On This Day

[The Professor]

England were pretty dominant in that series , which they won 4-0 and would have been 5 if not for a washed out day in the fourth Test ... though it was actually in 1962 ... by 1964 Trueman was taking his 300th...

Actually the England team was quite strong all round then - Statham didn't play in this Test but he was generally opening with Fred ; and Coldwell was a decent back up. David Allen a sometimes under-rated spinner. And as AC says , very strong batting.

Whoops

[The Professor]

On this day in 1962 Tom Graveney was dominant in leading England to a heady lead.

On Day Two of the test Tom Graveney added to his 23 from Day One and, almost single handedly, pushed England to a heady total. England batsmen 5 through 10 scored a combined 32 at an average of 6.2. Fred Trueman was the only batsmen to offer Graveney some fraternity and stuck around for a partnership of 76 at the tail. Graveney did not carry his bat, despite the fact he deserved to. He was last out after having batted beautifully for just over four hours and his 153 included twenty-two 4's. England's total was 370 - 270 ahead of Pakistan's total.

Pakistan's second innings did not get of to as bad a start as their first innings did....but it was still bad. Whereas Pakistan's first four wickets went for the gain of 31 runs in the first innings, in the second they got 77. Len Coldwell got two of the wickets; the others going for David Allen and Fred Trueman.

Javed Burki and Nasim-ul-Ghani came together for the last half an hour of play and played competently - ending unopposed on 15 and 13 respectively. Pakistan were on 103/4 - 167 behind England.

[The Professor]

On this day in 1962 Pakistan put up a strong fight but still ended up the losers of the second Test.

If England expected to blow Pakistan over before lunch, they would have found their plans thwarted. As the morning session went on the target became less to get Pakistan all out and more to break the fifth wicket partnership of Nasim-ul-Ghani and Javed Burki. Their partnership of 197 was, at the time, the highest partnership for the fifth wicket in Pakistan Test history.

Both played exceptionally well and hit plentiful boundaries. Both were dismissed in short order by Len Coldwell. They had progressed the score from 77-4 to 299-6. The tail conformed to type with low unimpressive scores. Coldwell and Fred Trueman tidied up the lower order batsmen, claiming two wickets each. This saw Coldwell finish with 6-85 in the innings and 9-116 overall. Trueman had 9-116. Pakistan were all out for 355 - a surprise lead of 85.

England had an hour and a half left of the day to polish this off. Initially, they did not seem overly fussed with reaching the target on Day Three. When Colin Cowdrey was dismissed for 36, the partnership of Ted Dexter and Micky Stewart motored and buried the day bagging 50 in twenty minutes.

[The Professor]

On this day in 1896 WG Grace finished his first test at Lord's with a tricky victory over Australia.

On the start of Day Three, England needed a mere 109 runs to win. This was made somewhat trickier by the fact that the whole of the morning session was washed out. This put a bit of pressure on the English batsmen which was exacerbated by the fact that the rain had changed the condition of the pitch.

Departing captain Grace and Bob Abel both got out cheaply, soon followed by Tom Hayward. With the score at 42-3 England were still in the driving seat. Jack Brown and Andrew Stoddart put on a partnership of 40. However this was not without chances for the Australians. Life could have been made much tougher for England if the Australians had put their mind to it. Overall the game was wrapped up by England just after tea.

[The Professor]

On this day in 1983 underdogs India defeat West Indies to win the World Cup.

Clive Lloyd won the toss and asked India to bat. India started poorly, losing Sunil Gavaskar for just two runs. From this point the West Indies bowling attack set out their stall. They were going to bowl low and dangerously, making runs hard to get and balls hard to account for. Kris Srikkanth found the formula soon enough and began to hit boundaries but was next man out.

Before lunch Mohinder Amarnath and Yashpal Sharma were both out too. The latter was a big loss as he looked to be dominating the play during his spell.

After lunch all Indian batsmen disappointed. Kapil Dev found a fielder on 15. Sandeep Patel lost concentration and got out for 27. The only saving grace for India was a total run haul of 42 scored by the final three batsmen. Even with this late contribution, 183 seemed somewhat under baked.

Just as India had, West Indies started poorly. Opener Gordon Greenidge went too big, far far too soon and got out for 1, bowled by Balwinder Sandhu. Viv Richards then took the game by the scruff of the neck powering his side to a quick fire fifty, dragging Desmond Haynes along with him. He was finally out for 33, caught spectacularly by Dev. West Indies were 57-3.

