March 12 Down The Years

Born on this day were:

Ken James (1904-76), outstanding New Zealand wicket-keeper whose Test average of 4.72 made him statistically speaking the worst keeper-batsman to have played ten or more Tests;

Vijay Mehra (1938-), Indian opening batsman who made his debut at the age of 17 years 265 days and was India’s youngest Test cricketer until Maninder Singh in 1982-83;

Eldine Baptiste (1960-), West Indian bowling all-rounder who played in ten Tests for his country; and

Yasir Arafat (1982-), Pakistani pace bowler.

In 1889 this was South Africa’s day as a Test-playing nation. They met England at Port Elizabeth in what was later deemed to be the inaugural first-class match to be played in the country. England won easily by eight wickets after bowling South Africa out for 84 on the first morning. Nobody reached 50 in the match, which ended on the second day. England were captained by C. Aubrey Smith of Hollywood fame who remains the only player to captain England in his only appearance in Test cricket. The match was played on matting.


In 1982 Courtney Walsh made his first-class debut for Jamaica against the Leeward Islands at Kingston with the none too impressive figures of 10-2-52-0.


In 1993 Danny Morrison took 6 for 37 against Australia in the third Test at Auckland. The Aussies were out for 139, and New Zealand won by five wickets on the last day.


In 2001 in an extraordinary collapse at Auckland, New Zealand collapsed from 121 for 2 to 131 all out, losing by 299 runs. The last five batsmen failed to score. The Pakistani destroyers were Saqlain Mushtaq (whose figures on the final morning were 12.4-10-3-4) and Mohammad Sami (7-3-7-5). There were four debutantes for the Pakistanis and Sami was one of them.


In 2003 Kenya became the first team without Test status to reach a World Cup semi-final when they beat Zimbabwe in Bloemfontein. The victory could not have been better timed: it was their first victory over Zimbabwe having lost in 14 previous outings.


In 2004 Shane Warne became the first spinner to take 500 Test wickets when he took the wicket of Hasan Tillekeratne on the last day of the first Test against Sri Lanka at Galle.


In 2006 South Africa (438-9) beat Australia (434-4) in record high-scoring one-day international at Johannesburg. This remains the highest run-chase ever in ODI history.