1928
Debut of The Don. There was little hint of what was to follow as Don Bradman made only 18 and 1 in his first Test appearance, against England at Brisbane. Bradman was only 20, but fellow new boy Bert Ironmonger was 46, Australia's oldest Test debutant. It's not a match either man would have remembered too fondly - England won by a mighty 675 runs. Injuries to Jack Gregory, who didn't bat in either innings, and Charles Kelleway, who didn't bat in the second, didn't help, but even allowing for that Australia were hammered: they mustered just 122 and 66.

1857
Birth of the Guv'nor. Bobby Abel, who was so nicknamed, played 13 Tests for England but is best remembered for his work at Surrey, where he was idolised. He was synonymous with Surrey cricket - two of his sons also played for them, and his 357 against Somerset at The Oval in 1899 remains the highest score in Surrey's history. In all Abel scored over 33,000 first-class runs. The highlight of his Test career came at Sydney in 1891-92, when he became the first Englishman to carry his bat. He died in London in 1936.

1998
A famous day for Zimbabwe. They beat Pakistan by seven wickets at Peshawar, their first overseas victory at the 15th attempt. But they had a reckless batting performance to thank. Pakistan took a first-innings lead of 68 - it would have been many more, but for Neil Johnson's brilliant maiden Test hundred - but they were soon 41 for 6 as the none-too-threatening duo of Henry Olonga and Pommie Mbangwa sliced through the middle order. Murray Goodwin then shepherded Zimbabwe to a seven-wicket victory, and rain and fog in the next two Tests meant that was enough to give them the series.

1946
Birth of the tragic Ken Wadsworth, one of New Zealand's best wicketkeepers, who played 33 Tests before he died of cancer when only 29. Wadsworth worked hard at his keeping and batting and made himself into a very handy performer - in his first 11 Tests he averaged only 7.83, in his last 22 it rose to 29.96. Wadsworth is often remembered for crucially dropping Geoff Arnold before he had scored in the second Test at Lord's in 1973. Arnold went on to add 92 for the ninth wicket with Keith Fletcher, and New Zealand had to wait another ten years for their first victory over England.

1998
South Africa sealed their first victory over West Indies - it was only the second Test between the sides - in a match tight enough to make a mockery of what followed (SA won the series 5-0 with four much easier victories), as South Africa squeezed to their target of 164 with six wickets down on a tense final day. It was a very good match for Shaun Pollock: he took 9 for 103, scored his 1000th Test run and took his 100th Test wicket in his 26th match - only Ian Botham (21), Vinoo Mankad (23) and Kapil Dev (25) had achieved the feat more quickly.

1999
A fairly routine six-wicket win for Sri Lanka over Zimbabwe in the second Test at Harare was notable for an extraordinary performance from left-arm seamer Nuwan Zoysa, who took a hat-trick with his first three deliveries in the second over of the match. He trapped Trevor Gripper and Neil Johnson lbw, either side of having Murray Goodwin caught behind. It was the first hat-trick by a Sri Lankan, and the earliest in any Test. Andy Flower led a Zimbabwe revival but Tillekeratne Dilshan played a matchwinning hand, stroking an unbeaten 163 in only his second Test.

1973
A century on first-class debut for Tehzibul Ghani - at the grand old cricketing age of 44. He made 104 for Pakistan's Commerce Bank against Khairpur at Karachi, but Tehzibul played only one more match and had one more innings. He made 3, so ended with a first-class average of 53.50.

Other birthdays

1971 Heath Te-Ihi-O-Te-Rangi Davis (New Zealand)

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