in Panagoda, Galle Cricket Club staved off the dreaded drop from the Premier Championship – Sri Lanka’s first-class competition – with an incredible four-run victory over shell-shocked Sri Lanka Air Force Sports Club in the ‘Relegation Play-off’.
Asked to bat first, Galle, sporting eight first-class debutants, were rumbled out for just 31 in 15.1 overs when Asiri Karunaratne claimed 5-21 as 16-year-old Navindu Nirmal top scored with just seven.
The Air Force then batted their merry way, probably safe in the knowledge that they had the secured their survival, to 215 all out in 93 overs, taking a lead of 184.
That lead was wiped off for the loss of just two wickets when Galle batted again as former Sri Lanka Under 19 stars Charith Asalanka helped himself to 114 and Wanidu Hasaranga a timely 67.
They were finally removed for 295, setting the Air Force a not insurmountable 112 to win.
But you know what they say … a small target is always tricky (ask the Australians at Headingley in 1981!!!) and so it proved as slow left-arm spinner Malith de Silva (6-46) and off-spinner Asalanka (4-34) turned the match around and left the Air Force grounded for just 107, five light of their target.
It was the lowest first innings of the match score that has gone on to win a first-class game since 1924, when Gloucestershire were skittled for just 31 against Middlesex batting first only for the great Walter Hammond to come to the home side's rescue in the second innings with 174 not out and lead them to a 61-run success.
LOWEST FIRST-CLASS FIRST INNINGS TOTALS TO WIN
Score | Team | Against | Venue | Season |
|---|---|---|---|---|
27 | England | Sussex | Brighton (Royal New) | 1827 |
31 | Gentlemen | Players | Lord's | 1848 |
31 | Gloucestershire | Middlesex | Bristol (Greenbank) | 1924 |
31 | Galle CC | Sri Lanka Air Force SC | Panagoda | 2014/15 |
The lowest of all time came 188 years ago at the Royal New Ground in Brighton – now a residential estate – when an England side stumbled to just 27 all out having elected to bat first but still managed to come out 24-run victors.
HIGHEST FIRST-CLASS FIRST INNINGS TOTALS THAT LOST
Score | Team | Against | Venue | Season |
|---|---|---|---|---|
642 | Essex | Glamorgan | Chelmsford | 2004 |
632 | Northamptonshire | Essex | Northampton | 2002 |
614 | New South Wales | Victoria | Sydney | 1924/25 |
608-9d | Wellington | Northern Districts | Hamilton | 1998/99 |
597 | Essex | Derbyshire | Chesterfield | 1904 |
Only once since the Second World War has a side been bowled out for less than 50 anywhere in the first-class cricket world and proceeded to win the game and that was just five years ago.
New Zealand’s left-arm seamer James Franklin ran through the Derbyshire side who had been invited to bat first at Bristol and took 7-14 in just six overs to see them all out for just 44 in just one hour and 17 minutes of play beginning on 31 August 2010.
The home side fared slightly better but were still hustled out for 156 and four Derbyshire batsmen had the ignominy of being dismissed twice in the same day as 24 wickets fell on the first day.
Chesney Hughes’ unbeaten 96 lifted Derbyshire to 236 and set the hosts 125 to win only for Tim Groenewald (4-22) and Graham Wagg (3-31) to pull off the remarkable win by 54 runs, seeing Gloucestershire all out for just 70.
Never rest on your laurels when you skittle a side out cheaply first innings … it could come back to bite you! Ask Sri Lanka Air Force Sports Club, who will see themselves sat outside of the main competition in 2015-16.
