History created in cricket (Photo: Clive Mason/Allsport/Getty Images/Hulton Archive)
Brother’s in Cricket: Many pairs of brothers have made a name for themselves in world cricket through their game. This cannot be denied that this will continue to happen. But, this has happened only once so far, when 3 pairs of brothers have been included in the playing eleven of the same team in the same match. On International Brothers Day, we are going to tell one such story which is not from any recently played match, but is 29 years old. This match was played between New Zealand and Zimbabwe. For that match played in Harare, 3 pairs of brothers were included in the playing eleven of Zimbabwe.
NZ vs ZIM Test, 3 pairs of brothers played in the playing XI
By now you must have seen two twins or real brothers playing together in the same match on the cricket field. But what happened on January 18, 1997, was a little different. This happened for the first time. When Zimbabwe’s playing eleven was announced for the first Test against New Zealand in Harare, it included 3 different pairs of brothers, whose names are as follows – Grant and Andy Flower, Brian and Paul Strang, Gavin and John Rennie. Apart from these, Andy Whittle, cousin of Guy Whittle, who was a part of Zimbabwe’s playing eleven, was the 12th player in that match.
First innings goes to Grant Flower, Zimbabwe gets lead of 91 runs
If we talk about that Harare Test played between Zimbabwe and New Zealand, it was entirely in the name of Grant Flower, who, while opening, scored a brilliant century in the first innings and scored 104 runs. Gavin, who came to open with him, scored 23 runs. Andy Flower played an inning of 8 runs while Paul Strang, who came in the lower order, played an inning of 42 runs. John Rennie scored 22 runs. Zimbabwe’s score in the first innings was 298 runs. In reply, New Zealand’s first innings was reduced to 207 runs. Zimbabwe’s Strong brothers played an important role in bundling out New Zealand for 207 and taking a lead of 91 runs in the first innings. Brian Strang took 3 wickets while leg spinner Paul Strang took 2 wickets.
Grant Flower also scored a century in the second innings, NZ set the target of 403 runs.
Grant Flower batted similarly in the second innings as in the first innings. He made an opening partnership of 156 runs with Gavin Rennie. Gavin was out after scoring 57 runs, while Andy Flower, elder brother of Grant Flower, failed again. Grant Flower also scored a century in the second innings. This time he played a slightly bigger innings and scored 151 runs. On the basis of Grant Flower’s century, Zimbabwe set the target of 403 runs for New Zealand.
NZ vs ZIM test draw
In the match played 29 years ago, at one time the New Zealand team was on the verge of defeat in front of such a big target. But Chris Cairns saved it by batting for more than 4 hours. Cairns saved the team from defeat by playing an unbeaten inning of 71 runs. In this way, the match recorded in history involving pairs of three brothers ended in a draw.
