1973
New Zealand's greatest cricketer made his debut. Richard Hadlee started fairly inauspiciously with 2 for 112 in the first Test against Pakistan at Wellington, and after 17 Tests he averaged 35. If he had been English, he might not have played again. Thankfully for New Zealand, he did - against England, and a ten-for at Wellington in 1977-78 sparked a great career.

1992
An awful innings from Graham Gooch - and a matchwinning one too. Despite hardly middling a thing, Gooch somehow made 114 on a horrible Auckland pitch in the second Test against New Zealand. With Allan Lamb walloping a cheeky 33-ball 50, England were always in control. Their 168-run win made it four in a row - for the first time since 1979 - and confirmed New Zealand's first series defeat at home since 1978-79.

1961
In St Kitts, an England seamer with a Test average of exactly 20 is born. Joey Benjamin is a bit of a statistical freak, as he played only one Test, against South Africa at The Oval in 1994, when he was 33. A bustling, busy bowler, Benjamin took 4 for 42 in the first innings, helping England to a famous eight-wicket victory. He went on the Ashes tour that winter and played a couple of one-dayers, but never got near another Test appearance.

1988
David Boon saved the Bicentennial Test with a rugged, unbeaten 184 against England at Sydney. His 491-minute innings came after Australia had followed on, but on a pitch that was expected to turn, John Emburey and Eddie Hemmings toiled through 90 second-innings overs for one wicket. That's a strike rate of 540 balls per wicket.

1992
You can't keep a good man down. Boon got yet another Test ton today, against India at Perth, his third in successive Tests. The trampoline Perth bounce meant that 33 out of 36 wickets fell to catches in this match - a Test record. Despite a sumptuous first-innings century from the 19-year-old Sachin Tendulkar, Australia won it by 300 runs to clinch a 4-0 thrashing when India collapsed from 82 for 0 to 141 all out on the last day, with Mike Whitney taking 7 for 27.

1968
Birth of Aminul Islam, the Bangladeshi who made a century in his country's inaugural Test. He was the third person to do so, after Australia's Charles Bannerman and Zimbabwe's Dave Houghton, but like Bangladesh, Islam has struggled since that 145, which came against India at Dhaka in November 2000.

Other birthdays
1954 Jayantha Amerasinghe (Sri Lanka)
1969 Ijaz Ahmed jr (Pakistan)
1977 Peter Ochieng (Kenya)

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