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| Vijay Merchant |
Vijay Merchant (1911-87), India’s first great batsman who finished his career with a first class batting average of 71.64 second only to the great Sir Donald Bradman’s 95.14 (He averaged 98.75 in the Ranji Trophy and his masterful displays in 1936 incited C.B. Fry to exclaim: ‘Let us paint him white and take him with us to Australia as an opener.’ He was later an administrator and writer, devoting the latter part of his life to the service of the disabled); and Ashok Mankad (1964-2008), Indian batsman who played in 22 Tests and is the eldest son of the great Vinoo. (He was the non-striker when Sunil Gavaskar got his first run in Test cricket and was a commentator when he crossed the historic 10,000 run mark.)
In 1936 B.J.T. Bosanquet, the man credited with inventing the googly, died in Surrey one day before his 59th birthday. He played in seven Tests for England and the Googly is also known as ‘Bosie’ in his honour.
In 1952 Hanif Mohammad completed twin hundreds (121 and 109 not out) against North Zone (India) in a tour match during the 1952-53 series at Amritsar. These were his first-class tons.
In 2002 Pakistan crashed to a humiliating two-day defeat against Australia. In their first innings they were bowled out for only 59, with Shane Warne taking 4 for 11 in 11 overs. In their second innings they managed only 53, their lowest ever Test total. Warne was again the destroyer, with 4 for 13. Only three Pakistanis reached double figures in the entire match, and their match total of 112 is the fourth lowest in Test history.
In 2007 Inzamam-ul-Haq confirms his retirement from Test cricket, finishing three runs short of Javed Miandad’s record runs aggregate for Pakistan.
