50 Most Interesting Cricket Facts That You Should Know

Cricket is known to be gentlemen’s game and is regarded as one of the most prestigious games in the World. It is cricket which has one of the most following, probably seconded only by Football (Soccer). We bring to you some of the interesting Cricket facts in a game full of rich history of interesting, funny, and amazing incidents over the course of this game.

In all honestly, the list which contains the interesting facts of cricket could go on and on, in nobody would get bored of reading them. However, what we bring you is the list of 50 Crickets Facts where even the biggest selfprocllaimed cricket fan would not know them all.

So without further ado, let us take a look at them.

Top 50 Amazing Cricket Facts That Actually Exist

Check out number 10 we are sure you would not have seen this coming.

1. Debuts In India Vs Pakistan Series, 1989

An amazing fact of cricket comes from the first test match played between India and Pakistan of the 1989 series, 2 players from each side made their debut in the International Test format of the game. Salil Ankola and Sachin Tendulkar made debut from India while Shahid Saeed and Waqar Younis made their debut from Pakistan.

All 4 players – Sachin Tendulkar, Salil Ankola, Shahid Saeed and Waqar Younis – made their debut together. Whereas 2 of these players made on to reach heights, other 2 vanished completely.

Both Sachin Tendulkar and Waqar Younis went on to make records. Sachin scored 15,921 runs in 200 test matches which is the most by any player till date, while Younis has 373 wickets to his name in just 87 matches.

Also Read: Best IPL Matches

2. Rahul Dravid And Sachin Tendulkar’s Bizarre Test Record

Both Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar share the record of scoring the most number of tons against England by an Indian player(s). Both of them having scored 7 hundred each against England. See why it is such an interesting fact of cricket

Also Read: Top Batsman in The World

However, the similarities don’t end there. The bizarre thing is they share the same stats while scoring these 7 centuries against team England. The only difference is the highest score.

3. Mahela Jayawardene And Muttiah Muralitharan

Keeping the wicket keeper aside, Muttiah Muralitharan and Mahela Jayawardene together become the most successful pair in the Test cricket history when we talk about fall of wickets. This means “c Mahela Jayawardene b Muttiah Muralitharan” have appeared on the screens more than any other combo.

Together the combo took 77 wickets in test cricket. We are sure this is one of the best unknown facts in Cricket.

Muttiah Muralitharan and Mahela Jayawardene is the most successful pair in the fall of wicket attribute of test cricket history. It means “c Mahela Jayawardene b Muttiah Muralitharan” happened on 77 occasions in the test history.

Also Read: Interesting IPL Facts

4. Suresh Raina’s Twenty20 centuries

Indian batsman Suresh Raina scored 2 T20 centuries on the same date but different years. But that not it, how can two same dates deserve a spot on this prestigious list you may ask. Just look at the table below and you will know.

This is another one of the most interesting Cricket facts, don’t you agree?

5. Doube Century On 99^th Test match

Cricket Legends, Sunil Gavaskar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman have at least one thing in common, all three of them scored double centuries on the 99^th test cricket match of their career.

Three Indian batsmen, scoring double centuries at the same milestone in their careers, I bet there are few interesting cricket facts as this in this game.

Also Read: Best Fantasy Cricket Apps in India

6. The Brotherhood Day of 10 February 2009

On 10^th February 2009 brothers duo playing for 2 different teams won their respective matches for their teams. This was the first time in the history that such a thing had happened. Pathan brothers – Irfan and Yusuf Pathan – had a 59 run partnership in the 2009 T20I match against Sri Lanka which was crucial in India’s victory.

Similarly, on the same day, 10^th February 2009, the Hussey brother played a crucial role in the ODI match Australia played against New Zealand. David and Michael Hussey had won the match for Australia with their 115 runs partnership.

This is what makes this game so amazing, and this is what this particular game gave us, an absolutely amazing cricket fact.

Also Read: Best Cricket Bats

7. Sachin’s Test Records Is Equal To Clark and Cook’s

When Alistair Cook of England and Michael Clarke of Australia completed their 100 Test matches respectively, little did anyone know that when their stats were added, it came out to be the test career stats of Sachin Tendulkar however, the they were still short on the total runs scored, no wonder he is the GOD of Cricket.

How many of you people reading this knew of this unknown cricket fact? Football gave us GOATs, Cricket gave us a God. Don’t you agree?

Also Read: Top 15 Batsmen With Most Sixes In IPL Tournament

8. Asia Cup Matches Similarity Between India and Pakistan Are Uncanny

The matches played between India and Pakistan in the Australia-Asia 1985-86 and Asia Cup 2014 have so many similarities it seems like the game just repeated itself. Check below.

The facts presented in those two matches make it worthy to be on the list of 50 most amazing Cricket facts in the history of this game.

