Chris Greaves: Remember the name!

ELIZABETH BOTCHERBY: 31-year-old Chris Greaves only made his international debut on October 8 and yet, nine days later, he is the talk of the cricketing world after steering Scotland to an unlikely victory over Bangladesh

2021 Men's T20 World Cup team guide: Scotland

If you had never heard of Chris Greaves before today, there is absolutely no reason to panic about your cricket trivia skills.

The 31-year-old only made his international debut for Scotland on October 8 – nine days before his side’s T20 World Cup opener – in a T20I against Papua New Guinea in Dubai. His ESPNcricinfo page revealed just four fixtures of note in 2021 while a solitary appearance for Gloucestershire’s second XI in 2019 remained among his five most recent matches.

However, after playing a starring role in Scotland’s miraculous six-run victory over Bangladesh on day one of the 2021 T20 World Cup, he has rightly earned his place in both Scottish and T20 cricketing folklore. Indeed, a statue in his adopted country has possibly already been commissioned.

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To say Scotland were in dire straits against Bangladesh before he entered the field is an understatement of gross proportions. Having seemingly recovered from the early departure of captain Kyle Coetzer for a five-ball duck in the third over, Scotland were undone by the spin mastery of Shakib Al Hasan and Mahedi Hasan, collapsing from 44 for 1 at the start of the eighth over to 55 for 6 at the end of the 12th. Just as in the tournament opener between Oman and Papua New Guinea, wickets fell in clumps for the less-fancied side and a face-saving triple-figure total seemed unlikely.

Greaves’ innings, too, didn’t get off to an ideal start, losing partner Calum MacLeod within five balls of joining him in the middle, but that was about the only time Scotland’s 'man with the Midas touch' looked out of control.

Eight deliveries later, he reverse-sweeped Afif Hossain for four to score Scotland’s first boundary since the sixth over. It opened the floodgates. Three fours and a maximum followed in the next four overs as he and Mark Watt added 51 runs off just 34 balls to drag their side into three figures.

And while Watt departed at the start of the 18th over, deceived by Taskin Ahmed’s slower ball and picking an Souyma Sarkar on the boundary, it did little to phase Greaves, who added a further 27 runs (13 balls) with Josh Davey before eventually meeting his own demise in the final over, an under-cooked flick falling into the relieved hands of Shakib Al Hasan on the boundary rope.

With 45 runs off just 28 balls – two more than the preceding six batters combined – Greaves had almost single-handedly dragged Scotland to 140 for 9 and given them what at the time felt like a slim glimmer of hope that an upset and two valuable points may not yet be out of reach.

He stayed out of Bangladesh’s chase for the first 11 overs, inconspicuous in the field as Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim slowly but surely eroded Scotland’s hopes of victory.

However, cometh the 12th over, cometh Chris Greaves, chucked the ball by captain Coetzer in the desperate hope that their man of the moment could strike gold. And in true fairy-tale fashion, he did.

^{Greaves batting against Bangladesh}

With his first ball, he snared Shakib Al Hasan, the experienced allrounder scuffing a truly ugly delivery to a gleeful MacLeod on the rope. Seven deliveries later, he bowled Rahim to triple his T20I career-wicket haul.

He didn’t dominate the bowling quite as much as he dominated the batting - credit also has to go the Wheal for a fine 3 for 24, Watt for his miserly 1 for 19, and Coetzer for some inspired bowling changes – but there can be no questioning Greaves' hand in knocking the stuffing out of Bangladesh’s chase.

Speaking after the match, he was completely and utterly modest about his show-stealing T20 World Cup debut: "We were in a tough situation, obviously, and it doesn't always go that way. [My role] was just to rebuild the innings at that stage and see where we could go from there. I was happy to be that person. With the score on the board, you've got something to bowl at. I think once we got that total on the board with our bowling line-up, we'll back it. It was a great, great game. It was my day I think today,  I'm just glad I could contribute in the way I did."

However, in truth, there’s only one way to adequately sum up his arrival on cricket’s biggest stage. To quote the legendary Ian Bishop, "Chris Greaves, remember the name!"