March 18 down the years

World Cup tragedy

The death of Bob Woolmer

Robert Andrew Woolmer 1948-2007  •  Getty Images

Robert Andrew Woolmer 1948-2007  •  Getty Images

2007
Twenty-four hours on from one of the greatest upsets in World Cup history, an even greater off-field shock brought the Caribbean carnival to an instant and terrible halt. Bob Woolmer, the coach of the Pakistan team that had been knocked out of the tournament by Ireland, was found unconscious in his hotel bathroom and later died in hospital. He was 58. As the world digested the enormity of the news, all manner of rumours, theories and plots flooded the airwaves, and within four days the Jamaica police had launched a murder inquiry. After months of fruitless speculation, they eventually conceded he had died of natural causes.
1948
Birth of Eknath Solkar, the best short-leg fielder to ever grace the game. The top catchers are usually firmly camped in the slip cordon, but most of Solkar's takes came at forward short-leg, where he lurked uncomfortably up close and personal to the batsman. When India beat West Indies for the first time ever, in Port-of-Spain in 1970-71, Solkar equalled the then world record of six catches in a Test. His catches - among them one taken diving full stretch forward - also helped India to victory against England at The Oval in 1971, the team's first Test win in England. Statistically Solkar remains Test cricket's most successful fielder, with 53 catches in just 27 matches - the best ratio of any non-wicketkeeper with 20 or more Tests. He was also a dependable lower-order batsman, and took 18 wickets with his slow medium pace and chinamen.
2012
Sachin Tendulkar called curtains on his one-day career with a fifty against Pakistan in Dhaka in the 2012 Asia Cup. He finished with 463 ODIs, making a total of 18,426 ODI runs and 49 centuries, both world records. Tendulkar's 52, though, was a footnote in India's chase of 330, almost completely eclipsed as it was by Virat Kohli's 183 off 148 balls, which won India the match.
2013
Shikhar Dhawan's eye-popping 187, the fastest Test century on debut, set the tone for India's series-winning triumph in Mohali, although they just scraped through the chase with minutes to spare. It was the first time they had won three Tests in a series since Mohammad Azharuddin's side had swept Sri Lanka in as many matches in 1993-94. Australia, looking diminished after the retirements of their batting giants Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey, lost the first Test in Chennai in a little over four days, and the second in Hyderabad in just over three. The highlights were a career-best double-hundred by MS Dhoni in the first, and a 370-run stand by Cheteshwar Pujara and M Vijay in the second. Then came the homework saga: Shane Watson, Mitchell Johnson, Usman Khawaja and James Pattinson were dropped from the third Test on grounds of indiscipline (n​ot completing an assignment set by the coach, a​​mong other things). The shake-up didn't affect the scoreline. India went on to whitewash them 4-0.
2019
Afghanistan registered their maiden Test win, against Ireland, in Dehradun in only their second match - they had made their Test debut just nine months before, against India. Ireland, also playing their second Test, folded for 172 in the first innings despite a fifty by Tim Murtagh, who became the second oldest No. 11 to make a half-century. In Ireland's second innings Rashid Khan ran through the middle order to pick up his first Test five-for, and despite another valiant 58-run last-wicket partnership between Murtagh and George Dockrell, Ireland only mustered a lead of 146. Afghanistan cruised to a seven-wicket win on a 139-run partnership between Rahmat Shah (who missed out on a maiden Test century by two runs in the first innings), and Ihsanullah Janat.
1947
An England coach is flippin' born. The hyperactive Lancastrian David Lloyd, a left-hand opener, played seven Tests in 1974 and 1975. He even made a double-hundred, against India in Edgbaston in his second Test. He has many other strings to his bow: umpire, eccentric commentator (he once opined that "If Nathan Astle's a bowler, my back side's a fire engine"), after-dinner speaker, and England's coach between 1996 and 1999.
1992