9. Batsmen “Retiring Out”

This is one of the most mind-blowing events in the history of test cricket came in in the test match played between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in 2001 in Colombo during the Asian Test Championship.

In this match, the two batsmen were given retiring out. The Former captain of Sri Lanka, Sanath Jayasuriya made both Mahela Jayawardene and Marvan Atapattu retiring out.

Atapattu who was playing at 201 off 259 balls and Jayawardene who had scored 150 for 115 balls were both retired out in the game. They were the first in the history to be retired out making it one of the most bizarre cricket facts you will ever see.

Also Read: 10 ODI Bowlers in the world According To ICC

10. First Ever TV Replay Out

In the history of cricket, Sachin would be remembered for many records which at some point may be taken away from him, but this is one those which nobody will be taken away from him. Sachin was the first cricketer in the world to be dismissed by the 3^rd Umpire using a Television replay. Isn’t this an interesting cricket fact?

It was 14^th November 1992, when Sachin was given run out by Karl Liebenberg when he had just 11 runs scored. The match was played against South Africa as India was on its first tour of South Africa.

11. Mystery Name

Indian cricket legend, Sunil Gavaskar named his son Rohan after who is regarded as one of the best batsmen in the 1960s, Rohan Kanhai who played for West Indies. Isn’t this an unknown fact in Cricket?

12. The First Ever Double Century In ODIs

Here is another interesting fact in Cricket, if you consider yourself a true cricket fan and have answered Sachin Tendulkar, Ding! Ding! Ding!, you are wrong. As surprising as it may come, Sachin was not the 1^st cricketer to have scored a double century in the One Day Internationals (ODIs).

This record is held by an Australian batswoman Belinda Clark who hit 229 runs against Denmark in the 1997 Women’s World Cup.

Also Read: 10 Best Cricket Captains In The World Who Dominated The World Stage

13. Batting Like It Is T20s in ODIs

The only batsman in the whole world to have scored ODI century after coming to bat post 30 overs is AB De Villiers. And he did not achieve this once, but twice. The first one came in 2010 when he came to bat in the 33^rd over against India and the second one came against West Indies when he came to bat in the 39^th over in 2015.

An amazing fact in Cricket made by a truly amazing player of the game. All Hail AB De Villiers.

14. A Single Run

The only batsman to have remained not out on 299 in the history of this game is Sir Don Bradman, the cricket legend. If he had chosen to complete that single, it would have made Sir Don Bradman the first one in the world to have scored triple hundred in a test match.

However, he was the 2^nd man to score triple hundreds in the test cricket, talk about an unknown fact in cricket, the first person was Andy Sandham.

15. First Ball Out In Test

Sunil Gavaskar has been dismissed 3 times on the very first ball in the test match cricket. In 1974, Geoff Arnold dismissed him on the first ball in Edgbaston, in 1984 at Kolkata he was dismissed by Malcolm Marshall, and then in 1987 at Jaipur by Imran Khan.

16. Two Record One Tri-nation Man

John Traicos is the only Tri-nation man in the history of Cricket, he was born in Egypt and then went on and played for both Zimbabwe and South Africa. And this was not enough, he also holds the record of the player having the most gap between 3^rd and 5^th international cricket match at 22 years and 22 days. This surely is an interest fact of Cricket.

17. First Ever Cricket Match

A fact list comprising of the interesting facts about cricket cannot be made without listing when the first ever cricket match was played.

It was played between the United States of America (USA) and Canada in September of 1844 at St George’s Club ground in Bloomingdale Park, New York.

18. First International Wicket Taken By Inzamam-ul-Haq

Inzamam-ul-Haq is a Pakistani cricketer who not just took a wicket on the very first ball of his international bowling career, but the person he sent back to the dressing room was Brian Lara. Talk about an amazing fact in Cricket.

19. George Bailey Roots In Cricket

The former Australian skipper George Bailey is the great-great-grandson of the Australian Cricketer who played in the 1870s whose names was George Bailey, as well. We don’t know if it is just a coincidence but it sure is an interesting Cricket fact.

20. What Is Your Date OF Birth? Check My Runs

Alec Stewart, the English cricketer was born on 8-4-63 and when you see the total number of runs he scored in his test cricket career you will be astounded, it is 8463. Exactly as his date of birth. This sure is an interesting Cricket fact.

21. Sachin Tendulkar’s Unlucky Nineties

We do not know if Sachin Tendulkar would be thinking about the number of times he got out in 90s however we are pretty sure that his fans must be so gloomy over this interesting Cricket fact pertaining Sachin Tendulkar.

Did you know that he was dismissed 28 times when he was in his 90s in a match. 18 times out of those he was in ODIs and 10 times in Test cricket.

Imagine 28 more centuries added to his tally.

