Valentine's day: A nightmare for Bangladesh & South Africa
14th February, the Feast of Saint Valentine – what could possibly go wrong on this occasion! While the existence of such day on the calendar is pleasing to many people, South Africa and Bangladesh have some horrible memories related to that day.
In 1896, South Africa were humiliated by England in their very own backyard on February 14. England posted 185 runs in their 1st innings and restricted the hosts to a total of 93 runs. But the sad part had not ended for the Proteas yet. After registering another 226 runs, England, this time, bowled out the opponents on the then lowest team-total of 30 runs.
The Proteas lost the low-scoring match by 288 runs. With his clinical bowling performance, England fast-bowler GA Lohmann picked up a total of 15 wickets in that clash including his 8 scalps in the second innings where he conceded only 7 runs.
28 years later, South Africa were again all-out on scoring the same amount of runs, albeit not on the same date. However, the Proteas did not have to carry the burden of scoring the lowest total as New Zealand broke their record by registering 26 runs against England in 1955.
On the other hand, in 2003, Bangladesh managed to club 124 runs on the same date in a World Cup match against Sri Lanka, but the way the journey to a puny total started for them was somewhat scary.
Facing the tempest of Chaminda Vaas, Bangladesh scored none for 3 wickets in the first three balls of the match. Chaminda Vaas took 4 scalps in the first 5 deliveries and witnessing it, Bangladesh batsman Al Shahriar was trembling with terror at the non-striker end. After Vaas’ over ended, Bangladesh’s scoreline was 4/4. In that game, Vaas bagged 6 wickets including a feat that every bowler cherishes to achieve – a hat-trick in the World Cup.
After a solid batting display from Marvan Atapattu and former Sri Lanka skipper Sanath Jayasuriya, the Lankans thrashed the Tigers by clinching a 10-wicket victory to mark the Saint Valentine's Day as one of the terrifying memories in Bangladesh's history of cricket.