Wickets began to fall quickly. Madan Lal, who had claimed Richards, then got Haynes and Larry Gomes in short order. Between the loss of Richards and the loss of Gomes, only three runs had been scored. India had stopped the West Indies in their tracks.

Lloyd was caught just before tea and Faoud Bacchus just after to leave West Indies on 76-6. The partnership of Jeff Dujon and Malcolm Marshall proved tricky to break but when Amarnath sent them back one after the other the West Indies tail, had nothing to offer.

[The Professor]

On this day in 1928 a stolid West Indian tail put the fear of God into England however they did not avoid defeat on Day Three of the first test.

West Indies needed 171 to make England bat again. Yesterday wickets aplenty tumbled and West Indues lost six batsmen before the end of play however today their tail wagged prodigiously. Joe Small and Clifford Roach were the first to upset England with a partnership of 56 for the seventh wicket. Maurice Tate sent Roach back and England may have felt like they were on the verge of winding the West Indies up however the partnership of Small and Snuffy Brown added a further 47. When that partnership was broken, this time by Vallance Jupp, England had opened up the game and when Jupp dismissed George Francis for a duck in the same over it was a matter of time before West Indies caved.

England eventually won by an innings and 58 runs.

[The Professor]

On this day in 1936 Indian and English wickets tumble on Day One of the test.

After an evening of heavy rain the sun was beating down on Lord's and England captain, Gubby Allen, won the toss and put India in to bat. This was in the hope that the pitch would hinder the roll of the ball. India's openers made this decision look a poor one. Vijay Merchant and Dattaram Hindlekar scored 62 together- Allen clean bowling Merchant. From here wickets began to tumble.

In the same over Allen sent Mushtaq Ali back for a duck and soon after Hindlekar went off Walter Robins, rendering India 64-3. An Indian freefall then took place. No partnership higher than 19 was registered from here. India scored 62 before losing a wicket and were out for a further 85 runs. Allen did the most damage adding three more wickets to his early salvo for England. India were all out for 147.

England had almost three hours to bat before the close of the first day and they failed to impress as well. Where Allen was the star for England, Amar Singh absolutely decimated the England top order. In his first nine overs he took the top four English wickets for the gain of just 13 runs. When England were 41-5 it looked like India's total might be more than ample to give them a first innings lead; however a 6th wicket partnership between James Langridge and Maurice Leyland steadied the ship. Leyland was the last of the established batsmen to still be hanging around but was rapidly running out of partners to help him. He and Leyland stayed together fifty minutes and added 55 runs. When Langridge fell, Leyland still went marching on and looked like he might last the day. He was out in the dying embers of the game, another victim of Singh. He had batted nearly two hours and was seventh out at 129. At the end of the day England were 15 runs behind with three wickets to fall.

[The Professor]

On this day in 1936 there was a rest day between England and India. For India this would have been a rest day from the cricket but not a rest from the in fighting that was threatening to tear the team apart. The biggest victim of this in fighting was already back in India: Lala Amarnath.

Amarnath was a player of great renown - at the age of 25 he had already scored 613 runs and bagged 32 wickets. The England tour should have been a great success for him...but it was not to be so.

Amarnath was sent home under very spurious conditions. In a warm-up game he was made to pad up by the captain, the Maharajah of Vizianagram, before being made to wait for a succession of batsmen to come in before him. This infuriated him. On his return to the pavilion, he muttered something in Punjabi underneath his breath and threw his pads back into his bag. The team manager, Major Jack Brittain-Jones, summoned Amarnath later that day and handed him a letter that told a bewildered Amarnath that he was being sent him home, that he had one night left at the hotel and had been booked on the next ship back to India the next day.

The effect of this was far reaching. The rest of the Indian team rallied around Amarnath and many demanded to Brittain-Jones that he should reverse his decision. This fell on deaf ears. Even in India reactions were high. The Cricket Board of India, allegedly, had attempted to draw up a way of intercepting the boat and returning Amarnath to England.

On his return to India he was given a hero's welcome - which is not what he had expected at all. Before he had even unpacked his toothbrush, board officials told him he would be back on a boat to England with the expectations that he would play the Second Test.

This is when it all gets a bit John Le Carre. Both Vizianagram and Brittain-Jones had connections in British politics, most notably Lord Willingdon. Willingdon used his contacts who in turn put pressure on the chief figure of the Indian Cricket Board, one Nawab of Bhopal. They said that if Armanath was to return to England Nawab would lose his position as ruler of Bhopal. Bhopal caved and a furious Amarnath stayed in India.

A year later an inquest was opened about the Amarnath incident. The Indian all-rounder was found not guilty of any of the charges laid down by Vizianagram and Brittain-Jones.

If there is any justice in this story it is in the fact that Vizianagram never played cricket again after 1937 whilst Amaranth's cricket career lasted until 1952.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Some great names gives this a bit of a Ripping Yarns feel. Excellent entry 365.

[Arthur Crabtree]

A year later an inquest was opened about the Amarnath incident. The Indian all-rounder was found not guilty of any of the charges laid down by Vizianagram and Brittain-Jones.

So the BCCI over-ruled.

[hopeforthebest]

Great stuff 365.

[The Professor]

On this day in 1936 another wicket heavy day plays out between England and India.

When play ended on Saturday, England needed 15 runs and had three wickets to get it. After play started at half past two due to rain they managed only 2 runs before they were all out.

India came back in and followed the pattern of the game. They were soon four wickets down for 28 runs - even this included a score of 17 from Dattaram Hindlekar. Gubby Allen got all four of these wickets - taking his tally in the game to nine.

The rot continued to set in as rain started to drizzle down over Lord's - England got another three wickets before the day reached it's premature close. This time it was Hedley Verity who got a run of wickets to his name after claiming the scalps of Amar Singh, Phiroze Palia and Jahangir Khan. India were 80-7 at the close of play - a lead of 93.

[The Professor]

On this day in 1936 England tied up the test despite further rain.

With rain falling until half past three, Sri Lanka would have held out hope for a draw but were hampered by their tail end. Their last three batsmen were all sent back for the gain of just ten more runs. Hedley Verity bagged two of these, taking his innings total to 4-17.

England needed 107 to win the match and it looked like the second innings may revert to type when Arthur Mitchell was sent back for a duck. Despite this, England managed to stem the flow with Harold Gimblett and Maurice Turnbull getting the highest partnership of the match - 108.

England tied up an impressive win - for time rather than form with half an hour left.

[The Professor]

On this day in 2015 Durham hosted Northamptonshire in a T20 game.

Calum MacLeod and Phil Mustard set Durham off to a great start after the loss of Mark Stoneham for a duck. Their partnership of 84 put Durham's innings on the right track. MacLeod was particularly impressive - specifically targeting David Willey, however he had no time for any of the bowlers and treated them with equal disdain. He was eventually dispatched through the spin of Josh Cobb for 60 runs off 32 balls.

With MacLeod gone Mustard started to show his fire. He went to his fifty off 34 balls with a six - but fell just one run later.

It seems that lady luck was not with Northamptonshire from the outset. Paul Collingwood was dropped twice on his way to 27. Overall Durham got 174.

Northamptonshire were a victim of circumstance. Their innings were beset with bad light, rain and poor batting. The visitors were soon 47-5. The only Northamptonshire player to do anything of note was Richard Levi who got 26, whilst those around him fell. He was the only Northamptonshire batsman to get into double figures. The rain further hampered them when Messrs Duckworth and Lewis got involved. After a period of rain it was deemed that Northamptonshire needed 84 runs off four overs. As the light became truly abysmal, both teams decided that to play on any further would be a farce and called it a day.

[The Professor]

On this day in 1964 England's batting was slightly underwhelming on the first day of the Third Test of the Ashes.

Ted Dexter won the toss and put England in. Despite the early loss of John Edrich for three, England started well with first Geoff Boycott and then Ken Barrington forming good partnerships with Dexter. The England captain was the cornerstone of the morning session - playing bravely and decisively.

After lunch, England suffered something of a collapse. By three o'clock Australia had dismissed Dexter, Barrington and Ken Taylor. Neil Hawke was the main dangerman for the Aussies in this spell, claiming two wickets with his intelligent angled bowling. Jim Parks came in and steadied the ship before tea but, when Hawke returned in the evening session, he bagged his wicket and then gutted the tail dismissing England for 268.

Bad light stopped play before Australia could bat.