The Valentine's Day Miracle

Talking about the most memorable cricket moments on Valentine's Day, it's hard to beat George Lohmann's takedown of the South African side in 1896. Clearly, he was in no mood for love that day.

Lord Hawke's English side toured S. Africa in 1896. Playing the first Test at Port Elizabeth, Lohmann initially took 7 wickets for 38 runs in the first innings, bundling S. Africa for a meagre 93 in response to England's 185. His bowling style made him a threatening proposition.

On February 14th, Lohmann proceeded to take 8 wickets for just 7 runs in 49 balls. Read that again to make complete sense of that. South Africa was dismissed for 30 runs in 18.4 overs. This remained the lowest score until New Zealand was dismissed for 26 in 1954-55 against the same opposition.

Lohmann concluded the match with a hat-trick dismissing Frederick Cook, Bonnor Middleton and Joseph Willoughby. He was unplayable in the series and finished the series with a total of 35 wickets at an astonishing average of 5.80.

Lohmann holds the record for the lowest strike rate in Test cricket history. He also holds the record for the best career bowling average among bowlers with more than 15 wickets. He was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in 2016 - giving a truly incredibly skilled bowler a well deserved recognition.

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