44 all out…and winning

Of all the strange things that have happened this year in the world of cricket, the most bizarre happened just this morning.

It had nothing to do with Kevin Pietersen being dropped from the England team. It had nothing to do with scheduling. It had nothing to do with spot-fixing or dropped catches. And it had nothing to do with Shahid Afridi giving up the captaincy of Pakistan after just one match. It didn’t even have anything to do with Twitter.

No, the strangest thing in this whole damn year happened earlier today in Bristol, where Gloucestershire contrived to lose a match in which they bowled out Derbyshire for 44 (yes, 44) in their first innings.

It gets better. Not only were the entire Derbyshire team shot out for the average score of a half-decent batsman, but that was actually a pretty good recovery - at one point, they were 9-6. If you’re reading this Down Under, that’s nine runs, for six wickets. I will repeat that – 9-6. At that stage, James Franklin was boasting figures of 3-3-0-5.

Gloucestershire, in reply, plundered runs with comparative ease, reaching a positively gargantuan 156. The visitors then scored 236 to set Gloucestershire 125 to win. Unbelievably, they were bowled out for 70. I’m still struggling to believe such a reversal could happen.

But maybe I shouldn’t be too surprised – this is Gloucestershire, after all. Earlier this year, they lost a game after choosing not to enforce the follow-on. Not a single Gloucestershire batsman scored a century in any competition until August 4th.

In my misery, I found myself mulling over two questions -

• Has any other team ever displayed such talent for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory?
• Has there ever been another team that has displayed such ineptitude with the bat whilst performing so well with the ball?

And then it came to me…Pakistan!