October 31 down the years

Hit the ground running

The man who made a century and a double in his first three Tests

Javed Miandad had piled up 504 runs after his first three Tests  •  PA Photos

Javed Miandad had piled up 504 runs after his first three Tests  •  PA Photos

1976
At 19 years, 141 days, Javed Miandad became the youngest person to make a Test double-century. He cracked 206 in only his third Test - he'd already made 163 in his first - as Pakistan racked up 565 for 9 in their first innings in Karachi. It looked more than enough when New Zealand fell to 195 for 6, but Warren Lees (152) and Richard Hadlee (81) added a then national-record 186 for the seventh wicket to ward off the follow-on, and a draw was a formality after that. In all, 1585 runs were scored for the loss of 31 wickets.
1990
Hurricane Waqar blew away New Zealand in Faisalabad to seal a 3-0 clean sweep for Pakistan. It was a remarkable match. Pakistan were bowled out for 102 on the first morning, with Chris Pringle - who later admitted to tampering with the ball because he was sure Pakistan were doing it - taking 7 for 52. New Zealand managed a first-innings lead of 115, thanks mainly to a savage 42-ball 62 from Ian Smith, but Shoaib Mohammad made his third hundred of the series and Waqar Younis added 5 for 54 to his first-innings 7 for 76 as Pakistan won by 65 runs. Before the series he was a virtual unknown who had played only five Tests, but with 29 wickets at 10.86 in the three matches, Waqar had well and truly arrived.
1895
Birth of India's first Test captain. Colonel Cottari "CK" Nayudu was an upright batter, an especially fine driver who gave the ball a fearful thump, and a very handy slow-medium bowler. He was 36 when India took their bow, so he played only seven Tests in all. His best innings was his last, at The Oval in 1936, when he refused to retire hurt despite a painful blow to the solar plexus from Gubby Allen, and made a patient 81 to avert an innings defeat. He played first-class cricket in six decades, from 1916 to 1963 (at the age of 68), before dying in Indore in 1967.
1987
The first World Cup hat-trick. Chetan Sharma bowled Ken Rutherford, Ian Smith and Ewen Chatfield with the last three balls of his sixth over as India hammered New Zealand by nine wickets in Nagpur. In order to top the group ahead of Australia and secure a home semi-final, India had to reach their target of 222 in 42.2 overs. They did so in 32.1, courtesy of what the Wisden Almanack described as "batting of breathtaking brilliance". Kris Srikkanth smashed 75 off 58 balls, but the surprise package was at the other end, where Sunil Gavaskar matched him stroke for stroke, thrashing his only one-day hundred in 108 appearances, off just 85 balls.
1887
Birth of the Test player known as "Dodger". William Whysall, who played four Tests for England, was thus nicknamed, but there was little artful about his batting. He was a largely defensive batter, usually at the top of the order, with huge powers of concentration. He made more than 20,000 first-class runs for Nottinghamshire and shared in 40 century opening stands with George Gunn. He didn't do too much wrong for England, making a couple of seventies in his first two Tests, in Adelaide and Melbourne in 1924-25. He contracted septicaemia after falling on a dance floor in Nottingham and died shortly afterwards, aged only 43.
1984
The second one-dayer between Pakistan and India in Sialkot was abandoned as news came through of the assassination of Indira Gandhi, the Indian prime minister. The remainder of the tour - another one-dayer and a Test - was cancelled. At the same time England arrived in New Delhi for a five-Test tour, which was almost aborted when, four weeks later, the British deputy high commissioner of Western India, Percy Norris, was shot dead the morning after hosting a reception for the tour party.
2019
Ludhiana-born legspinner Ish Sodhi broke into the New Zealand Test squad in October 2013, after only one season of first-class cricket, on the promise of his spin potential ahead of a tour of Bangladesh. That potential hasn't always manifested in Test cricket, but Sodhi has had better luck in the limited-overs formats. His best bowling figures of 3 for 18 came in the 2016 World T20, against India in Nagpur, where Sodhi, along with Nathan McCullum and Mitchell Santner triggered a spectacular batting collapse. In January 2018, he briefly topped the ICC rankings for T20I bowlers, moving up from tenth position. In 2018, Sodhi made a three-hour-plus 56, denying England - Broad, Anderson and all - a Test win in Christchurch.
Other birthdays
1946 Ramnath Parkar (India)