5 bowling achievements by unlikely players

4. Wilf Barber came closest to taking a wicket with his only ball in Test cricket

Wilf Barber and Jim Payne

Gerald Howat described Wilf Barber as "the fourth pillar" of the Yorkshire batting in the mid-1930s while Wisden described his fielding as “first rate”. Though he scored 16,402 runs in his career and took 182 catches, it is due to an interesting bowling statistic that he makes it to this list. He appeared for England in only two Tests, but on his Test debut against H. F. Wade's South African team of 1935 at Leeds, he bowled 2 balls, conceded 0 runs and even picked up the wicket of HB Cameron, denying him his half-century, and having bowled 2 balls in the process just missed out on the record of being in the history books as the player to take a wicket in the only ball of his Test career.

However, on the condition that no qualification criteria be applied, Wilf Barber, along with A. N. Hornby and Bruce Murray, holds the record for the best bowling average, all of them having taken 1 wicket without conceding any runs, thus averaging Zero!