Seeing the Forrester for the runs and wickets
We all know the stories of great debuts in cricket. Bob Massie and Narendra Hirwani’s 16 wickets or Lawrence Rowe 214 & 100* on Test debuts, for example. It is hard to beat Harold Gimblett’s first-class debut. In 1935, as a 20-year-old, he was told during a trial with Somerset that he had no future in first-class cricket. On the last day of his trial, Somerset were a player short for their game against Essex starting the next day at Frome. After a torrid trip to the ground the next morning involving missed buses and a hitched lift in a lorry, he came to the crease with Somerset 107-6 and hit a 63-minute century. When he finished his career with Somerset in 1954 he was (and still is) their leading run-scorer in first-class cricket.
Now, Dian Forrester has stormed the bastion of great cricketing debuts. Last Saturday he made his professional debut in a CSA One-day Cup match for Free State v South Western Districts (or for Knights v Garden Route Badgers, if you prefer) at Oudtshoorn. Free State were in trouble at 98-5 when he came in to bat, and even more trouble at 105-6 shortly thereafter. He smote 128 off 100 balls, reaching both his 50 and his 100 with sixes and leading the recovery to 312-8 in 50 overs. In a nod to Matthew Maynard, he also hit three consecutive sixes late in his innings. As an 18-year-old on first-class debut Maynard hit 102 off 87 balls, reaching his century with three consecutive sixes off Phil Carrick (for Glamorgan v Yorkshire at Swansea in 1985). 128 is the highest score batting at number seven on List A debut and only the 2nd century from that position on List A debut. Forrester had certainly made his mark with a highly impressive start to his career, taking his team from a losing position to a potentially winning total.
But, he wasn’t finished. After 46.3 overs in reply, South Western Districts were 294-4 having just brought up a century partnership for the 5th wicket. 19 needed off 21 balls with two set batters in. Free State were losing by a long way. Again. Forrester then took wickets off the fourth and fifth balls of the 47th over and came back for the 49th over to take a wicket with his first ball and a hat-trick with the last three balls of the over to win the game by 12 runs.
128 off 100 balls, a hat-trick and 6 wickets in 9 balls, both from clearly losing positions. As great a debut as there has been in cricket history.
Nobody had even scored a fifty, let alone a century, and taken a hat-trick on professional debut before in any format. The previous highest score from the seven other bowlers with a hat-trick on List A debut was 6.
Forrester joined Alvin Kallicharran (206 & 6-32 Warwickshire v Oxfordshire at Birmingham in 1984) and Paul Collingwood (112* & 6-31 for England v Bangladesh at Nottingham in 2005) as the only players to have made a century and taken six wickets in an innings in any List A match (not just on debut), and in a game that was much closer than either of the other two on that list.
Only one bowler has taken better figures than 6-48 bowling at number six or later in the innings on List A debut: Fayyaz Ahmed 6-24 for Gujranwala v Lahore Blues at Lahore in 2001.
As far as I can find, Forrester is the first to take 6 wickets in 9 balls in a List A match. This has only been done once in first-class cricket – when Pat Pocock took his famous hat-trick, 4 in 4, 5 in 6, 6 in 9 and 7 in 11 for Surrey v Sussex at Eastbourne in 1972.
This debut was a doozy. To end all doozies?
Footnote: Forrester didn’t quite come down to earth in his second match yesterday. More like down to the moon. He made 52 off 28 balls against the SA Emerging Players team, reaching his fifty with three consecutive sixes and then took only 1-26 in four overs.