Cricket News

The big man strikes again...

Today’s the day in 1994 that Pakistan batsmen Aamer Sohali and Inzamam-ul-Haq set the record for the highest ODI partnership when they hit 263 for the second wicket against New Zealand in Sharjah. Sohali contributed 134 before falling with Inzamam finishing on 137 not out. Surprisingly, neither man hit a six. This helped Pakistan defeat New Zealand by 62 runs en route to Pepsi Austral-Asia Cup success after beating India in the final. Their record has since been eclipsed with current holders Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar knocking up an amazing 331, again plundered against a hapless Kiwi attack.      

Elsewhere, on this day in 1968, Enoch Powell made his controversial ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech about immigration. Today in 1974 saw the 1000 victim of ‘The Troubles’, after a petrol station owner is found on a roadside in County Fermanagh after being shot dead. Planet Earth had a lucky escape in 1989, after narrowly avoiding being hit by a passing asteroid weighing 400 million tonnes. In 1999, the Columbine Massacre occurred when two teenage students rampaged through a school in Denver, Colorado killing 15.

We say Makhaya Ntini! as they say in South Africa to former Lancashire and England batsman Graeme Fowler (51), Australia batsman Peter Toohey (54), English novelist Sebastian Faulks (55), glamour model and part time actress Carmen Electra (36), rotund Dutch darts star Raymond van Barneveld (41) and Bob Marley’s son and reggae singer, Stephen Marley (36). Today in 2001 also marks the death one of the greatest New Zealand players of all time, Bert Sutcliffe.