The end of an era

Imran Khan: an inspirational allrounder © Getty Images Enlarge

1992
The last day of one of the longest and most successful Test careers, which began in 1971. Imran Khan took 362 Test wickets, including 40 (a record for Pakistan) against India in 1982-83, and hit six Test centuries. In the third Test against Sri Lanka in Faisalabad he didn't bowl, and made 22 and 0, but he did lead Pakistan to a face-saving, series-clinching three-wicket win. Oh, and after the end of his Test career there was the little matter of the 1992 World Cup.

2011
England wrapped up their first Ashes victory in Australia for 24 years with an unprecedented third innings victory of the series, this time in Sydney, where Alastair Cook was named Man of the Match and of the Series, after his 189 took his tally to 766 runs in seven innings. The final wicket was claimed by Chris Tremlett, who bowled Michael Beer off the inside-edge. The day was also Paul Collingwood's last as a Test cricketer, after he announced his retirement mid-way through the game.

1983
Australia regained the Ashes which they had lost in 1977 with a 2-1 win at home with a drawn fifth Test. The first Test was also drawn and Australia won the next two - by seven wickets in Brisbane and eight wickets in Adelaide - to take the series lead. The fourth Test was a thriller that England won by three runs. After conceding a slim first-innings lead, England set Australia a target of 298. The hosts ended day four on 255 for 9, right-arm fast bowler Norman Cowans taking 6 for 77. Allan Border was unbeaten on 62 when Ian Botham took the final wicket. It was a particularly successful series for fast bowler Geoff Lawson, who took 34 wickets at just over 20, with a career-best 11 for 134 in Brisbane.

1987
Kapil Dev took his 300th Test wicket in an innings victory over Sri Lanka on an underprepared wicket in Cuttack where he bowled slow-medium pace and produced shooters at will. Dilip Vengsarkar scored a career-best 166 despite the unpredictable bounce and movement, but Sri Lanka's batsmen couldn't cope with it and followed on, on day three. On the fourth morning, Kapil bowled Rumesh Ratnayake to get to the milestone, and after Ravi Shastri took for 4 for 11, India won their first home series since beating England in 1981-82.

1908
A tense finish in Melbourne. If Gerry Hazlitt's throw had hit the stumps, the game would have ended in Test cricket's first tie. Instead he missed, and England sneaked home by one wicket. Only fair: Australia had won the previous Test by two wickets.

1956
After batting through the whole of the previous day against New Zealand in Madras, Vinoo Mankad and Pankaj Roy completed their stand of 413, a then record for the first wicket in any Test match. Roy made 173, while Mankad's 231 was a record for India until Sunil Gavaskar scored an unbeaten 236 against West Indies in the same city in 1983-84.

1954
Birth of a Test cricketer whose son also played for England and who nearly appeared in the same Championship match with him. According to Mike Brearley, Geoff Boycott didn't do his new opening partner, Alan Butcher, any favours against India at The Oval in 1979, "almost paralysing him with his account of the risks of playing shots in a Test match". Butcher didn't exactly fail, but his 14 and 20 weren't enough to win him a second cap. When he was called up to play against Derbyshire at The Oval in 1998, he was Surrey's 2nd XI coach and hadn't played in a Championship match for 12 years. At the same time, his son Mark was scoring his first Test century for England v South Africa at Headingley.

1947
Despite a sixth day's play, the Melbourne match against England ended in a draw, the first in any Test in Australia since 1882. Not quite such an amazing fact when you realise that most of the matches in between were played to a finish.

1997
Not many teams could come back from losing their top three batsmen for nought to win a one-dayer, but then not many teams are like Pakistan. Against Australia they lost Aamer Sohail, Zahoor Elahi and Ijaz Ahmed, but Mohammad Wasim made 54 and Australia (whose top-scorer was Michael Bevan with 24) could not reach a target of 150.

1981
Travis Friend, born today, made his international debut at 19, bowling with genuine pace despite having changed from legspin only two years earlier. He took his career-best 7 for 57 in Dhaka in 2001. But his career turned after he was one of the 15 rebels involved in the dispute with the board that followed the sacking of Heath Streak in April 2004. Friend played briefly for Derbyshire before drifting out of the professional game.

Other birthdays
1901 Greville Stevens (England)
1911 Mervyn Waite (Australia)
1918 Colin Snedden (New Zealand)
1928 Vijay Rajindernath (India)
1953 Agha Zahid (Pakistan)
1965 Mark Rushmere (South Africa)