The most exhilarating bowler in world cricket today, or a walking spraygun? The jury is still out on birthday boy Brett Lee, after a series of underwhelming performances overseas. What's not in doubt is that he has all the necessary raw materials to be a great fast bowler: he can be frighteningly quick (he peaked at 98.3mph in the second Test against South Africa at Cape Town in 2001-2002), he has a virtually unplayable late-swinging yorker, and when the force is with him, he works batsmen over with unnerving hostility.

1987
The day Mike Gatting ensured the reverse-sweep would never appear in the MCC coaching manual. England were cruising in the World Cup final against Australia when Gatting, their captain, top-edged Allan Border's first delivery straight to the wicketkeeper Greg Dyer. England were chasing 254 to win (David Boon top-scored with 75 and Mike Veletta slammed 45 off 31 balls), but even after Gatting's dismissal, they only needed 102 off 15 overs with seven wickets in hand. The big wicket was that of Allan Lamb, bowled for 45 by the nerveless Steve Waugh. England had a lengthy tail (Paul Downton was at No. 6) and Waugh squeezed the life out of their innings to clinch a seven-run win. After a miserable period of underachievement, Australia had announced their return to the upper echelons of world cricket. They have hardly looked back since.

1999
After New Zealand smashed their highest one-day total (349 for 9) to win the first match at Rajkot three days earlier, India did likewise in the second at Hyderabad. They demolished NZ by 174 runs thanks to an imperious batting display - they made 376 for 2, with Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid putting on 331, the highest partnership for any wicket in an ODI. Dravid hit a run-a-ball 153 but was overshadowed by the majesty of Tendulkar, who faced three balls less for 33 runs more. All the bowlers took some fearful hammer, none more so than Chris Drum (9-0-85-0). Off the last six overs, India crashed 90.

1945
Birth of only the second nightwatchman to make a Test hundred. Australia's Tony Mann followed Nasim-ul-Ghani of Pakistan with 105 against India at Perth in 1977-78. But whereas Nasim was hardly a fish out of water batting at No. 6, Mann was well and truly in the deep end at No. 3. It was a vital innings too, as it laid the foundation for Australia's successful fourth-innings chase of 342 for 8. But Mann continued to struggle in his day job (after taking 3 for 12 in his first innings, his leggies yielded only one more wicket at a cost of 304 runs) and played only two more Tests.

1992
International cricket took a leaf out of the Sunday League's book when Zimbabwe played a one-day international against New Zealand in the middle of a Test match. The second one-dayer was sandwiched between the first and second days of the second Test, but such nonsense meant little to Martin Crowe: fresh from an imperious 140 in whites, he put on the pyjamas and cracked a matchwinning 94, off only 87 balls. There was also a brief moment of controversy when Dipak Patel ran out the non-striker, Grant Flower, for backing up too far.

Other birthdays

1929 Trevor McMahon (New Zealand)
1948 Jack Heron (Zimbabwe)
1957 Yohan Goonasekera (Sri Lanka)
1959 Simon Davis (Australia)
1971 Joseph Angara (Kenya)

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