Hayden Meikle counts down the 150 greatest moments in Otago sport.
No 140: Four wickets in four balls (1893-94)
Otago spinner Alexander Downes had many great days during a long career which lasted 27 summers.
Arguably his finest hour was in January 1892 when he took eight wickets for 35 - including four wickets from five balls - to help Otago beat Canterbury by five wickets.
His bowling was described in the Otago Witness as "unplayable".
"Downes' bowling was breaking back about a foot from the pitch, and something of a 'funk' had been established by it . . . ," the reporter wrote.
But two years later he went one better, taking four wickets from four balls.
The offspinner ripped through the Auckland middle and lower order, baffling Rowland Hollie, William Stemson, John Lundon and Henry Lawson with some sharp turn.
He bowled all four victims and eventually finished with six for 45.
Remarkably, Otago still lost the game but Downes' place in folklore was secure.
