Eastern Cricket Association: Monash University bowled out for 4 in 39 balls
An eastern Melbourne cricket side has been bowled out for only four runs, lasting only 39 balls as the bowling team ripped through the embattled batting line-up. Here’s how it happened.
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Yes, the scorecard is correct.
It really did take just 39 balls for Deepdene Uniting to write itself into the Eastern Cricket Association record books on Saturday, dismissing Monash University for 4 in its McCarthy Shield (LOC1) clash.
The ECA’s operations manager Rod Patterson said he had not heard of a lower score in the association’s history.
Deepdene skipper Nitin Madan was still stunned on Sunday morning.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said. “We played them three weeks ago and they got 180-odd and earlier in the year, they beat us.”
After winning the toss at Hays Paddock, Deepdene sent the visitors to the crease first and, with Justin Atkins taking 5-1 in 3.3 overs and Nakul Rao 4-3 in three at the other end, the Monash University line-up was quickly back in the sheds, seven of them with duck eggs next to their name.
A run out executed by Rao completed the 10 dismissals, though he robbed himself of a five-for.
Do you know an Australian senior cricket team that has scored lower than 4? Tell us below
Madan's call at the toss of the coin was just the first inspiring effort of what was a history-making afternoon.
“I thought about batting,” he laughed. “All day I was saying, I’m gonna bat, I’m gonna bat, I’m gonna bat.
“But as soon as the coin went up I changed my mind.
“The first ball of the game was an inswinging yorker and we got a wicket.
“It was almost like both bowlers were possessed. Everything that we planned went to plan.
“We even managed to drop a catch”
After their destructive effort with the ball, Atkins and Rao were then given the opportunity to run down the target with the bat.
Rao batted out a maiden first over before Atkins knocked up six runs in the second. Throw in a wide and Deepdene wrapped up the points at 0-7.
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After topping the ladder, Deepdene hosts a semi-final this weekend and though they’ll dine on Saturday’s scorecard for years to come, Madan said the side was focused on this week.
“99.9 per cent of the days cricket can be reasonably crappy,” he said. “Every now and then you get a day like yesterday that’s just sublime.
“We’ll enjoy it until Tuesday and then its back to work.”
Monash University’s four runs makes the lowest score in international Test cricket — New Zealand’s 26 runs against England in Auckland in 1955 — look respectable.
But the team can take some respite in knowing Wirral Cricket Club, a team in England’s Cheshire Cricket League, were skittled for three runs in 2014, with all but one batsman — a bowler coming in at 11 — making ducks.
Meanwhile, Deepdene Uniting recently raised in excess of $16,000 for the bushfire relief effort.
Do you know an Australian senior cricket team that has scored lower than 4? Tell us below