22. Robin Singhs In Indian Team

India had two Robin Singhs playing for the Indian Cricket team at international level. And both of the Robin Singhs only played 1 test match for team India, each.

23. Most Consecutive Maiden Overs

Bapu Nadkarni, who played for India has the record for most consecutive maiden overs. In 1964 when India played against England in 1964, he bowled 21 maiden overs one after the other. This is surely an amazing fact in Cricket which is worthy to be on the list.

24. Two Hat-Tricks In A Day

On May 28^th, 1912 Jimmy Matthews playing for Australia took not just one but 2 hat-tricks on the same day. When Australia was playing against South Africa, Matthews took a hat-trick in each inning of South Africa which wee played on the same day.

25. Playing Both Football And Cricket World Cups

Sir Vivian Richards is the only cricketers and in fact, the only man in the world who played both World Cups of Cricket and Football. In 1974 he played the qualifying matches for the Football World Cup for Antigua and the in 1975 and 1979 he was the squad which played the Cricket World Cups for West Indies.

We are sure this is one of those unknown facts of Cricket. Did you know this? Tell us in the comments.

26. Peculiar Number In A Cricket Match

In November 2011, South Africa was playing against Australia and a mysterious thing happened which gave chills to everyone watching the game. At 11:11 South Africa needed 111 runs to win on 11/11/11.

27. Playing Both Football And Cricket World Cups Part II

Australian player Ellyse Perry is yet another human being to have played both World Cups, Football and Cricket. However, Perry is the first and the only woman to have attained such a feat.

In 2011 she played FIFA Women’s World Cup for Matildas, which is the Australian Soccer team of Women while she had already played an ICC Cricket World Cup in 2009 and then won the Cricket World Cup in 2013. Don’t you think this is an interesting fact of Cricket?

28. A Player Who Never Sung National Anthem Before The Match

Eoin Morgan is the only player who publicly admitted of never having sung the National Anthem before the match began, he said, “I have never sung the national anthem when playing for Ireland or England. It does not make me any less proud to be an English cricketer. It is a long story. It is a personal thing”.

29. The Only Country to Win World Cups Played In 3 Formats

Did you know there was once a 60-over format played in Cricket or did we just shortened our list, ha ha. Anywho, Did you know that India is the only country in the world and the history of the game to have won World Cups in 3 different formats of the game.

In 1983, the World Cup India won, which was the first one for India, it was a 60-over format. Then in 2007, India won T20I World Cup and then in 2011, India won the, now known format, 50-over ODI format World Cup.

30. Most Bowlers To Complete An Over

In a Test match which was being played between Sri Lanka and West Indies in 2001, another history and certainly another interesting fact of Cricket was made. On that day it took 3 bowlers to complete 1 single over.

The over which was started by Dillon bowled only 2 balls before he felt sudden pain which forced him to stop. Following which the then skipper of the West Indies side, Colin Stuart took charge, however, he was removed by the Umpire, John Hampshire, after bowling 2 consecutive full toss balls over the waist. Finally, the last 3 balls were bowled by Chris Gayle.

31. Player Remains Unbeaten Even After Playing 1000 balls

Another amazing fact from Cricket where both India and West Indies are a part. This time the record was set by Shivnarine Chanderpaul when during a series against India in 2002 he played a total of 1051 balls in 4 innings and remained unbeaten (Not-out).

Till this date, nobody else has reached this record.

32. Most Consecutive ODI Centuries

Kumar Sangakkara, the former Sri Lankan captain and cricketer made a record in 2015 which is still to be beaten. And by doing it he made an amazing ICC World Cup fact that people should know.

In 2015 ICC World Cup he became the only Cricketer in the world to score 4 successive centuries, his first century came against Bangladesh where he 105, then against England he scored 117 unbeaten, and the against Australia he scored 104 and finally against Scotland he scored 124.

This is one of those unknown facts in Cricket which we bet only a handful of people know.

33. Most Lucky Cricketers In The World

Both players from Australia, Richy Ponting and Adam Gilchrist are arguably the luckiest players in the world of Cricket as they both were the part of the team which had won not one, nor two but three ICC Cricket World Cups.

When Australia won the ICC Cricket World Cups in 1999, 2003 and 2007, both of these players were in the team. to give it some perspective, Sachin Tendulkar had a longer career than both of them, but could only manage to win one, that too, which was possibly the last World Cup of his career.

This is another ICC World Cup fact we are sure not many knew.

34. Something In Cricket That Never Changed

Did you know that Cricket pitch is the only cricket law that has remained unchanged since the cricketing laws were formed. The length of the cricket pitch has remained the same at 22 yards, or 61.31 square metres.

35. The Man Of The Match Award

In 2001, Cameron Cuffy, West Indies’ bowler won the Man of the Match award after neither scoring a single run nor taking a single wicket.

