Ian Botham scores over 100 runs & takes 8 wickets in a single inning

Beefy At His Beefiest

In honour of Father’s Day, lets turn to a man who dads probably like. Some dads anyway. A few. Yes, it’s Ian Botham, the batting and bowling marvel who, on this day in 1978, was the first man to score over one hundred runs and take eight wickets in a single innings of a test match. Now that’s a lot of things all at once, so let me break that down. Actually, no, I can’t be bothered. But just accept that Mr. Botham did a variety of marvellous cricketing things all around the same time and it was very good.

According to press reports from the time, Botham’s swingers just couldn’t be located by the Pakistani opposition, leading to the devastating bowling achievements. All of this after getting 108 of his own runs. And he had a moustache. Through the entire thing. Botham went on to become one of English cricket’s greatest all-rounders and is now a television commentator. And at time of writing, he now has a bit of a beard.