No wicket, no run, no catch… still chosen as player of the match, the biggest wonder in cricket history

New Delhi: In a cricket match, a player is chosen as player of the match when he performs best. Be it scoring a century, opening the bowling of a bowler (i.e. taking five or more wickets) or making any extraordinary performance in fielding. But what if a player is chosen player of the match just because he bowled very tightly without taking any wicket? Yes, this has happened in the history of cricket when a player was chosen Player of the Match without scoring any runs, without taking any wickets and even without making any catches or run-outs in fielding.

This may sound a bit strange, but the same thing happened in an ODI match played between West Indies and Zimbabwe in 2001. In this match, West Indies fast bowler Cameron Cuffe was chosen as the player of the match because he had given only 20 runs for his team in 10 overs while keeping 2 maidens. It was because of this tight bowling of Cuffy that the match was turned and West Indies registered a thrilling victory.

West Indies’ condition was bad in front of Zimbabwe

Let us tell you that in the match in which Cameron Cuffy was chosen as the player of the match, while chasing the target, Zimbabwe made West Indies sweat. In the match, the West Indies team, batting first, scored 266 runs at the loss of 5 wickets in 50 overs, thanks to the half-centuries of Darren Ganga, Chris Gayle and Shivnarine Chanderpaul. About 25 years ago, this score was considered a strong and fighting total in ODI cricket.

In reply to West Indies’ 266 runs, Zimbabwe’s start was not very good. The team had lost its first wicket on the score of just 18 runs. Although opener Alistair Campbell was standing firm at one end, wickets were falling at regular intervals from the other end. At one time it seemed that West Indies would easily win this match, but Zimbabwe’s middle-order batsmen made the match very exciting by playing short but useful innings.

Kafi saved the match with tight bowling

For West Indies, Marlon Samuels and Mervyn Dillon took maximum three wickets each in this match. Dillon spent 48 runs for this, while Samuels gave 28 runs in 5 overs. Apart from this, Ryan King proved to be the most expensive bowler, who gave away 57 runs in his quota. Amidst all this, Cameron Cuffy put a stranglehold on the Zimbabwean batsmen with his accurate bowling. In the spell of 10 overs, Kafi made the opposition team yearn for runs. The result was that the match went out of Zimbabwe’s hands and the team could only score 239 runs for 9 wickets in 50 overs, due to which West Indies won the match by 27 runs.

How was Cameron Cuffe’s career?

Talking about Cameron Cuffe’s career, he played a total of 15 Test and 41 ODI matches for West Indies. He has 43 wickets in his name in Test cricket, while in ODI he has taken 41 wickets in his name. Although Kafi’s international career did not last very long, his name was forever recorded in the pages of history because of that historic Coca-Cola Cup match against Zimbabwe.