November 8, 1992 – When an ODI was played between two days of a Test match

How about the idea of hosting an ODI game or a T20I between the two days of a Test match on a weekend or a public holiday to attract the spectators to the venue in this modern era? However, this happened 25 years ago during a Test match between Zimbabwe and New Zealand. The 2nd Tes in 1992 started on November 7th in Harare which was interrupted with an ODI played between the 1st and 2nd days of the Test.

The ODI was played on November 8th, which was a Sunday to attract the crowd. It was a move inspired by England’s Sunday League which was the country’s one-day tournament back then, played on Sundays. New Zealand’s tour of Zimbabwe started with an ODI on 31st October and the first Test match got underway on the very next day at Bulawayo. With only one rest day, the 2nd Test began on 7th after the first Test ended on 5th November. With both the Test matches lasting all the five days, New Zealand and Zimbabwe found themselves on the field on 12 out of 13 consecutive days.

The ODI between a Test match

New Zealand won the toss and elected to bat in the Test and posted 314/6 on day one with the help of Martin Crowe’s 163-ball 140 and Ken Rutherford’s 72* as they both shared a 168-run stand for the 4th wicket. Crowe went into limited-overs mode a day earlier scoring at a strike rate of  85 including 96 runs in the session between Lunch and Tea.

In the ODI, Zimbabwe won and toss and elected to bat first on a batting track where their top four scored fifties helping them to finish with 271/6 in the 50 overs. Their top scorer Grant Flower (63) was run out backing up off Dipak Patel after a couple of runout calls were turned down by the umpire. It was Crowe and Rutherford pair who came to rescue of the Kiwis in the chase after they lost three for 114. They put on 130 for the 4th wicket with captain Crowe smashing an 87-ball 94 to complete a 2-0 ODI series win by the 47th over with four wickets in hand.

Resuming the Test match on Monday, New Zealand lost their final four wickets for just 21 runs to be bowled out for only 335. After the 3rd day was shortened by rain, Zimbabwe captain Dave Houghton declared their innings at 283/9 52 runs still behind the Kiwis’ total. New Zealand declared their 2nd innings at 262/5 to set a target of 315 to the home side in 71. After scoring 58 in the 2nd innings, Dipak Patel bagged a 6-fer with the ball to wrap up Zimbabwe to just 137.