1995
In the course of his 254 not out for Gloucestershire v Glamorgan, 20-year-old Andrew Symonds used the short boundaries at Abergavenny to hit 16 sixes, a world record for a first-class innings. He hit another four sixes in the second innings to set up another record of 20 in the match. Born in Birmingham but brought up in Australia, he turned down an offer to play for England A and instead has played one-day internationals for Australia, though he's still waiting for a Test call-up.

1952
Birth of the first captain to lead Sri Lanka to victory in a Test. Duleep Mendis was in charge when India were beaten at Colombo's Sara Stadium in 1985-86. A stocky big-hitting batsman, he scored 111 and 94 in Sri Lanka's Test debut at Lord's in 1984 and is the only batsman to make identical scores of over 100 in the same Test: 105 and 105 at Madras in 1982-83.

1968
Death of sparkling Australian batsman Stan McCabe, who played two of the most famous innings in Ashes Tests. He hit an explosive 187 not out at Sydney in 1932-33, the ultimate defiance in the face of Bodyline - and his 232 at Trent Bridge in 1938 was so good that Don Bradman insisted the rest of the team go out onto the balcony to watch it. Genial Stan was out to the first ball he faced in club and state cricket. He was dismissed by his second ball in Tests, having hit the first for four!

1986
Is this what being an allrounder means? Playing against New Zealand at The Oval, Ian Botham hit 24 runs off an over by Derek Stirling. This equalled a Test record first set by Andy Roberts – off Botham himself in 1980-81.

1928
The description "long-serving" might have been invented for Ken Suttle, who was born today. An opening batsman who scored 30,225 first-class runs, he set a record that still stands by playing in 423 consecutive County Championship matches for Sussex from 1954 to 1969.

1898
Birth of Yorkshire wicketkeeper Arthur Wood, who treated us to one of the great lines in Test cricket. Making his Test debut against Australia at The Oval in 1938, he went in to bat with England 770 for 6. "Aye," quoth he, "I'm always at me best in a crisis." True to his word, he made 53.

1948
It was always likely that Don Bradman would make his last innings at Lord's a memorable one. According to Wisden, he "threw away his wicket" after reaching 150 - then declared Australia's innings at 610 for 5. They beat the Gentlemen by an innings.

1973
A bomb scare held up play for an hour and a half at Lord's. The delay couldn't save England: the lost time was made up, and their defeat at the hands of West Indies by an innings and 226 runs cost them the series 2-0.

Other birthdays
1906 Jim Smith (England)
1957 Sikander Bakht (Pakistan)
1962 Shahid Mahboob (Pakistan)
1965 Sanjeev Sharma (India)
1969 Vivek Razdan (India)
1976 Javed Qadir (Pakistan)

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