Three lesser-known cricket facts and stories that will blow your mind

In the course of playing the beautiful sport of cricket, several anecdotes are created and facts are developed. While most of them are remembered by the cricket fans from around the globe, there are some mind-boggling facts and stories which are not known by most cricket fans.

Today let us have a look at three mind-blowing cricket facts and stories:

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#3 Wicket off the 0th ball

What if I tell you, Virat scalped his maiden T20I wicket off his 0th ball. Shocking, right? Well, you've got to believe it.

Dhoni handed the ball to the 22-year-old Virat Kohli in the one-off T20I versus England in 2011. Virat, bowling the first ball of his T20I career, bowled a wide ball sliding down the leg side. Kevin Pieterson was in the mood to attack Kohli from his first ball itself, and charged down the track. However, KP ended up missing the ball completely and Dhoni quickly removed the bails.

Since the wicket was taken off an illegitimate ball, it was 'technically' Kohli's 0th ball in his T20I career. In this manner, Kohli created a record of taking a wicket in the 0th ball of his T20I career.

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#2 Dravid's prediction spot-on

Rahul Dravid was selected to play for South Zone in the Inter-Zonal U-14 competition which was set to be held at Nagpur. Rahul Dravid and Fazal Khaleel, the two best friends, were having a pretty good tournament in the first few matches.

In those times, players representing all the zones had to remain in the same hotel and were instructed to stand in a queue for their evening snacks and dinner. One evening, all the players were standing in a line for Nagpur's famous orange juice.

Dravid and Fazal, who had a good match, were talking about their matches, standing in the queue. Even the other kids were seen talking about their individual performances in the tournament. Then, Dravid brought the topic of a weird-looking, long-haired boy standing ahead of them.

Dravid: Fazal, that short, weird looking, long-haired boy who is standing there, he will play international cricket within the next two years.

Fazal: What? Are you joking? How did you come to that conclusion?

Dravid: He is representing West Zone. Just yesterday, he scored a brilliant 200 against East Zone.

Fazal: Both me and you have scored 100s more than once in the tournament and so have many others. A 200 here does not mean one is fit to be an international material

Dravid: Just wait and watch, Fazal.

Fazal: OK, let's wait and watch.

Two years later when Dravid and Fazal were on a tour playing for Karnataka U-16, the selection of a small boy in the Indian squad for their tour to Pakistan got all the hype. The young boy was none other than the boy Dravid discussed about two years before. Dravid was really excited whereas Fazal couldn't believe his eyes.

That short, weird looking, long-haired boy was none other than Sachin Tendulkar.

(The story is based on the biography of Rahul Dravid, written by Vedam Jayshankar)

#1 Retired Not Out in a Test innings

On 30 April 1983, West Indies' Gordon Greenidge was able to create a unique and a rather tragic, record after he became the first and only cricketer to retire 'not out'.

The unique record was created in the India-West Indies clash in 1983 when he got the news of his ailing daughter, while batting at 154*. The opener, soon after getting the news, rushed to visit his two-year-old daughter, Ria Greenidge, who unfortunately passed away due to serious kidney illness, two days later.

After the unfortunate and shocking incident, it was unanimously decided that Gordon Greenidge should be adjusted as retired not out in the game. Thus, Greenidge became the first and the only cricketer to retire not out in Test cricket.