Not just this, he did not even take a single catch or was a part of any wicket. On 23^rd June 2001, when West Indies were playing against Zimbabwe, the only reason why he received the award was his bowling figure, which was 10-2-20-0.

36. International Cricket Without Playing A First Class Match

In the 132 years history of Australia Cricket, David Warner is the only player to have not played a single First Class cricket match and still played International matches for Australia in all formats of the game. This also makes him the only Australian Captain to attain this feat. Talk about interesting facts about Cricket.

37. Afridi’s Fastest Century And Sachin Tendulkar

Not many people around the globe know that when Shahid Afridi scored the fastest century in the ODI in just 37 balls against Sri Lanka in 1996 in Nairobi, he used Sachin Tendulkar’s bat and we are not kidding.

38. The Unbreakable Strike Rate In Test Cricket

Did you know Virendra Sehwag played 104 international test matches for team India and scored 8586 runs with a strike rate of more than 80, however, little did people know that he is the only player in the world who have played over 100 matches and have had a strike rate of over 80 in test format. This is surely amongst the unknown facts about Cricket

39. Cricket in Olympics

Did you know that Cricket was a part of the Olympics? 2 Olympics to be precise, first in 1896 which was held in Athens, Greece and then again in 1900 in Paris, France. Only 2 teams took part in those Olympics games though, which were France and Great Britain.

40. The One Who Played For India And England

Did you know that Saif Ali Khan’s Grandfather was a cricketer as well? Well, his name was Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi and he is the only player who has played cricket for both India and England. He played test cricket for both the team.

41. Vinod Kambli’s Records Better Than Sachin Tendulkar

Did you know that Vinod Kambli has got a better average that Sachin Tendulkar, the GOD of Cricket in both First Class and Test Cricket? Well, this sure is something Kambli would tease Sachin with. Isn’t this an interesting fact of Cricket?

42. The Googly

The Google ball which is what bowlers use to trick the batsman was invented by an English Cricketer. Bernard Bosanquet tricked the batsman with a leg-spinner’s action but then made it break from the off on 20^th July 1900.

43. Common In Two Different 10 Wicket Hauls

Taking 10 wickets in a test match is a very rare phenomenon which majority of the people say they have not seen in person, however, there is a man who saw not 1 but 2 10 wicket-taking hauls in person.

Richard Stokes, in 1956, was just a boy who witnessed Jim Laker take 10/53 against Australia in 1956, and then in 1999he saw Anil Kumble grab 10/74 vs Pakistan.  Talk about amazing facts of cricket, this surely cannot be a miss.

44. Six On The First Ball In A Test Match

West Indies’ aggressive batsman Chris Gayle was the first batsmen in the game who hit a six on the very first ball of a test match. In a test match played against Bangladesh in November of 2012 in Mirpur, Gayle hit a six off the first ball of the debutant bowler Sohag Gazi.

45. Yes Coach! Okay Coach!

In 1999 Cricket World Cup South Africa was playing against India and South African Captain Hansie Cronje and another player Allan Donald wore ear-pieces to communicate with their coach Bob Woolmer.

It was Sourav Ganguly who noticed Cronje mumbling to himself and then asked the Umpire to take a look. Though, upon finding, both the players removed their ear-pieces, but no action was taken against anyone saying it was not against the laws of the game.

46. Most Wickets In A Single Test Match

Another time Jim Laker is on the list and for all the right reasons. In the 4^th Ashes series test match, he made a record that would go down as one of the most amazing facts of Cricket.

In the 4^th test match, he dismissed 19 Australian cricketers and till this date, he is the only one to have attained such a feat.

47. Don Bradman’s Dismissal

The first ever independent India test cricket match was played between India and Australia and a record was made that day. The then Indian test team captain, Lala Amarnath, became the only bowler to have dismissed Sir Don Bradman by a hit wicket in test cricket. This is another unknown fact in Cricket.

48. MS Dhoni And Number 7

Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s jersey number is quite famous, which is 7, if you are not a cricket fan. But little did people know that when he made his debut in the ODI match against Bangladesh he batted on the 7^th position.

49. Australia And India’s Connection Is Beyond Everything

In One Day Internationals (ODIs), Australia has scored 359 runs on three different occasions, but what is unusual is that all three times Australia was playing against India. They first scored 359 in the Final of 2003 ICC World Cup, then again in 2004 and 2013 bilateral series. Is this just a coincidence or a what, tell us in comments.

50. First Ball, Run, And Century

Charles Bannerman was an Australian Cricket player who played the first ever ball, scored the first run and even scored the first century in Test cricket. In March 1877, he became the first player to do all 3 things in a single match. Yes! he scored a century in the maiden test match.