Phil Tufnell, speaking on BBC’s Test Match Special: Tuffers and Vaughan podcast, recalled the time he “ruined everyone’s Christmas” when he dismissed Gary Kirsten off a no ball in the 1999 Durban Test, and was left to rue his folly as the opener went on to score 275.
South Africa, following on in the Boxing Day Test, sent England on a leather hunt with Kirsten being particularly defiant, spending over 14 hours on the crease. At 33, he was trapped leg-before by Tufnell’s left-arm spin, only for the delivery to be called a no ball.
“I bowled at Gary Kirsten at Durban just before Christmas and got him out off a no ball,” Tufnell said. “He went on to score 275, which was a record. I ruined everyone’s Christmas! I ruined everyone’s Christmas!
“I did feel the weight of that, I mean it was towards the end of my career perhaps, you do take those things on board as a youngster, don’t you? You think it’s all your fault and it is this and that. And that’s when the team has to come up and say ‘Come on, it’s still Christmas. Try and enjoy. It’s not your fault, Phil. But I know you thought it was!'”
