World record goes unnoticed

There are many players who go unnoticed. There are many matches that go unnoticed in a season. But with the plethora of statisticians and statistics around, it is very rare that a World record goes unnoticed. However, leafing through old Ranji Trophy cards, there does seem to be one statistic that has escaped the eagle eye of cricket statisticians.

In the 1985-86 season, Goa played its first ever Ranji Trophy match. This was against Kerala in Vasco. Winning the toss, Goa elected to bat first. Being new to the big league, they succumbed for just 188 runs.

In response Kerala did only marginally better, notching up 196 runs in their first essay. When Goa came out to bat for the second time however, a rather curious sequence of events followed. Of the 10 wickets that fell, only two managed to escape being out caught and bowled. Kangralkar who was caught behind and Amonkar who was trapped LBW escaped the jinx. All 8 other batsmen were caught and bowled! S Santosh bowling off spinners took all five wickets caught and bowled. Santosh's effort of 5 wickets all caught and bowled is an all time record in first class cricket.

Although Kerala went on to win that match, it will be remembered more as Goa's first ever Ranji Trophy game. It should however be remembered as a match that saw one of the most unique records of all times.