7 July 1810. A double-wicket match was scheduled at Lord‘s , with Lord Frederick Beauclerk and Thomas Howard on one side, and William Lambert and Squire (George) Osbaldeston on the other. Just before the match, however, Osbaldeston fell ill and wanted to have the match called off. Unfortunately, Beauclerk was in no mood to relent, so Lambert had to play almost entirely on his own. He ended up winning it. Abhishek Mukherjee looks back at one of the greatest single-handed efforts in the history of the sport.