1925
The second of the Three Ws is born in Barbados. Everton Weekes was a tremendously prolific batsman for West Indies after making his debut against England in 1947-48. He had a charming array of strokes all round the wicket. In 1948-49 he made a record five consecutive Test hundreds, and was only denied a sixth when he was rather controversially run out for 90 at Madras. Weekes got three in a row later in his career as well, against New Zealand in 1955-56, and ended with a mighty average of 58.62, which only George Headley among West Indians can beat. He was knighted in 1995.

1930
Talking of the great George Headley, his twin hundreds helped West Indies to their first Test win today, a thumping 289-run demolition of England at Georgetown. Headley cracked 114 and 112, while Learie Constantine finished England off with nine wickets.

1993
At 1.51pm in the first Test at Christchurch today, Allan Border pulled Dipak Patel for four and became the top scorer in Test history, overtaking Sunil Gavaskar's aggregate of 10,122. He'd been made to wait after bagging the only pair of his first-class career in Australia's previous Test, against West Indies. Here, Border's 88 anchored Australia's 485, the third-highest Test total not to include a century, and it was enough for an innings win. Shane Warne took seven wickets, while Merv Hughes nailed the big one - Martin Crowe - in both innings.

1922
Bill Johnston, who was born today, often played second fiddle to Ray Lindwall and Keith Miller in the post-war Australian side, but with 160 wickets at an average of 23, this was some back-up. Johnston flitted between left-arm seam and occasional spin, and set the tone for the Invincibles' all-conquering 1948 tour with 5 for 36 in the first innings of the first Test at Trent Bridge. Johnston didn't have many pretensions to batsmanship, but he hung around long enough with Doug Ring to win a thriller by one wicket against West Indies at the MCG in 1951-52. And in England in 1953, thanks to 16 not-outs in 17 innings, he topped the averages with a lofty 102, despite a top score of 28

1887
The first eight-for in Test history, by the great George Lohmann. His 8 for 35 helped demolish Australia for 84 at the SCG today, and in a match where all the other totals were bunched between 150 and 154, it was the key element in England's 71-run victory. In this short series Lohmann took 16 wickets at an average of 8.56: a fairytale for most bowlers, but for him it was only just above (or below) average.

1992
South Africa's first World Cup match following their return to the international cricket fold, and they quickly confirmed they'd be no pushovers by hammering the co-hosts Australia by nine wickets at Perth. For Australia - whose World Cup defence was fast turning into a farce - nobody passed 27, and South Africa, with debutants Hansie Cronje and Jonty Rhodes playing a part with a run-out apiece, had no problems at all in getting to their target of 171.

1980
He's always included in that great bracket of 1980s allrounders, but Richard Hadlee actually only made two Test hundreds (compared with Botham's 14, Kapil's eight and Imran's six), and one of those was against Sri Lanka. But the ton Hadlee scored against West Indies at Christchurch today was the real deal. He careered to his first Test hundred off 88 balls of the cleanest hitting against an attack that included Roberts, Holding, Garner and Croft. It was the fifth bowler, Collis King, who really bore the brunt though: he was left to nurse figures of 9-0-70-0.

2000
India may tour with all the zeal of Shane McGowan visiting a dentist, but not many teams beat them in a Test series in India. Today South Africa took a giant step towards becoming the first side to do so for 13 years with victory in the first Test at Mumbai. It was a tense, low-scoring affair, and looked to be going India's way when they took a first-innings lead of 49. But no bowler has dismissed Sachin Tendulkar more often in Tests than Hansie Cronje, who did it for the fifth and final time as India collapsed to 113. Chasing 163, South Africa were rocking at 128 for 6 when Mark Boucher seized the day: with Jacques Kallis a rock-solid anchor, Boucher whacked six boundaries in a 32-ball 27.

Other birthdays
1851 Mordecai Sherwin (England)
1867 Charles Coventry (England)
1941 Keith Thomson (New Zealand)
1971 Noel David (India)

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