Here is a question to all the cricket lovers out there. What is the most number of runs to come off in one over? Most of us answer it as 36 runs. Ravi Shastri, Garry Sobers, and Yuvraj Singh are the cricketers who scored six sixes in an over and we can’t expect more from them in an over. But in February 1990, Bert Vance went for more than twice that number in what ranks as one of first-class cricket’s oddest overs.

In the match between Wellington and Canterbury in Wellington’s Shell Trophy, Wellington team must win the match to ensure that they secured the title. On the final day, Canterbury needed 292 runs in 59 overs. Canterbury team lost their batsmen very soon and the score was 108 for 8. Canterbury looked like losing the match until Lee Germon and Roger Ford had restricted the Wellington bowlers.

Morrison and Erv McSweeney, Wellington’s captain and wicketkeeper said a plan to the bowler that to feed Canterbury enough runs so that they would get close enough to the target and then perhaps risk their last two wickets going for glory. They began the over on 196 for 8. Bert Vance proceeded to bowl a succession of no-balls and full-toss after full-toss was bowled.

Even the umpire was left bewildered, only allowing five legitimate deliveries before calling an end to proceedings. Germon scored 70 off the over, including eight sixes and five fours. The over went as follows – 0444664614106666600401. Vance’s over is consigned to being a footnote in the record books, although the 182-run ninth-wicket stand remains a Canterbury record.