Club cricketer’s epic nought not out off 137 balls secures bizarre draw

The Darley Abbey Cricket Club 4th XI opener batted for 45 overs without scoring. Photo / Photosport

An opening batsman faced 137 balls without scoring a single run to secure a bizarre draw in a Derbyshire Cricket League match.

Ian Bestwick, the opener for Darley Abbey Cricket Club 4th XI, batted for 45 overs without scoring. His extraordinary show of defiance ensured that his team escaped with a precious draw in a bottom-of-the-table clash in Division 9 South of the Derbyshire Cricket League.

Bestwick’s innings was far longer than the record in Test match cricket without scoring a single run. In New Zealand’s Test match against South Africa in Auckland in 1999, tailender Geoff Allott was eventually dismissed for nought off 77 balls, surviving for 101 minutes to record the longest duck in Test cricket history.

Needing 272 to defeat Mickleover 3rd XI, who had scored 271 for four declared in a timed match, Darley Abbey never showed any inclination to go for the runs as they finished on 21 for four.

But opener Bestwick was fortunate to survive for so long. He was bowled by by Mickleover’s Dan Heaton for a duck – naturally – but he was given not out because the umpire had called a no ball. Instead, Bestwick batted on and on.

The timed nature of club cricket matches in many leagues encourages teams to stonewall for a draw if they deem victory to be out of reach. Rather than a normal limited-overs match – which sees both teams bat for, say, 50 overs each – the structure of timed games allows for a draw, with the team batting second under no pressure to chase the runs.

Mickleover will, you suspect, rue that they could have declared earlier. Their opener Max Thomson thrashed 186 from 128 balls with 17 fours and 14 sixes – an innings that was the antithesis of Bestwick’s, showing the range of styles that cricket can accommodate.