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July 20 down the years

Botham's day

Beefy turns it on

July 21 | July 19

Botham. 1981. Headingley. You know the story © Getty Images

1981
The most amazing day of a famously amazing Headingley Test. Ian Botham scored 145 of his 149 not out to give England an outside chance of beating Australia after following on, a chance Bob Willis took with his 8 for 43 the following day. This was also the day when England's odds slipped out to 500-1, an offer that Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh couldn't refuse. Then Botham and Graham Dilley gave it some humpty, and the rest is history.

1900
Birth of that famously combative Yorkshireman Maurice Leyland, who saved the best till last. His final Test innings of 187 was played during a partnership of 382 with Len Hutton at The Oval in 1938, still England's highest stand for any wicket against Australia.

2000
On the first day of the match in Galle, an opening partnership of 193 between Marvan Atapattu and Sanath Jayasuriya set Sri Lanka on the way to their first Test win over South Africa. That only tells half the story, though. Jayasuriya bashed 148 off only 156 balls - imagine an Englishman doing that on the first day of a Test series - 96 of them in a scintillating morning session. Sri Lanka reached 522 - and then came Murali, who brushed South Africa to an innings defeat with 13 for 171.

1990
In a one-day international at Trent Bridge, Robin Smith scored a hundred in 101 balls, but India won to take the Texaco Trophy for the first time. It was the story of the Judge's life: all of his one-day hundreds came in England defeats. And only two of his nine Test hundreds came in English victories.

1971
Controversial seam bowler Ed Giddins was born. He received an extensive ban for drug use, but took one five-wicket haul in Test cricket, against Zimbabwe at Lord's in 2000. Two Tests and one wicket later, Giddins was dropped.

1909
Birth of the confident and supremely patient Eric Rowan, who was often the mainstay of South Africa's batting. Against England at Johannesburg in 1948-49, he batted for six hours on the last day to make an unbeaten 156 that saved the match. At Headingley in 1951 he followed his Test-best 236 in the first innings with 60 not out in the second. His brother Athol also played for South Africa.

1973
One of the new wave of West Indian fast bowlers, Nixon McLean was born. So far his middle names (Alexei McNamara) have been more impressive than his Test average (42.56).

Other birthdays
1911 Baqa Jilani (India)
1934 Doug Padgett (England)
1973 Nixon McLean (West Indies)
1975 Atiq-uz-Zaman (Pakistan)
1976 Debasis Mohanty (India)