1997
The highest score in one-day international history. Saeed Anwar battered India in the Independence Cup match at Chennai, smearing 194 off only 146 balls in Pakistan's 35-run victory. None of his team-mates got more than 39. It might have helped that he had Shahid Afridi as a runner from the 19th over - Anwar was free to concentrate on bashing boundaries, and he did: there were 22 fours and five sixes, three of them off consecutive deliveries from Anil Kumble.

1993
Another brutal one-day display, this time the highest score in England's one-day international history. Robin Smith's violent 167 not out at Edgbaston - the highest score anyone has made on the losing side in an ODI - started fairly sedately. He went to his first one-day hundred off 136 deliveries, but then careered to 150 in another 20 balls as Paul Reiffel (11-1-70-1) disappeared to all parts. Thanks to Smith, England made 277 for 5, but Australia overhauled the total with a chilling efficiency, coasting to victory with nine balls and six wickets to spare.

1867
Birth of JJ Ferris, the deadly left-arm swing bowler who played Test cricket for Australia and England. In his eight Tests for the Aussies, Ferris wreaked havoc alongside Charlie Turner. His first act as a Test player was to bowl England out for 45, at Sydney in 1886-87, when he and Turner bowled unchanged. He later settled in England, for whom he played one Test, at Cape Town in 1891-92. Ferris took 13 for 91 in the match, and ended up with 61 wickets at the amazing average of 12.70. He was only 33 when he died of enteric fever in Durban in 1900 during the Boer War.

1893
An England captain is born. Arthur Carr led England against Australia in 1926, when he pulled out of the fifth Test with tonsillitis and lost his job to Percy Chapman, and then South Africa three years later. He was a staunch advocate of Bodyline - he captained Harold Larwood and Bill Voce at Nottinghamshire - and his support for Larwood brought his career as a player and administrator to an early close in 1934. He died in Yorkshire in 1963.

1863
Birth of the fleet-footed Australian opener Jack Lyons, who played 14 Tests in the 19th century. A handsome driver but vulnerable against the spinners - England's slow left-armer Johnny Briggs nailed him seven times - he made his only Test hundred at Sydney in 1891-92, when England were beaten by 72 runs. But his best innings came against MCC on Australia's 1893 tour, when he cracked 149 not out in just 90 minutes. He died in Adelaide in 1927.

2000
Hoodoo, what hoodoo? England had only won four of their previous 23 Tests at Lord's, but they demolished Zimbabwe by an innings and 209 runs - their biggest victory for 26 years - as the first seven-Test summer in England got under way. The Zims never recovered from being reduced to 8 for 3 by Andy Caddick on the first morning, and Ed Giddins took 5 for 15 in only his second Test. Within a month Giddins was dropped. He's yet to return.

Other birthdays

1890 Harry Smith (England)
1906 Keith Rigg (Australia)
1929 Paul Winslow (South Africa)
1958 Monte Lynch (England)

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