14th August: A day of milestones in cricket

Sachin Tendulkar (inset) against the backdrop of the statue of ‘Don Bradman’

1948: The great Don Bradman gets bowled out for a duck

Donald Bradman walks into the match needing only four runs to reach 7000 Test runs, and finish his career with an average of 100. Unfortunately, ‘The Don’ was bowled by Eric Hollies on the second ball he faced. Since England lost the match by an innings, he didn’t get the opportunity to bat a second time in the match and ended his career with an average of 99.94.

1990: Sachin Tendulkar scores his maiden Test Hundred and saves the Test match

Sachin Tendulkar scored 119 not out against England at Old Tafford at the age of 17 years and 112 days, to become the second youngest player in history after Mushtaq Mohammad to score a Test century. In the company of Manoj Prabhakar, Tendulkar was able to see out the English bowlers and finish off the match, earning a fighting draw for India. (Mohammad Ashraful became the youngest cricketer to score a Test hundred in 2001)

1984: Clive Lloyd’s West Indies ‘Blackwash’ England

West Indies, led by the indomitable Clive Lloyd, bowled England out by lunch on this day, and won the Test match at the Oval by 172 runs. This is the only time that England have lost 5-0 at home, leading to the supporters of the West Indies labelling this victory as a ‘blackwash’.

1982: Gladstone Small bowls the longest over

In a match for Warwickshire against Middlesex, Gladstone Small bowled an 18 ball over. His over included 11 no-balls and one wide, in what is considered the longest over recorded, considering that the no-balls were not deliberate.

1976: The day that Tony Grieg ‘grovelled.’

In one of the most ill thought out comments in the history of Test cricket, the England captain Tony Grieg had this say about the West Indies team, “When the West Indies are down they grovel… and I intend to make them grovel.” This statement was made in an interview to the BBC, prior to the start of the Test series.

With the English team getting beaten badly in the third and fourth Tests, Grieg conceded that his comments were wrong and grovelled on his hand and knees in front of the crowd at the Oval.