Malcolm Nash's 'maximum' notoriety and the art of self-preservation

Fifty-seven years ago to date (August 31), cricket celebrated an event that gained immense fame for one cricketer and notoriety for another. On August 31, 1968, Gary Sobers clobbered Malcolm Nash for six sixes in an over, thus becoming the first batsman to attain the "maximum" that could be scored off six balls. This took place on the first day of the three-day first-class county match between Nottinghamshire and Glamorgan at Swansea.

Sobers, who was leading Notts, walked in to bat with the scoreboard reading 308 for 5. He was widely acknowledged as the best batsman in the world at that time and inspired fear and dread in the minds of opposition bowlers. When he took his guard at the wicket, he showed a hurry to keep the scoreboard ticking at a fast pace, since his side needed quick runs to facilitate an early declaration. He had dropped down to number 7 to accommodate a meeting with his bookie. Hence, he was in the mood to attack from the very first ball.

Nash, on the other hand, was known as an honest trundler in county cricket. He did not have any pretensions of being a world-class bowler but was an effective left-arm medium pacer, especially in conditions that suited seam bowling. He had played a crucial role by picking up five wickets in the first innings of the first-class match against the touring Australian side a few weeks ago, where Glamorgan shocked the visitors by inflicting a 79-run defeat.

From the 1968 season, he had started bowling left-arm spin, of the "fastish" type in the style of Derek Underwood, to introduce more variety into his bowling. He had taken four of the five Nottinghamshire wickets to fall when Sobers arrived at the crease on that eventful day.

Buoyed by the success he was enjoying on that day, Nash started the eventful over to Sobers, bowling left-arm spin. After the first three balls disappeared behind the ropes, Glamorgan skipper Tony Lewis advised him to switch back to his more effective medium pace. But Nash, who had by then gone into a trance-like state, ignored this word of wisdom and continued with his slower stuff.

The fourth ball was promptly dispatched by Sobers over the midwicket fence. Sobers mistimed the next ball, and the resultant skier was held by Roger Davis at long-off, but the fielder unfortunately stepped over the boundary line while completing the catch. Nash finally reverted to medium pace for the last ball, but the delivery was pitched short, and it ended up as a juicy long hop, which Sobers hammered out of the ground with glee.

Nash took this incident in his stride and enjoyed a beer with Sobers that evening and even commented: “I, too, made my way to the record books thanks to this over.” He was a professional who realised that there was no point in losing sleep over one bad over, especially when his overall figures of 4 wickets for 100 runs off 21 overs did not appear to reflect too poorly on his bowling. He opened the bowling in the second innings as well, where he bowled 17 overs and picked up a solitary wicket while conceding 53 runs.

But this was not the end of the story for Nash so far as getting thrashed in one over was concerned. On August 29, 1977, almost nine years to the day after the Sobers blitzkrieg, Nash was at the receiving end of a brutal assault at the hands of another batsman. In the match between Glamorgan and Lancashire, again played at Swansea, Frank Hayes clobbered Nash for 34 runs in an over.

After hitting the first ball over the ropes, Hayes struck a boundary off the next one, followed by four consecutive sixes! Nash managed to retain his sense of humour after this episode as well, observing: “I have sealed a place in the Guinness Book by having the first and second places!”

It is often not remembered that there was more to Nash’s cricket career than these two overs he bowled. He played first-class cricket for 17 years and even led Glamorgan for a couple of seasons. His tally of 993 wickets at an average of 25.87 stands as testimony to his skill and perseverance with the ball, the two overs against Sobers and Hayes notwithstanding. His best season was in 1975, when he took 85 wickets and also came close to making it to the England squad. He was also a useful lower-order batsman with 7,129 runs, including two centuries, to his credit. Incidentally, he once struck four sixes in an over and also scored a century before lunch against Surrey in 1976!

Nash was enterprising enough to pen his autobiography, which he titled Not Only But Also, which was brought out in 2018, on the occasion of the 50th year of the fateful over he sent down to Sobers. This only showed that he acknowledged the extent to which his reputation as a cricketer hinged on the "Sobers connection." He went through some difficult years at the fag end of his life and died in 2020, soon after collapsing while attending a dinner at Lord's.

Shastri emulates Sobers
It was only in 1985 that another cricketer could emulate the feat of Sobers by striking six sixes in an over in first-class cricket. There was an element of surprise as the batsman who did this – Ravi Shastri – was better known as a dour and gritty customer, who eschewed all risks while batting. But, in a Ranji Trophy match against Baroda, Shastri threw caution to the winds and launched a brutal assault against the left-arm spin of Tilak Raj and carted him over the ropes six times in an over.

Tilak Raj was primarily a left-hand batsman, who also bowled spin occasionally. He came through the ranks of junior cricket and even made it to the national squad at this level. After making his debut for Delhi in Ranji Trophy, he subsequently moved to Baroda. He faded away from domestic first-class cricket a couple of seasons after this incident.

The advent of limited-overs cricket with its focus on big hitting and the assistance it renders to batsmen through easy-paced wickets, smaller grounds, field restrictions, and better quality bats has seen a surge in the number of batsmen hitting six sixes in an over during the 21st century. Herschelle Gibbs achieved the distinction of becoming the first batsman to achieve this feat in international cricket in the game against the Netherlands in the 2007 International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup. Yuvraj Singh followed suit, repeating this a few months later, against England, in the ICC T20 World Cup. Numerous batsmen have attained this landmark in the years since, with the result that an occurrence of this nature no longer draws eyeballs the way it did when Sobers took Nash to the cleaners five decades and seven years ago.

The increase in the frequency of batsmen striking all balls in an over for sixes shows the extent to which cricket has become more of a batsman’s game during the last 25 years. This is reflected in the temperament and batting style of players, who improvise, innovate, and attempt to play strokes that old-timers would not even have dared to dream! While this adds to the excitement of the game and brings in more followers, one should also spare a thought for the bowlers, who are forced to face this relentless assault and continue with their task.

The mental trauma that a bowler suffers when a batsman rips apart the stuff he sends down is immeasurable. It is even worse when he is forced to be part of a record for the "dubious" reason of a batsman feasting on his bowling. The relentless "trolls" on social media add to and prolong this agony. All the good work done prior to one "bad" incident tends to get forgotten as the whole world gets fixated on one poor over.

Bowlers who go through periods of deep distress would do well to dwell upon the career of Nash. Despite having a record that would have made any professional cricketer proud, Nash was forced to live with the stigma of having his name "hyphenated" with Sobers, just because the great man was in his elements and played unbelievable strokes to create a record. Nash took this stroke of misfortune in his stride and continued playing the game with his head held high. His cricketing career should stand as a beacon of inspiration for up-and-coming bowlers in contemporary cricket.