1984
At Headingley, the beginning of a swift and famous one-handed demolition job. With his left thumb in plaster, and having been advised not to play cricket for ten days, Malcolm Marshall came in at No. 11 to shepherd Larry Gomes to a century - he even swished one to third man for four - and then shattered England's second innings. Marshall took 7 for 53, operating off a shorter run-up, as England subsided from 104 for 2 to 159 all out. Wisden Cricket Monthly described his performance as, "Fairytale or nightmare, take your choice." For England, the nightmare was just beginning - they were two Tests away from being blackwashed for the first time.

1967
A nuggety left-hander is born. Hashan Tillekeratne's career at the highest level looked to be over until he was recalled to the Sri Lankan side in 2001-02. Them came the purplest of patches. In five Tests against India, Bangladesh and West Indies, he made 549 runs and was only dismissed once. An accumulator who has acted as a complement to the likes of Aravinda de Silva and Mahela Jayawardene, Tillekeratne can be very hard to shift when set - over a fifth of his Test innings have been not out. His runs usually matter, though: he averages 74 when Sri Lanka win, 29 when they lose.

1933
The slowest torture for Essex at Leyton, as Yorkshire's Hedley Verity skittled them for 104 and 64 - in the same day. Verity took 8 for 47 and 9 for 44, and even though he took 15 wickets five times in his career, he never bettered his 17 for 91 here. The only man to reach 20 for Essex was Dudley Pope. He made 34 in the first innings - and was run out.

1937
Birth of a teenage one-cap wonder. Khalid Hassan was only 16 years 352 days old when he lined up for Pakistan against at Trent Bridge in 1954. Four days later his Test career was over, after 17 runs, 2 for 116 - and an innings defeat. One of his wickets was Denis Compton - bowled for 278. In all Hassan only played 17 first-class matches, the last of them at the age of 21.

1957
A two-Test wonder is born. New Zealand batsman Peter Webb didn't have the best career - 11 runs (off 86 balls) at an average of 3.66 - but he picked a decent pair of Tests to appear in. At Dunedin in 1979-80, the Kiwis beat West Indies by one wicket, and in an ill-tempered second Test at Christchurch, Colin Croft had an infamous run-in with the umpire Fred Goodall. Webb was dropped for the last Test, but New Zealand drew the match and took the series - they were the last side to beat West Indies for 15 years.

1873
An all-run 10. Lancashire's Albert "Monkey" Hornby made 20 of his side's total of 100 against Surrey at The Oval - and half of them came in one fell swoop.

Other birthdays

1982 Ranjan Das (Bangladesh)

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