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Majestic Majid
Wisden CricInfo staff
September 28, 2003
All Today's Yesterdays - September 28 down the years
September 27 | September 29
1946
Birth of the regal Majid Khan, cousin of Imran, who was picked primarily as a bowler when he made his Test debut aged 18 but who was soon ensconced in the middle order by virtue of his scintillating strokeplay. He became the first Pakistani and the first person for 42 years to make a Test hundred before lunch against New Zealand at Karachi in 1976-77. But his most celebrated knocks came at a lower level: he led Punjab University to victory over Karachi with an unbeaten double-hundred after they had been 5 for 4, and he smashed 147 in 89 minutes for Pakistan against Glamorgan - who he later represented with distinction - in 1967, an innings that included 13 sixes, five in one over from the offspinner Roger Davis. A Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1970, Majid made almost 4000 runs in 63 Tests before becoming an ICC match referee and later Chief Executive of the PCB.
1960
Birth of the little West Indian wizard Gus Logie. A brilliant short leg and a dangerous counter-attacker at No. 5 or 6, Logie specialised in the punchy, initiative-seizing cameo. In tandem with Jeff Dujon he was a regular pain in the neck for England, most notably at Lord's in 1988 (when West Indies were 54 for 5) and at Trinidad in 1989-90 (when they were 29 for 5). A glorious, impish batsman of just 5 ft 4 ins, Logie played his last Test at Edgbaston in 1991 and finished with 2470 runs at 35.79.
1971
Whatever happened to Matthew Elliott, who was born today? The top scorer on either side in the 1997 Ashes series with 556 runs, the tall, long-nosed Elliott looked a class act who was here to stay. But within a year of becoming a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1998, Elliott had played what may well be his last Test. Poor form certainly contributed to his demise - he made three ducks in six innings in the West Indies in 1998-99 - but he did himself few favours by getting on the wrong side of Steve Waugh during that tour. A gifted left-handed opener or No. 3 with all the shots in his locker, Elliott made three hundreds in his 20 Tests, including 199 at Headingley in 1997, when he was infamously dropped by Graham Thorpe off Mike Smith. He also played for Glamorgan in 2000, and, with great success, for Yorkshire in 2002.
1996
In Nairobi, Muttiah Muralitharan and Romesh Kaluwitharana rained on Kenya's parade. In the first official one-day international there, Murali took 4 for 18 and Kalu thrashed an 89-ball ton as Sri Lanka eased home by seven wickets, with almost 20 overs to spare, in the first match of the Kenya Centenary Cup.
1973
England's leading female legspinner was born. At the age of six Kathryn Leng, who was born today, informed her primary-school teacher that she would play cricket for England, and she was true to her word. Also a fine middle-order bat, Leng made history in 1999 when she became the first woman to play in the men's Bradford League. She also became the first woman to play in a university match, for Leeds/Bradford UCCE, before earning a recall to the England women's winter training squad ahead of their tour to India in January.
1984
The first floodlit one-day international outside Australia took place at New Delhi, and Kepler Wessels broke the habit of a lifetime by playing some shots. His 107 - the only ODI hundred of his career - led Australia to a comfortable 48-run victory over India in the first of a five-match series.
1999
Opening the innings, Lance Klusener smashed an unbeaten 101 as South Africa romped to a nine-wicket victory over Zimbabwe in their LG Cup match at Nairobi with 15 overs to spare. Apparently the ultimate pinch-hitter, Klusener has opened only nine times in ODIs. The reasons? As an opener, his 101 was preceded by a third-ball duck and followed by two first-ballers, a fearful waste of South Africa's most lethal weapon. Unsurprisingly, he hasn't opened since.
1988
In the second Test in Faisalabad Javed Miandad was given out lbw for only the fourth time in 63 Test innings on home soil. But by then he had made 107, his 19th Test hundred, and denied Australia's attempts to square the series. In all Miandad was given out leg-before only eight times in Tests in Pakistan and 25 times overseas.
Other birthdays
1964 Irfan Bhatti (Pakistan)
1973 Colin Stuart (West Indies)
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