England spinner Shoaib Bashir conceded a joint first-class record of 38 runs in an over in the match between Surrey and Worcestershire on Monday, at the hands of Dan Lawrence.
Whatever Jos Buttler can do, so can Lawrence. The day after Buttler hit five sixes in an over in the T20 World Cup, Lawrence hit five in a row of his own.
In Lawrence’s case, an element of self-interest was involved. Lawrence’s way back into the England Test side will be as a batsman who can bowl off-spin, and the bowler he took down, in the course of an over which cost an eye-watering 38 runs, was the current England off-spinner Shoaib Bashir.
Bashir is contracted to Somerset but is making his first-class debut for Worcestershire in the most poignant circumstances. Somerset have two spinners, which seems to be one too many nowadays, so while Jack Leach holds the job for his county and country, Bashir has been loaned to Worcestershire, who had no spinner, following the tragic death of Josh Baker earlier this season.
The devastation wrought by Lawrence on his rival, with those five successive sixes, makes it a smidgeon more likely that Lawrence will squeeze into the England Test team this winter, and in the Ashes the following winter, ahead of Bashir.
When Bashir began the 128th over of Surrey’s innings, Worcestershire had kept a reasonable rein on the champions and on Lawrence, who had reached 133 without a six. That soon changed.
Bashir bowled the first five balls of his over from over the wicket, and they all went for six. The first probably went furthest: Lawrence ran down the pitch and hit it into the top reaches of the New Road stand.
For his second ball Bashir went a bit wider of the stumps, and Lawrence hit it over the ropes not so cleanly. The bowler might point out that in Australia, with its longer boundaries, it would have made a catch to long-off.
The same applied to Bashir’s third ball, which was distinctly flatter and wider. Lawrence got just enough bat on it to clear the straight boundary again.
Bashir’s fourth ball was a bit artless, betraying his 20 years. It was an ordinary offbreak, on the stumps, and Lawrence did not have to move his feet. He just pounded it over long-on.
For his fifth ball Bashir continued to bowl a length from over the wicket, only this time it was more on the leg-stump, so Lawrence mowed it over mid-wicket.
At last, for his sixth ball, Bashir went round the wicket, and he fired it through, but it was so far down the leg-side that it went for five wides. At least the dreadful prospect of six sixes in a first-class over of six balls had been avoided, as first accomplished by Sir Garfield Sobers off Malcolm Nash of Glamorgan at Swansea in 1968 (and repeated by Ravi Shastri in the Ranji Trophy in 1984-5). But 35 runs had already been conceded and one ball still remained.
This time Bashir, having reverted to over the wicket, did what a veteran off-spinner would have done earlier: he fired it in at Lawrence’s toes as the batsman came down the pitch and kept him to a single. Only it was a no-ball: Bashir had over-stepped and had to bowl his sixth ball yet again.
At least he had Surrey’s No 11 on strike now, and Dan Worrall blocked, for a dot-ball. Still, 31 runs to Lawrence, plus five wides and two no-balls (the penalty for one over-stepping) equalled the record number of runs off one over in first-class cricket, 38, which Alex Tudor had conceded when under the pressure of bowling at Andrew Flintoff (he hit 34 runs and there were two no-balls) in 1998.
These records exclude an over of full tosses in New Zealand once which were carted for 77 runs.
Lawrence’s hitting came two years after Ben Stokes did similar damage at the same venue of New Road, when hitting Baker for five consecutive sixes, followed by a four, making 34 off the over.
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