29th July....

1907:
England's left arm spinner Colin Blythe takes 8 South African wickets for 59 runs at Leeds.

1927:
Phil Mead scores his 100th first-class hundred, for Hampshire against Northamptonshire.

1933:
West Indian right hand batsman and now ICC match referee Cammie Smith (5 Tests from 1960 to 1962) was born.

1934:
West Indian leg-break bowler Alfred Scott (1 Test in 1953) was born.

1944:
New Zealand opener Terry Jarvis (13 Tests from 1964 to 1973; 625 runs) was born.

1947:
England's paceman Ken Cranston ended the South African second innings at Leeds by taking four wickets in six balls (WOWOWW).

1963:
Pakistani left-arm pace bowler Azeem Hafeez (18 Tests from 1983 to 1985; 63 wickets) was born.

1963:
Aussie right-hander Dave Smith (2 Tests in 1912) died aged 78.

1970:
Zimbabwe medium pacer John Rennie (4 Tests from 1993) was born.

1975:
Sri Lankan wicket-keeper batsman Lanka deSilva (3 Tests in 1997) was born.

1977:
England's paceman Austin Matthews (1 Test in 1937) died aged 73.

1986:
Dennis Amiss scores his 100th first-class hundred, for Warwickshire against Lancashire.

1987:
Australian batsman Arthur Chipperfield (14 Tests from 1934 to 1938; 552 runs) died aged 81.

30th July....

1886:
South African batsman Neville Lindsay (1 Test in 1921-22) was born.

1889:
England batsman Charles Absolom (1 Test in 1878-79) died in an accident at Port of Spain, Trinidad, aged 43.

1892:
Australian batsman Roy Park (1 Test in 1920-21) was born.

1914:
Australian and England all-rounder Albert Trott (5 Tests from 1894-95 to 1898-99) died (shot himself) aged 41

1947:
West Indian batsman George Challenor (3 Tests in 1928) died aged 59.

1965:
English pace bowler Tim Munton (2 Tests in 1992) was born.

1982:
South African keeper 'Nipper' Nicolson (4 Tests in 1935-36) died aged 72.

1984:
England pace bowler Maurice Tremlett (3 Tests in 1947-48) died aged 61.

1990:
India's Kapil Dev became the first batsman to hit four sixes of consecutive balls in Tests. He did so against England off-spinner Eddie Hemmings at Lord's.

1990:
England opener and captain Graham Gooch became the first batsman in first-class history to score a triple hundred and a hundred in the same match. He made 123 against India in the second innings at Lord's after making 333 a few days earlier.

1995:
England paceman Domnic Cork takes a hat-trick against the West Indies at Manchester after scoring an unbeaten 56 in the first innings.

31st July....

1902:
England pace bowler and captain Gubby Allen (25 Tests from 1930 to 1947-48; 750 runs and 81 wickets) was born Sydney, Australia.

1911:
Aussie batsman Jack Edwards (3 Tests in 1888) died aged 51.

1912:
Australian opener and captain Bill Brown (22 Tests from 1934 to 1948; 1592 runs) was born.

1916:
New Zealand batsman Verdun Scott (10 Tests from 1945 to 1952) was born.

1917:
South African batsman Charlie Finlason (1 Test in 1889) died in England, aged 57.

1919:
Indian batsman Hemu Adhikari (21 Tests from 1947 to 1959; 872 runs) was born.

1919:

England all-rounder Dick Barlow (17 Tests from 1881 to 1887; 591 runs and 34 wickets) died aged 68.

1939:
England batsman Roger Prideaux (3 Tests from 1968 to 1969) was born.

1943:
English left-arm spinner Hedley Verity (40 Tests from 1931 to 1939; 144 wickets) died at Italy as a POW (World War II) aged 38.

1952:
South African left-arm spinner Tufty Mann (19 Tests from 1947 to 1951) died aged 31.

1953:
South African opener Jimmy Cook (3 Tests from 1992 to 1993) was born.

1956:
England off-spinner Jim Laker takes all ten against Australia at Manchester to become the first bowler in first-class history to take 19 wickets in a match.

1962:
England's paceman Brian Statham against Pakistan at Nottingham became the then highest wicket taker (229 wickets) in Test history. He went past the record of 228 wickets of Aussie Ray Lindwall.

1973:
West Indies win by 158 runs at Leeds was it first after 20 matches.

1975:
Australian Jeff Thomson was no-balled 22 times (and also four wides) on the first day against England at Lord's.

1984:
West Indies became the first visiting team to win the four Tests in a series in England when it won by an innings and 64 runs at Manchester.

1985:
New Zealand captain and batsman Murray Chapple (14 Tests from 1952 to 1966; 497 runs) died aged 55.

1st August...

1856:
Australian batsman George Coulthard (1 Test in 1881) was born.

1857:
Australian batsman John Harry (1 Test in 1894) was born.

1861:
Australian batsman Sammy Jones (12 Tests from 1881 to 1888; 428 runs) was born.

1900:
Australian all-rounder Otto Nothling (1 Test in 1928-29) was born.

