Cricket Countdown

and are having a great time during their holiday.

2011
When R Ashwin was caught short trying to take a second run off the final ball of the Mumbai Test, it was only the second time a Test had been drawn with the scores level. Though a draw had looked likely right from day one, when West Indies lost only two wickets on a flat pitch, things changed dramatically on the final day: by tea India needed 94 at under five an over, and even after the departures of VVS Laxman and MS Dhoni, they looked on course to complete the 3-0 whitewash. With two overs to go they needed six when Ishant Sharma lost his leg stump. In walked the nervous No. 10, debutant Varun Aaron, to face the last over with India needing three. He got a single off the fourth ball, but Ashwin, who had scored a century in the first innings, only managed an inside edge onto his pad off the fifth, and though he smashed the final ball to long-on, two runs were never on the cards

1982
Birth of one of the finest women cricketers. Jhulan Goswami was at one point the fastest bowler in the women's game, generating as much as 120kph, and helped India to their first series victory over England in 2006. Her career-defining performance came in the second Test in Taunton, when she bagged 10 for 78. She was named the ICC Women's Player of Year in 2007 - a year no Indian male player bagged any individual award. A year later, Goswami took over the captaincy from Mithali Raj and held it till 2011. In 2017, shortly before playing her fourth World Cup, Goswami went past Cathryn Fitzpatrick to become the leading wicket-taker in ODIs. Goswami retired from T20Is a year later, shortly before the World T20 in West Indies.

Happy birthday to New Zealand opening batsman Jeet Raval!