1969
Birth of Chris Harris, whose cheery disposition and everyman quality made him a favourite in New Zealand. His improvised batting, wibbly-wobbly slow-medium bowling and brilliant fielding made him something of a one-day specialist, and no New Zealander has taken more ODI wickets - not even Richard Hadlee (158). The son of a Test player, Harris starred in NZ's successful 1992 World Cup campaign, taking 16 wickets at 21, but when he takes off the pyjamas he finds things a bit trickier - in Tests he averages under 20 with the bat and over 60 with the ball.

1971
Since he made his Test debut in 1992-93 Dion Nash, who was born today, has played 32 Tests and missed a further 45, mostly because of a series of back injuries. But for those injuries Nash might have been the second-greatest Kiwi wicket-taker of all time behind Hadlee (Nash has 93; Chris Cairns, in second place, has double that). He was a lively right-arm seamer, rugged and a real fighter who was not afraid to mix it with opposing batsmen. He could also chip in with the bat too, and in 1994 he became the first man to score a half-century and take ten wickets in a Lord's Test. Indeed Nash tended to save his best for England - he was central to NZ's shock triumph in 1999, and in seven Tests against the Poms he has 34 wickets at an average of 21. Injury finally forced him to retire early in 2002 at the age of 31.

1997
An increasingly ragged West Indies were thrashed out of sight by Pakistan in the first Test at Peshawar. They were simply hopeless against the wiles of Mushtaq Ahmed (10 for 106 in the match), and from the moment they slipped to 58 for 7 on the first morning there was only going to be one winner. After Inzamam-ul-Haq clubbed 92 to set up a first-innings lead of 230, Pakistan stormed home by an innings and 19 runs with almost five sessions to spare. It was their biggest victory over West Indies - until the next match, which they won by an innings and 29 runs.

1970
A fearsome display from Barry Richards illuminated the Sheffield Shield match between Western Australia and South Australia at Perth. Richards hammered 325 on the first day - the sixth-highest in first-class history (the best is Brian Lara's 390, to take him from 111 to 501 for Warwickshire v Durham at Edgbaston in 1994). Richards made 356 in all, to help South Australia to an innings victory, the highest score of his brilliant but sadly unfulfilled career - he was only 25 but had already played the last of his four Tests for South Africa.

1990
In a series billed as the unofficial world championship, Pakistan took first blood with a comprehensive eight-wicket win over West Indies at Karachi. Waqar Younis introduced himself to the world's best batting line-up with typical figures of 22-0-76-5, and then Pakistan eked out a priceless lead of 84. Theirs was a bizarre innings: only three batsmen reached double figures, but at least Shoaib Mohammad (86), Salim Malik (102) and Imran Khan (73*) made it count. Waqar and Wasim Akram, who shared 15 wickets in the match, then got to work again, cleaning up the tail in no time to leave Pakistan a paltry 97 to win.

1987
England took an unassailable 2-0 lead in their one-day series in Pakistan with a 23-run victory in the second match at Karachi. Graham Gooch clobbered 142 off 134 balls, and David Capel excelled himself with a 40-ball 50 that included three successive sixes off Shoaib Mohammad. As Pakistan fell short of their target, interest centred on whether Ramiz Raja could complete his century. He was on 98 with one ball remaining and, looking for a second run, deliberately intercepted a throw with his bat. He was given out obstructing the field for 99, the first such dismissal in ODI history.

Other birthdays
1938 Tony White (West Indies)

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