Curtly's seventh heaven

Curtly Ambrose: 7 for 1 in 32 balls © PA Photos Enlarge

1993
The winner-takes-all clash between Australia and West Indies was decided today in one extraordinary spell. Curtly Ambrose shoved Australia off the Perth trampoline with seven wickets for one run in 32 balls - from 85 for 2, they were 119 all out. West Indies closed the first day on 135 for 1, and that was effectively that. The match was over by lunch on the third day, with Ian Bishop taking six in the second innings. His haul included Allan Border, who bagged the only pair of his first-class career. The WACA groundsman was subsequently dismissed for preparing such a home away from home for Ambrose and friends.

1929
Birth of South Africa's greatest spin bowler. Hugh "Toey" Tayfield was a master of flight and accuracy, and at times could be virtually unhittable. He was known as "Toey" because of his peculiar habit of stubbing his toe into the ground before bowling. The highlight of his career was his 9 for 113 against England in Johannesburg in 1956-57, when he bowled throughout the last day, sending down 35 eight-ball overs to lead South Africa to a thrilling 17-run victory. That brought them back into the series at 1-2, and Tayfield squared it in the next one with a second-innings 6 for 78 as England fell 59 short of the 189 they needed for victory. He also equalled Bill Edrich's Test record of marrying five times. Tayfield died in Durban in 1994.

1883
The Ashes were returned to England in the form of a burnt bail in an urn. After losing in 1882 at The Oval - after which the mock obituary appeared in the Sporting Times - England went to Australia next season and won 2-1. Australia won the first Test and England took the second by an innings and 27 runs. In the third at the SCG, Fred Spofforth, the "Demon" from 1882, took seven in England's second innings, but the target of 153 was too much for Australia. England opener Dick Barlow took 7 for 40 as the hosts were bowled out for 83. It is widely believed that at the end of the series a group of Melbourne women gave England captain Ivo Bligh a small urn containing the ashes of a bail used in the third match.

1995
A trademark England 1990s Ashes victory. Trademark in that it was improbable, was achieved through high-class, high-octane cricket... and the series was dead. Going into the last day in Adelaide, England were effectively 154 for 6 in their second innings and it seemed a matter of time before Australia went 3-0 up. But Phil DeFreitas had other ideas: he slammed a sensational 88 off 95 balls, including 22 off one over from Craig McDermott. Then Devon Malcolm blew away the Australian top order (including Steve Waugh, beaten and bowled all ends up first ball), and after some nerve-jangling tail-end resistance, Chris Lewis and Malcolm wrapped up a famous win with 5.5 overs to spare. All this with Steve Rhodes (31 runs in seven innings in the series before this game) batting as high as No. 6.

1994
A memorable day for Kapil Dev, who equalled Sir Richard Hadlee's record of 431 Test wickets when he dismissed Don Anurasiri to wrap up India's innings victory over Sri Lanka in Bangalore. Nine days later Kapil moved above Hadlee when he snared Hashan Tillakaratne at Ahmedabad. Earlier in this match India had made 541 for 6 declared, the fifth successive home Test in which they had passed 500.

2000
Mark Ealham took wicket-to-wicket bowling to new extremes today, taking 5 for 15 against Zimbabwe - all of them lbw. It was an ODI record for England at the time. The Zimbabwe batsmen kept swinging and missing, and Ealham kept swinging it gently into their pads. None of the decisions was debatable. England won the match by eight wickets, with their new opening partnership of Nick Knight and Nasser Hussain belting 128 - their second century opening stand in four top-order trysts.

1942
A sanguine seamer is born. David Brown played 26 Tests for England between 1965 and 1969, and though his contributions were fairly understated - only two five-fors - his average (28.31) puts him just ahead of Harold Larwood and Ian Botham. He often found overseas conditions more to his liking, and took 5 for 63 - including three wickets in one eight-ball over with the second new ball - to set up England's innings victory in Sydney in 1965-66.

1853
The right place at the right time. Leland Hone's first-class experience was limited to two uneventful matches for MCC in 1878, but when Lord Harris found himself about to take an MCC side to Australia without a wicketkeeper, he called on Hone (himself only an occasional keeper). Hone's third first-class match was the Sydney Test, where he became the first man to play for England without having played for a county. There were five more outings - all for MCC - before Hone returned to Ireland, the country of his birth.

1988
Chris Broad found himself £500 out of pocket when he smashed down his stumps after being bowled by Steve Waugh in the Bicentennial Test, in Sydney. Broad had made 139, his fourth ton in six Tests in Australia, but the tour management didn't take too kindly to his last shot - a withering pull that sent the stumps flying - and fined him. Wisden Cricket Monthly described it as a "pathetic display of pique".

1934
Already the only Australian to play Test cricket in his fifties, and the second-oldest Test player of all time, left-arm spinner Herbert "Dainty" Ironmonger played his last Sheffield Shield game today, at the age of 51 years, 298 days.

1985
Birth of Suraj Randiv, a Sri Lankan offie with no mystery balls. Randiv had a forgettable Test debut, going for 222 runs for two wickets in an SSC runathon against India, a team's whose ire he faced a month later when he bowled a no-ball to deny Virender Sehwag a hundred at the end of an ODI in Dambulla. In between the two matches, he got nine wickets in the Test at the P Sara against the same opposition. He became Sri Lanka's second-choice spinner in Tests, but slowly lost his place in the limited-overs sides.

Other birthdays
1913 Dickie Fuller (West Indies)
1943 June Stephenson (England)
1951 Trevor Laughlin (Australia)
1959 Alexander Morgan (West Indies)
1961 Ranjith Madurasinghe (Sri Lanka)
1964 Denise Annetts (Australia)
1967 Purnima Rau (India)
1974 Robert Rollins (England)
1977 Alison Hodgkinson (South Africa)