Flashy Fredericks

All Today's Yesterdays - November 11 down the years

November 10 | November 12

1942
Dashing openers are ten-a-penny in the modern age, but in the days when openers blocked and middle-order batsmen attacked, the West Indian left-hander Roy Fredericks was a revelation. His blistering 169 against Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson on a Perth flyer in 1975-76 was one of the most audacious innings ever played in a Test, and though Fredericks was only 5ft 6ins tall, he gave the ball a fearful whack. He followed up that Perth ton with a very good tour of England in 1976, when he made 517 runs in the five Tests. Fredericks played 59 Tests in all, bowing out against Pakistan in 1976-77 with a typically flamboyant 83. He later became sports minister of his native Guyana, but succumbed to cancer in New York in September 2000.

1977
Birth of the late Ben Hollioake, who died in a car crash in Perth in March 2002. There was no batsman in England quite so easy on the eye, but his abundant talent went sadly unfulfilled. On his England debut, aged 19, he pinch-stroked a sumptuous 63 off 48 balls against Australia at Lord's before winning the Benson & Hedges final for Surrey against Kent with a similarly elegant 98 a month later. But Hollioake could not consistently put runs on the board - he did not make a Championship hundred until 2001 - and was in the wilderness until England recalled him for the 2001 NatWest Series. He was on course to be part of their World Cup squad when tragedy struck.

1969
An historic day for New Zealand, who drew the third Test with Pakistan at Dacca to clinch their first-ever series victory, for which they had been waiting almost 40 years. It looked unlikely when they were 101 for 8 in the second innings, only 84 ahead, but Mark Burgess and Bob Cunis added 94 for the ninth wicket - a national record at the time - to set Pakistan an unlikely 184 in 37 overs. Bad light stopped play after 15, and a minor riot led to play being abandoned over an hour before the scheduled close.

1924
Birth of the wristy Indian Rusi Modi, who made over 7500 first-class runs at an average of 53. But he only played ten Tests, despite a handy average of 46. Modi marked his debut with a cool, unbeaten 57 at Lord's in 1946, and had a very fine series against West Indies in 1948-49, when he hit his only Test ton (112 at Bombay) as well as a brace of eighties. He later became one of India's most respected cricket writers, before dying in Bombay in 1996.

1891
The ultimate allround performance at Adelaide. Fresh from a seven-hour 271, George Giffen took 9 for 96 and 7 for 70 to give South Australia an innings victory over Victoria, and it is no surprise that nobody else in first-class history has scored a double-century and taken 16 wickets. Known by some as the Australian WG Grace, Giffen played 31 Tests between 1882 and 1896, taking 103 wickets to add to his 1238 runs.

1977
A remarkable feat of self-denial at Melbourne, where Victorian opener Paul Hibbert made a century against the touring Indians without hitting a single boundary. A stodgy opener at the best of times, Hibbert's performance earned him a call-up for the first Test at Brisbane the same month. He excelled himself by finding the boundary once, but after making 13 (off 77 balls) and 2, he was dropped and did not play again. Hibbert is one of only two batsmen to make a century without finding the boundary (the other is former Derbyshire batsman Alan Hill, who made 103 for Orange Free State v Griqualand West in 1976-77), though Graham Thorpe famously made a Test century at Lahore in 2000-01 that included only two boundaries.

Other birthdays

1878 Stanley Snooke (South Africa)
1928 Trevor Meale (New Zealand)
1945 Niaz Ahmed (Pakistan)
1967 Sohail Fazal (Pakistan)
1969 Michael Owens (New Zealand)
1974 Wajahatullah Wasti (Pakistan)
1978 Lou Vincent (New Zealand)