1910:
Indian pace bowler Mahomed Nissar (6 Tests from 1932 to 1936; 25 wickets) was born.

1916:
South African Claude Newberry (4 Tests in 1913-14) died in France (in World War I) aged 26.

1924:
West Indian captain and batsman Sri Frank Worrell (51 Tests from 1947 to 1963; 3860 runs and 69 wickets) was born.

1929:
Australian batsman and captain Syd Gregory (58 Tests from 1890 to 1912; 2282 runs) died aged 59.

1931:
South African all-rounder Trevor Goddard (41 Tests from 1955 to 1970; 2516 runs and 123 wickets) was born.

1932:
England left-arm medium pacer Arnold Fothergill (2 Tests in 1888-89) died aged 77.

1934:
New Zealand's left-handed batsman John Beck (8 Tests from 1953 to 1956) was born.

1935:
England opener Geoff Pullar (28 Tests from 1959 to 1963; 1974 runs) was born.

1952:
Indian batsman Yajurvindra Singh (4 Tests from 1976 to 1980) was born.

1955:
Indian opener Arun Lal (16 Tests from 1982 to 1989) was born.

1961:
England off-spinner Mike Watkinson (4 Tests from 1995 to 1996) was born.

1961:
Australian leg-break bowler Richie Benaud (6-70) bowled his side to victory on the last afternoon when England appeared certain to achieve their target of scoring 256 runs in 230 minutes. Benaud took 5 for 12 in 25 balls.

1967:
Set 257 runs in 210 minutes, Pakistan scored only 88 runs in 165 minutes off 62 overs (including 32 maidens) against England at Lord's.

1969:
England left-hand middle-order batsman Graham Thorpe (from 1993) was born.

1978:
Zimbabwe all-rounder Andy Blignaut was born.

1983: New Zealand recorded its first Test win in England, when it won by five wickets at Manchester.

2nd August...

1887:
South African keeper Tommy Ward (23 Tests from 1912 to 1924) was born in Rawalpindi, then in India.

1895:
New Zealand's left-armer Matthew Henderson (1 Test in 1929) was born.

1928:
English left-arm spinner Malcolm Hilton (4 Tests from 1950 to 1952) was born.

1931:
South African fast bowler Eddie Fuller (7 Tests from 1952 to 1958) was born.

1958:
Indian off-spinner Arshad Ayub (13 Tests from 1987 to 1989) was born.

1970:
West Indian opener Philo Wallace (7 Tests from 1997 to 1999) was born.

1976:
Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Zahid (4 Tests from 1996 to 1999) was born.

1980:
New Zealand batsman Verdun Scott (10 Tests from 1945 to 1952) died aged 64.

1981:
Australia, set 151 runs to win, were dismissed for 121 -- after being 96-3 at Birmingham. Ian Botham took 5 for 11 in 14 overs, all of which came in a spell of 18 balls!

1985:
South African fast bowler Sandy Bell (16 Tests from 1929 to 1935) died aged 79.

2000:
In a dramatic finish South Africa snatched Sri Lanka's last four wickets for eight runs to win by 7 runs at Kandy.

3rd August...

1855:
English keeper Joseph Hunter (5 Tests in 1884-85) was born.

1925:
Aussie all-rounder William Bruce (14 Tests from 1884 to 1895; 702 runs and 12 wickets) died (drowned) aged 61.

1933:
Australian pace bowler Pat Crawford (4 Tests in 1956) was born.

1937:
Pakistani batsman Dun Sharpe (3 Tests in 1959-60) was born.

1939:
Indian batsman AK Sengupta (1 Test in 1958) was born.

1951:
England keeper Neville Tufnell (1 Test in 1909) died aged 64.

1956:
Indian medium pacer Balwinder Singh Sandhu (8 Tests from 1982 to 1984) was born.

1960:
Indian off-spinner Gopal Sharma (5 Tests from 1985 to 1990) was born.

2000:
For the first time in Test history two players (Englishmen Mike Atherton and Alec Stewart) celebrated their 100th appearances in the same Test - against West Indies at Manchester.

4th August....

1865:
South African left arm pace bowler Gus Kempis (1 Test in 1889) was born.

1902:
West Indian batsman Clarence Passailaigue (1 Test in 1930) was born.

1919:
Australia's first Test captain Dave Gregory (3 Tests from 1877 to 1879) died aged 74.

1931:
Indian keeper Naren Tamhane (21 Tests from 1954 to 1961; 35 cts and 16 sts) was born.

1961:
Sri Lankan batsman Athula Samarasekera (4 Tests from 1988 to 1991) was born.

1970:
South African pace bowler Steven Jack (2 Tests in 1994) was born.

1975:
Michael Angelow, a cook with the Merchant Navy, became the first streaker to intrude upon the field of play in England - at 3:20 pm on the fourth afternoon of the Ashes Test at Lord's.

2000:
England's Alec Stewart emulated MC Cowdrey, Javed Miandad and Gordon Greenidge by scoring a hundred in his 100th Test appearances - against the West Indies at Manchester.

Compiled by:
Mohandas Menon

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