The Truth Behind 286 Runs Scored Off One Ball

Over the years, the game of cricket has seen some bizarre things happening on the field. However, the one we are going to describe now certainly tops the list.

A few years ago, Australia’s Travis Birt had scored 20 runs off one ball while Indian’s Virender Sehwag had smashed 17 off one. However, Birt does not hold the record of scoring most runs off one ball. In fact, he does not even come close to the record. The world record of most runs being scored off a single ball was created when the batsmen were allowed to take more than four runs by running between the wickets.

It was Western Australia playing against Victoria in an Australian First Class match way back in 1893/94. The first ball of the match was lofted and got struck in-between the branches of a jarrah tree. The tree as present inside the field of play.

As expected, the fielders found it tough to collect the ball. As a result, the fielding side appealed for “lost ball.” But to their dismay, the umpires disagreed. The reason behind the same was that the ball was visible and everybody could see the exact place where the ball got stuck. And so the batsmen did what they needed to.  The batsmen kept on running between the wickets while the home side found an ax to cut down the tree but didn’t succeed.

So, instead of an ax, the home team brought out a shotgun and tried to blast the ball from the tree. After several attempts, the ball was finally dislodged from the branches and fell onto the outfield. None of the fielders bothered to catch the ball. By the time the ball reached the wicket-keeper, the batsmen had already run an astonishing 286 times between the wickets and claimed the 286 runs they had accumulated. The touring side then declared their innings which is also considered as the shortest innings of the history of the game.

Here is the facts video: