India’s match against Hampshire during their 1996 tour of England was expected to be just another practice match. Not very few but, maybe, nobody would have guessed that this game would become special for a player’s achievement that was the first of its kind in world cricket.

Hampshire all-rounder Kevan James, who was a part of the playing 11, was at the end of his career at the age of 35. He was just happy to get a chance to play against an international team that included the then young sensation Sachin Tendulkar.

Rare bowling feat

India batted first and the openers Ajay Jadeja and Vikram Rathore added 192 runs before the former was out. James took his wicket by getting him caught in the slips. In a 2020 interview The Cricketer, James said that their captain John Stephenson gave him the ball without much hopes; only because he hadn’t bowled in the innings. After getting Jadeja’s wicket, he felt he, at least, had something to show.

But James had no idea what was next in store for him. Later in the innings, he had Rathore stumped off the wicketkeeper Adrian Aymes, who was standing up. As the 2^nd wicket had fallen, in came Sachin Tendulkar.

The crowd was anticipating fireworks from the Little Master. The Hampshire captain kept a forward short leg, again, without much hope. But guess what? Tendulkar had an inside edge off the first ball he faced and he was caught at short leg! James had 2 in 2! In the same interview, James recalled the moment and said, “We were laughing out in the middle because we realised we had spoiled everybody’s day.”

On the hat-trick ball, Rahul Dravid, who had walked in next, got hit on the pads off a ball that swung a little. James gave his everything in the appeal and the umpire raised his finger. He had a hat-trick! James said in the same interview, “It was really weird. I’d never taken one before at any level – not club, not schools, nothing – and I was coming to the end of my career and I’d done it on the most unlikely day.”

But just when James thought he had achieved something he never thought of, he got four wickets in four balls as the new batsman Sanjay Manjrekar was caught in the slips! Getting 4 in 4 is rare! After the over, James went onto the third man boundary for fielding and a crew from a radio station had a word with him. “They asked me if I’d ever got a hat-trick before and I said, ‘No, I’ve never bowled three balls straight in a row before’,” said James in the same interview. What he said made it to the Telegraph’s sporting quotes of the week.

The next batsman Sourav Ganguly scored an unbeaten 100. Anil Kumble, who came in at 5 down, remained not out on 59. India declared their innings at 362 for 5.

There was more to come for James

James must have thought that he had over-achieved for the match, but there was more to come as he walked into bat for Hampshire at number 4 when they were 45 for 2. He kept on batting confidently and reached the score of 92 when he realized that he is on the verge of creating history after Paul Terry, the batsman at the other hand told him. This made James nervous.

“It was the worst thing he could have said. I suddenly thought, ‘Oh s*** he’s right, bloody hell… a hundred!’ My next eight runs took about an hour. I was almost scared to play a shot,” recalled James in the interview. He somehow got to the three figure mark and became the first cricketer in first-class history to take 4 wickets in 4 balls and score a century in the same match.

But there was no way Kevan James was going to get a chance to play for England. As mentioned before, he was at the end of his career at the age of 35.

As far as the result of the match is concerned, Hampshire scored 458 for 9 in their innings and the game ended in a draw.

Wait a minute… He could have had 5 in 5 balls!

What not many people know is that after taking 4 wickets in 4 balls, James could have achieved a crazy feat of taking 5 wickets in 5 balls. When Ganguly walked into bat after India lost 4 wickets in 4 balls, he edged the ball, it went in the air for some time but the fielder Paul Whitaker couldn’t hang onto it for it was too tough.

Recalling that moment, James said in the same interview with The Cricketer, “To be fair, it was quite difficult. If he’d have hung onto it, it would have been one of the catches of the season. But it was a catch. He dived and I think he got his fingertips to it.” In case the catch would have been taken, James’ feat of taking 5 wickets in 5 balls and scoring a century in the same match would have been difficult to put in words.

Sourav Ganguly remembering the feat years later

After retiring from first-class cricket, Kevan James started working with BBC as a sports journalist. In 2004, during a press conference for that year’s Champion’s Trophy, Kevan James introduced himself before asking a question to Ganguly. As soon as the Indian captain heard his name, he straightaway asked, “Kevan James? Four in four?”

James recalled in the interview, “I was so chuffed that he remembered all that time afterwards, and I told him that after the press conference. He said: ‘Of course I remember something like that’. I told him that he probably didn’t remember me having him dropped at deep-ish gully the very next ball and he said, ‘No it wasn’t, it was cover’. The fact that he could remember… I thought ‘Wow’.” Read Kevan James’ full interview with The Cricketer HERE.

Shaun Pollock achieved the same bowling feat in the same county season

Interestingly, South Africa’s Shaun Pollock had picked up 4 wickets in 4 balls for Warwickshire against Leicestershire in a county ODI just two months ago on April 26, 1996 at Edgbaston. It was crazy to see two instances of a bowler taking 4 wickets in 4 balls in the same county season!

Also read: When 2 instances of bowler picking 4 wickets in 4 balls happened in a single English season