It's a good job Lloyd wasn't in charge of England today, when Zimbabwe beat them fair and square in the World Cup match in Albury. It didn't matter as such, because England were already through to the semi-finals, but it was nonetheless humiliating - this was Zimbabwe's first win in 19 attempts in pre-Test days - and symptomatic of the increasing fatigue of an England side that had looked invincible a couple of weeks earlier. Zimbabwe had only 134 runs to play with, but Eddo Brandes was both frugal and incisive. He nailed Messrs Gooch (with the first ball of the innings), Lamb, Smith, and his old school chum Graeme Hick (another duck), to end with 4 for 21. England went down by nine runs, and seven days later they lost to Pakistan in the final.
1992
On the same day, Pakistan got the victory they needed against New Zealand in Christchurch to qualify for the semis. Mushtaq Ahmed was at his roguish best, hoodwinking the Kiwis with 2 for 18 in ten overs, and Pakistan romped to their target of 167 with plenty of time to spare. As well as being New Zealand's first defeat of the tournament, it meant the holders, Australia, were eliminated, and it set up another Pakistan-New Zealand clash, in the semi-final, three days later.
2018
Dinesh Karthik is probably not haunted by the memory of Javed Miandad beating India with a last-ball six in Sharjah in 1986, since he was less than a year old back then, but he offered catharsis to many Indian fans by winning the Nidahas Trophy T20 final in Colombo against Bangladesh in Miandad-like fashion. Walking in with India needing 34 from 12 balls, Karthik took Rubel Hossain for 22 runs. Facing the start of the final over, bowled by part-timer Soumya Sarkar, was Vijay Shankar, four international matches old, who managed to bring it down to five from the last two balls and then got out (to a dramatic catch that took two fielders to execute). Karthik, who had crossed, hit the last ball over the cover boundary for six.
1877
During the inaugural Test, a man who would make his mark on Australia's Test history was born. Left-hand middle-order dasher Clem Hill was a wonderful player, and the best of six brothers who all played first-class cricket. His highest score was 191, against South Africa in Sydney in 1910-11, and he also made 99, 98 and 97 in consecutive innings against England in 1901-02. Hill was a brilliant fielder and took a famous catch at Old Trafford in 1902, running from long-on to square leg for a skier from Dick Lilley at a crucial stage of a three-run Aussie victory. He died in Melbourne in 1945.
1993
England's 1992-93 vintage wouldn't make too many all-time-great lists, and their nightmare dodgy-prawn tour of the subcontinent went from bad to worse when they lost a Test to Sri Lanka for the first time. England should have been safe after posting 380 - Robin Smith, that supposedly awful player of spin, made 128 as opener before being bowled by a young Muttiah Muralitharan - but five of Sri Lanka's top six made it to 50 to put their side in charge. Faced with a deficit of 89, England collapsed. Jayananda Warnaweera, whose action raised a few eyebrows, took four wickets in each innings and victory was sealed when Sri Lanka's No. 7, Sanath Jayasuriya, smashed his first ball for six.
2017
South African left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj took 6 for 40 to bowl out New Zealand for 171 and win the Wellington Test in three days. Temba Bavuma and Quinton de Kock had steadied a top-order collapse by adding 160 for the seventh wicket and gaining a first-innings lead of 91, which New Zealand crumbled against.
1969
If Craig White was proof of Ray Illingworth's eye for a cricketer, then Shaun Udal, who was born today, was the one that got away. In his BBC commentary role Illingworth waxed lyrical about Udal's action for years, then picked him for his first game in charge, and Udal responded tidily with 2 for 39 in the one-dayer against New Zealand at Edgbaston in 1994. He went on the following winter's Ashes tour, but that appeared to be as close as he would get to a Test appearance, as Illingworth turned instead to his namesake, Richard, and Mike Watkinson. But remarkably, 11 years later Udal got his chance. Picked as a replacement for Ashley Giles on the tour to India in March 2006, he starred with 4 for 14 in a memorable series-levelling victory in Mumbai.
Other birthdays
1890 Philip Hands (South Africa)
1894 "Doodles" Tapscott (South Africa)
1898 John Clay (England)
1919 Len Johnson (Australia)
1924 Madhusudan Rege (India)
1953 Nicholas Wisdom (England)
1955 Graeme Porter (Australia)
1961 Kevan James (England)
1961 Lindsay Reeler (Australia)
1969 Shaiza Khan (Pakistan)
1969 Shaun Udal (England)