1959
India's greatest allrounder was born. Kapil Dev is the only player to score 4000 runs and take 400 wickets in Test cricket. His 5248 runs included eight centuries, his 434 wickets were a world record at the time, and he captained India when they won the 1983 World Cup. If he hadn't been dropped for one Test against England in 1984-85 (a disciplinary measure after an attacking stroke at the wrong time), his Test career would have consisted of 132 consecutive matches.

1994
In one of the most dramatic finishes to any Test match, Australia made 111, the dreaded Nelson, to lose the Sydney Test to South Africa by an excruciating five runs. Ali Bacher, quoted in the Wisden Almanack, called it "our finest achievement ever". Fanie de Villiers' matchwinning 6 for 43 is in the Top Twenty of the Wisden 100. It's a match often remembered for Damien Martyn's injudicious waft to cover - he didn't play another Test for over six years.

1977
Despite the final day of the second Test between England and India at Calcutta starting with India needing 21 runs to avoid an innings defeat and only three wickets remaining, a near-capacity crowd estimated at around 90,000 turned up to watch. Wisden reported that "ecstatic scenes were witnessed when India avoided an innings defeat", but the end came soon afterwards as England wrapped-up a 10-wicket win.

1948
Near the other end of the scale, Dayle Hadlee was born today. His achievements in Test cricket (71 wickets at 33.64) didn't match those of his famous brother Sir Richard (431 at 22.29) but they might have come closer if hadn't lost part of a toe when he ran over his own foot with a lawnmower. His father Walter and his brother Barry also played for New Zealand.

1930
The rest of the page is Australia Day, starting with yet another Don Bradman entry. Batting for New South Wales against Queensland at Sydney, he hit a megalithic 452, the highest score in first-class cricket before Hanif Mohammad's 499 in 1958-59, and the highest not-out score before Brian Lara's 501 in 1994. He was just 21 years old.

1984
Three giants from Oz bowed out. For Greg Chappell, Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh, the Sydney Test against Pakistan included their last day in Test cricket. Chappell made 7110 runs and 24 hundreds and held a Test-record 122 catches, including a record seven in one match, while Lillee took a Test-record 355 wickets and Marsh made a Test-record 355 dismissals, 95 of them at the same time (c Marsh b Lillee is the most frequent dismissal in Test history). Positively spooky.

1947
That great fast bowler Ray Lindwall (228 Test wickets at 23.03) was no rabbit with the bat. Against England at Melbourne, he hit the first of his two Test hundreds, including the second fifty in only 37 minutes.

1891
Another Australian fast-bowling legend was born. Ted McDonald's partnership with big Jack Gregory scared the wits out of a war-torn England in 1921. Light on his feet but fearsomely fast, McDonald played in only 11 Tests before joining Lancashire, whom he helped to win the County Championship four times, including three in a row. He was killed in a bizarre accident, hit by a passing car after surviving a crash in his own.

1935
Birth of yet another Australian pace merchant, but not quite in the same category. When England lost the 1958-59 series Down Under, they muttered darkly about the bowling action of left-arm seamer Ian Meckiff. Nothing was done about it until the Brisbane Test against South Africa in 1963-64, when he was called for throwing four times in his only over and immediately retired from all levels of cricket. He'd taken a total of 45 Test wickets - but at a cost.

Other birthdays
1931 Graeme Hole (Australia)
1963 RP (Rudra) Singh (India)
1965 Mike Allingham (Scotland)
1966 Shahid Saeed (Pakistan)
1973 Sairaj Bahutule (India)
1974 Ali Hussain Rizvi (Pakistan)

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