1996
At the age of 18, in only his second first-class match, Wasim Jaffer hammered an unbeaten 314 for Mumbai in their Ranji Trophy match against Saurashtra at Rajkot. No-one else has ever made a triple-hundred so early in their career. For good measure, Jaffer added 457 for the first wicket with Sulakshan Kulkarni.

1994
The curious case of the missing luggage held up the one-dayer between West Indies and India at Visakhapatnam. West Indies' kit was wrongly routed to Madras, and by the time the problem was eventually sorted out there was only time for 44 overs apiece. It was a cracking match, though. India hurtled to 260 for 4, with Navjot Sidhu making an unbeaten 114, and West Indies were docked an over for their sluggish over rate. It proved crucial, as they fell only four runs short, despite a brilliant 47-ball 74 from Carl Hooper.

1979
India clinched their first series victory over Australia with a thumping victory in the sixth Test at Bombay. Going into the match 1-0 down, Australia had to win to square the series, but Sunil Gavaskar and Chetan Chauhan closed the door with an opening partnership of 192. Gavaskar and Syed Kirmani made hundreds (Kirmani was only the third nightwatchman to do so in a Test), and No. 9 Karsan Ghavri iced the cake with a rumbustious 86 to take the score to 458. With no hope of victory, Australia subsided meekly. In the first innings just Graham Yallop (60) passed 25, in the second only Allan Border (61) and Kim Hughes (80) reached double figures, and India wrapped up victory by an innings and 100 runs, with a day to spare. The Aussies haven't won a series in India since.

1951
A sterling rearguard action from Allan Watkins (137*) salvaged a draw for England in the first Test against India at Delhi. It was close to an England A side (there was no Hutton, May, Compton, Laker or Bedser) and India came mighty close to grabbing their first Test win after taking a first-innings lead of 215. After that it was good old-fashioned attritional stuff: England ended with 368 for 6 from 221 overs, with left-arm spinner Vinoo Mankad returning the staggering figures of 76-47-58-4.

1876
When you're on a hat-trick the last thing you expect to see is a batsman give you the charge. But that's exactly what happened to Charles Townsend, who was born today, when he became the only man ever to take a first-class hat-trick of stumpings, for Gloucestershire against Somerset at Cheltenham in 1893, when William Brain stumped the last man Ted Tyler. Townsend, whose son David also played for England, was a fine allrounder, a left-handed dasher and an economical legspinner, but he only played two Tests, both against Australia in 1899. He died in Durham in 1958.

1889
Birth of Lord Lionel Tennyson, who played nine Tests for England between 1913 and 1921. He was a lusty hitter who captained England in his last three Tests, all against Australia. His fearlessness and bravery were best shown in the third Test at Headingley in 1921, when he withstood the pain of a split hand to make 63 and 36. He also played for Hampshire (whose wicketkeeper, Walter Livsey, was also his butler) for 23 years, and he hammered 217 for them against the West Indians at Southampton in 1928. He died in 1951.

Other birthdays
1874 Joseph Willoughby (South Africa)
1876 Ted Arnold (England)
1889 Dusty Tapscott (South Africa)
1896 Cyril Allcott (New Zealand)
1961 Ron Hart (New Zealand)
1962 Wayne N Phillips (Australia)
1966 Murphy Su'a (New Zealand)
1972 Tanvir Mehdi (Pakistan)
1979 Manjural Islam (Bangladesh)
1980 James Franklin (New Zealand)

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