1872
No-one ever batted quite like Ranjitsinhji, who was born today. Words like "exotic", "princely" and "eastern magic" are easy to bandy about, but it's understandable: this was an Indian prince whose batting was a captivating mixture of flexibility, timing and grace. Even Mark Waugh has never glanced the ball off his middle stump like Ranji. He scored heavily as well as prettily: on his debut for England, against Australia at Old Trafford in 1896, he scored 62 and 154 not out. He made ten centuries and headed the national averages that season. He also scored a century in his first Test in Australia, 175 at Sydney in 1897-98, the highest score for England at the time. His partnerships for Sussex with the equally classical CB Fry were one of the reasons this was known as the Golden Age of batting. India's domestic first-class championship, the Ranji Trophy, is named after him. All in all, not bad for someone who played a summer sport while suffering from hay fever.

1986
Opinion was divided about Geoff Boycott's running between the wickets. He probably thought it was fine, others weren't quite so sure. So it was appropriate enough that his last first-class innings should end in a run out. On a Scarborough pitch of uneven bounce, he was his usual watchful self, making 61 in Yorkshire's only innings of a drawn match with Northants. No more quips about Sir Geoffrey's running; his batting was one of the very best. His 8114 Test runs were a world record at the time, and he scored 48,426 first-class runs at 56.83, the highest average among batsmen who scored over 30,000.

1948
Of the batsmen who scored over 25,000 runs, only Don Bradman's average of 95.14 is higher than Boycott's. To no-one's surprise, The Don added a small fraction to it by scoring 153 in his last first-class innings in England, for the Australians against HDG Leveson-Gower's XI at Scarborough. He shared a stand of 225 with Sid Barnes before the rain-affected match ended in a draw.

1970
One of Australia's most successful captains and opening bats was born. Belinda Clark led Australia to victory in the 1997 World Cup, during which she became the first player, man or woman, to hit a double century in one-day international cricket. Her 229 against the hapless Danes at Bombay helped Australia to score 412 for 3. They batted for more overs than Denmark scored runs. All out for 49, they lost by a preposterous 363 runs.

1978
Playing for National Bank against Punjab at Lahore, future Test wicketkeeper Taslim Arif became the first from Pakistan to make 10 dismissals in a first-class match. Punjab were dismissed for 74 and 143 and lost by an innings. Taslim's haul remained a national record until Wasim Yousoufi made 11 dismissals for Peshawar v Bahawalpur at Peshawar in 1997-98.

1948
Middlesex legspinner Jim Sims had played for England before the War. Now, in the East v West match at Kingston-on-Thames, his 18.4 overs in the second innings went for 90 runs – but there were compensations. "Cleverly varying his flight and spin," according to the Wisden Almanack, he took all ten wickets (13 in the match) to bowl the East to victory by 223 runs.

Other birthdays
1962 Charlie Lock (Zimbabwe) 1974 Mohammad Akram (Pakistan)
1979 Prasanna Jayawardene (Sri Lanka)

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd