On This Day

[The Professor]

On this day in 1964 only rain can be blamed for a lack of result as England and Australia have to settle for a draw.

Yesterday's partnership of Dexter and Fred Titmus did not last long into the final day. Dexter came out and played more aggressively than his partner, gained 12 runs and was then sent back by Graham McKenzie. The Perth man also accounted for Titmus too who went back after Dexter but for the gain of only 4 runs.

Ken Barrington and Colin Cowdrey then combined to put together England's defining partnership of the last day; scoring 52 runs between them in a pretty equally weighted knock. It was a decent test for the two of them and theyhave saved England in both innings of the game. Yet again the aggressor went first, Barrington for 33 in 57 balls. Phil Sharpe then joined Cowdrey and tried to replicate the style of Barrington but fell for 19.

Here there began a spell of wickets where England went from 179-5 to 193-9. Batsmen 5 through 9 scored a combined total of 15, with none of them getting into double figures.

Seeing the way the tide was turning, Dexter declared with a lead of 241 which Australia had just under four hours to get. Australia failed to rise to this challenge, with the exception being Norm O'Neill who took it as batting practice - in one memorable over he carted Fred Trueman for 4 in 4 successive balls. The rest of the top 6 batsmen did not get above single figures, 6 being the highest other score.

Rain returned to ruin the final day for everyone and stopped any miracle victory for the Aussies. The First test was drawn.

[The Professor]

On this day in 1948 the first test of the 1948 Ashes began with a disappointing batting performance from England.

If the opening session of a test sets the tone for the rest of the series, England have found themselves in a spot of bother. After a rained off first session, England found themselves 15-2 through the loss of Len Hutton and Cyril Washbrook.

Bill Edrich and Dennis Compton put up a bit of a resistance for a third wicket partnership of 31 but the wheels really came off after that.

Joe Hardstaff, Charlie Barnett, Norman Yardley and Godfrey Evans all scored a combined 23 runs. This left England on a fairly worrying 74-8 before tea.

After tea, England's best partnership of Alec Bedser and Jim Laker put on a partnership of 89. The two Surrey batsmen played as if they did not know the score and revitalised the flagging innings. It took them just over an hour to double the score.

By far the best bowling figures of the day would go to Bill Johnston for his 25--11--36--5, however Keith Miller also bagged three wickets out of the first five.

Less than half an hour remained for Australia to bat and Sid Barnes and Arthur Morris played it safe and stood undefeated on 6 and 10 respectively by the end of the day's play.

[The Professor]

On this day in 1948 Australia go way out in front on Day Three.

Don Bradman, 130 over night, could not last any more than three overs of the mornings play before being caught by Len Hutton off Alan Bedser.

The next target for England was to remove Lindsay Hassett. Ian Johnson and Don Tallon, batting at 7 and 8 respectively, offered little resistance. The pair accrued only 31 runs between them before being Jim Laker's fourth and Jack Young's first wicket respectively. Despite this Hassett was scoring well and aggressively and he found a partner in the form of Ray Lindwall. The eighth wicket stand added 107 before Bedser clean bowled Hassett on 137 - his fiftieth wicket in Test cricket. Lindwall fell shortly after for 42.

Further frustration was caused by the last wicket partnership of 33 between Bill Johnson and Ernie Toshack. Bedser finally got his third wicket and sent Toshack back to end Australia's innings on 509 - 354 runs ahead.

England's frustration in the field was compounded by frustration with the bat. Yet again, Australia got off to a flier of a start when, in the second over, Cyril Washbrook tried to hook a Keith Miller delivery but nipped it behind for Tallon. Bill Edeich lasted a little bit longer but was gone after 13 runs, leaving England on 39-2.

Len Hutton and Denis Compton set about consolidating an innings that seemed to be sliding away from England. Hutton reached 50 with two successive 4's off Miller in an over which produced 14 runs. Miller tried to adapt his style of play but ended up striking Hutton three times in five deliveries, much to the displeasure of the Nottinghamshire crowd. Hutton and Compton scored 82 together in the last seventy minutes and stand undefeated on 63 and 36 respectively. England are 121/2 - 233 behind Australia.

[The Professor]

On this day in 1948 England and Australia had a rest day - the penultimate rest day that Don Bradman would ever have.

This seems an apposite time to share one of my favourite Don Bradman stories.

Don Bradman once scored 100 runs in 3 overs. The match was played in the Blue Mountains town of Blackheath between Blackheath and Lithgow to commemorate the opening of their concrete wicket. Bradman and his New South Wales team-mate O.Wendell Bill were guests in the Blackheath Team. The game was played in December 1931 and Bradman made 256 comprising 14 sixes & 29 fours. Midway through the innings he walked down to Wendell Bill (his batting partner) and said ‘I think I’ll have a go’.

Over the next three overs his scoring shots were;

1st Over; 66424461 (33)
2nd Over 64466464 (40)
3rd Over 16611446 (27) & 2 to Wendell Bill.

Wendell Bill scored singles on the first & fifth balls of the 3rd Over. At the time 8-ball overs were the convention.

Bradman later wrote;

‘It is important I think to emphasise that the thing was not planned. It happened purely by accident and everyone was surprised at the outcome, none more so than I.’

[The Professor]

On this day in 1948 England batted through the day and the gloom.

Len Hutton and Denis Compton both continued with the dominance that they showed at the back end of Day Three, however rain hampered any development beyond the first few overs of the morning session.

After the rain delay Keith Miller, the pantomime villain of Day Three, clean bowled the pantomime hero, Hutton, sending him back for 74. This patch of cricket got in the way of another rain storm which caused the players to withdraw - mostly for bad light. The umpires brought them back out an hour later in, what many considered to be, abysmally poor light. Compton was joined by Joe Hardstaff, the latter helping the former to reach his third century in successive Tests.

Hardstaff never looked comfortable but got a streaky 43 only to be sent back by Ernie Toshack. Charlie Barnett never looked comfortable and only managed to get 6 before Ian Johnston removed him, caught by Miller. The score was 264-5.

Norman Yardley offered Compton a bit of assistance with a partnership of 57 before he was caught and bowled by Johnston.

At the end of the day's play it was 345/6 with Compton on 154 and Godfrey Evans on 10.

[The Professor]

On this day in 148 England faced an uphill battle to claim anything from the Test.

As Denis Compton and Godfrey Evans walked to the middle they knew their team were only one run ahead with a mere four wickets left - their only hope was the fine form of Compton.

The partnership of Compton and Evans lasted all morning; until, just before lunch, Compton was caught in two minds to a ball from Keith Miller. In the process of this he lost his balance and stumbled into his own wicket. This was a tragic way of ending Compton's highest ever Test score against Australia.

With the departure of Compton, England soon folded. Evans bagged himself a half century, but the last three batsmen out, Jim Laker, Alan Bedser and Jack Young, could only muster 16 between them. This left England 441 all out.

Australia needed just 98 to win with just under two sessions to get it.

Bedser did not make it a walk over for Australia, claiming the wickets of Arthur Morris for 9 and Don Bradman for a duck. Despite this Sid Barnes and Lindsay Hassett soon struck up a fine partnership, as they did in the first innings and soon wrapped up the victory.

The victory came a little sooner for Barnes, however. After making a boundary stroke Barnes thought the game was over when the scores were level, and he snatched a stump before racing towards the pavilion. Barnes was halfway up the pavilion steps when the shouts of the crowd made him realise the error and he returned to the crease. When Hassett did make the winning hit another scramble for souvenirs took place; and in this Barnes was unlucky.

[The Professor]

On this day in 1932 Percy Holmes and Herbert Sutcliffe broke the record at that time for highest opening partnership in cricket.

Charlie Bray and his Essex team were aunder the cosh when they reached Leyton for the match against Yorkshire. Only the day before, Surrey had chased down 252 against them for the loss of one wicket. All Bray would have wanted was to win the toss and bat. He didn't and they didn't.As Percy Holmes and Herbert Sutcliffe walked out to bat, the Essex fielders had no idea whatsoever about what was about to follow.

As you can imagine the batting spanned two days and the record was broken on today, the second day of the match. At stumps on Day One Yorkshire were 423 without the loss of a single wicket with Sutcliffe on 231 and Holmes on 150.

A huge crowd had gathered at Essex’s home ground to cheer for Sutcliffe and Holmes as they took on the challenge to go past the existing world record for the first wicket — 554 set by Jack Brown and John Tunnicliffe against Derbyshire at Chesterfield in 1898. A slight dampener was put on proceedings when Sellers, the Yorkshire captain, had announced that he would declare at 1 PM.

The pair continued from where they left off. At 245, Sutcliffe reached a thousand runs for the season, and when he got to 256, he went past his previous First-Class best. Sutcliffe soon went past his first triple-hundred. George Eastman bowled the fateful bowl and Sutcliffe pulled him for a four to bring up the magic figure of 555. As is often the case with big landmarks, he was bowled the very next ball for 313 with 33 fours and a six, and Sellers declared immediately; Holmes remained unbeaten on 224 with 19 fours. The partnership had lasted 465 minutes.

[The Professor]

On this day in 1999 a game that many consider to be the best ODI in history was played out between Australia and South Africa.

South Africa won the toss and chose to field in, what he considered to be, seaming conditions. Whilst their opening batsmen did not set the world alight, the middle order partnership of Steve Waugh and Michael Bevan garnered a precious 90 runs to bolster their score. Shaun Pollock and Allan Donald were the chief destroyers of the Australia top and lower order getting 5-36 and 4-32 respectively.

South Africa began with a good partnership. Gary Kirsten and Herschelle Gibbs got 48 runs before Steve Waugh skittled them both out. Wickets then came thick and fast as South Africa went from 53-2 to 61-4. Jacques Kallis and Jonty Rhodes managed to put the wheels back on it with a partnership of 84, that took South Africa to within 40 runs of victory.

Then came the final over. South Africa needed nine runs to win. Lance Klusener was on strike and Allan Donald was at the other end. Australia chose Darren Fleming to bowl. The first ball went for four runs. The second ball followed suit and Australia needed just one more run. Australia brought up the field. The third ball of the over was a huge miss hit from Klusener, however Donald was backing up which caused Darren Lehman to shy the ball to the stumps which would have got the last man out if he had hit the stumps. The fourth ball was dealt with in a similar way to the third. Klusener mis-hit to Mark Waugh at mid off. For some reason Klusener went for the run, even though the chances of a run out were high and there were still two balls remaining. Klusener sprinted down the pitch while Donald was watching the ball instead of his partner and did not hear the call to run. Waugh threw the ball to Fleming who rolled it along the pitch to Adam Gilchrist. Donald was run out by some distance for a duck.

The game was tied. The tie meant that South Africa failed to reach the final despite being in a much stronger position for much of the game. Many spectators were left scratching their head unsure as to what had happened.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Wonder if Lance was the first 'lower order hitter' a batter tucked down at seven to flail the bowlers in the last ten-twenty? SA had a bit of a tradition in that regard, with Kemp, then Albie.

Wonder why Lance lost it so suddenly.

[The Professor]

On this day in 2015 Bangladesh stunned India to win the first ODI of their series.

It was an impressive day all round for the Bangladesh players.

Bangladesh won the toss and elected to bat. Tamim Iqbal and Soumya Sarkar started brightly with a partnership of 102 runs. The pair reached their 100 off only 79 balls. They played confidently and were well in control for the opening overs. The partnership was only broken up through some indecisive running that saw Suresh Raina stump Sarkar for 54.

Rain then stopped play for an hour. On their return out spin was turned to and Ravi Ashwin claimed three wickets in four overs, including Iqbal on 60. Shakib Al Hassan and Sabbir Rahman got the show back on the road with a partnership of 83 before Ravindra Jadeja bowled Sabbir. Shakib would add 14 more before perishing to Umesh Yadav.

Yadav and Bhuvneshwar Kumar were the heroes of the death overs; tightening up the bowling and claiming four wickets between them. It was not enough to stop Bangladesh ticking over 300.

A key moment in the chase came in the tenth and eleventh overs when Rohit Sharma reached his fifty and Shikhar Dhawan was dropped twice. It looked like fortune was swinging away from Bangladesh. It was Taskin Ahmed who brought it back by removing Dhawan and Virat Kohli in the same over. The Bangladesh bowlers went about strangling the life out of the Indian attack.

It was debutant Mustafizur Rahman who will remember this match most fondly. He dislodged Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane before going on to claim a five-fer. He ended the game prematurely by getting Raina and Ravi Ashwin out off successive balls. The only other Bangladesh bowler to get a fivefer on debut was playing alongside him; Taskin Ahmed.


The 79-run victory was only their fourth against India,

[The Professor]

On this day in 2012 England soundly beat West Indies to claim the ODI series.

More dangerous things may of been expected from the West Indies as Chris Gayle seemed in fine form. Gayle's 41-ball fifty with five sixes in 11 deliveries including three in a row in Tim Bresnan's first over seemed set to propel the West Indies to a big target. Graeme Swann was brought on, unusually early, and first of all strangled Gayle and then got him lbw.

Lendl Simmons failed to find similar form and, when he was left the main man, the run rate dropped dramatically. His frustration lost him his wicket, Alistair Cook hitting his wicket directly as he was scrambling for a single.

When Dwayne Smith and Marlon Samuels got out cheaply for 0 and 13 respectively it seemed West Indies may crumble to an embarrassing score. This was avoided by a partnership of 100 from Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard. However when that partnership was broken up in the 39th over, England retained their dominance again.

The chasing performance was led by Cook's century off 144 balls. Cook was dominant from the off and seemed confident, almost to the point of arrogance. Ian Bell was also in sumptuous form in the middle to set England off to a flyer. His fifty came off sixty balls. It helped that the West Indies bowling attack didn't really have much to offer.

[The Professor]

On this day in 1981 Taufeeq Umar was born.

Umar was a mainstay of the Pakistan Test team in the early 2000s, only missing two of 24 Tests played between August 2001 and April 2004. he was a dynamic batsmen, oftentimes compared to Rahul Dravid. His average was 48.03 after he made four scores above 50 in the two-Test series with South Africa.

He lost his place in 2004 after a torrid spell in a series against India and went back to the domestic Pakistani leagues.

In 2009 he had a spell in England playing for Lancaster Cricket Club in the Northern League.

Somewhat out of the he was called up into the Pakistan team once more in 2010, 6 years after his last game for the national side. He made his comeback against South Africa, a team he has done so well against before. Against West Indies, he scored a century and then a double hundred against Sri Lanka at UAE. He has again become a regular part of Test squad as an opener.

[The Professor]

On this day in 1964 Pakistan rolled over in their first innings of the Second Test vs England.

Javed Burki, the Pakistan captain, won the toss and elected to bat first despite the green pitch. Fred Trueman took the most advantage of this and looked lively from the off. Trueman, ably supported by Len Coldwell, saw Pakistan to 76-6 at lunch. The highest score of the morning session had been Hanif Mohammed's 13. The average score was 8. Truman had got 3 of the wickets, Coldwell 2 and Ted Dexter chipping in with one further wicket. The wicket of Burki proved a milestone for Trueman - his 200th in Test cricket.

Straight after lunch Pakistan lost their seventh man, before a decent partnership was formed between Wallis Mathias and Nasim-ul-Ghani. Their seventh wicket partnership of 26 forced Pakistan to a score that was embarrassing rather than abysmal. Characteristically Trueman broke up this partnership, his fourth wicket of the day. The last spell of defiance came from a score of 13 from last man out Mohammad Farooq, when Trueman got him out he wrapped up the Pakistan innings. They were all out for 100 within 43.4 overs. Trueman finished with six for 31.

The opening stand of Colin Cowdrey and Micky Stewart showed their dominance at the start of the England innings with the former being the most dominant. Cowdrey scored 41 of the 59 runs from the opening stand before being dismissed. Stewart never looked overly comfortable and had to be supported by Ted Dexter after the first drop. Dexter's boundary filled 65 took just over an hour and a half.

Pakistan had a small spell of dominance to close the day, when Farooq dismissed Dexter and Ken Barrington in successive balls. Tom Graveney came in and became the dominant one in a partnership established with David Allen. At the close of the day England were 176-4. A lead of 76.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Strong England batting side. Didn't know Cowdrey opened.

[alfie]

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.