BySportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor
The day of 30 December is marked by several key events in cricket history. This day is famous for one of the greatest players in English cricket history, Joe Root's birthday and the last Test match of the legendary captain MS Dhoni. It has witnessed several historic matches that are still talked about today. From India’s win in Centurion to Sri Lanka’s historic victory in Durban, this day made an important impact on cricket. In this article, we are going to take a look at the major events that took place in cricket history on this day.
Whenever England’s greatest batsmen are discussed, Joe Root’s name is always included. Born on 30 December 1990 in Sheffield, Yorkshire, Joe Root has achieved many milestones in his career that few other batsmen have matched. He made his Test debut against India in Nagpur in 2012, where Joe Root impressed with a patient 73 off 229 balls. Later in May 2013, Joe Root scored his first Test century against New Zealand at home. At the time, few could have predicted that Joe Root would become such a major figure in English cricket and even earn comparisons with the legendary Sachin Tendulkar.
In his Test career so far, Joe Root has played 162 matches and scored 13,777 runs in 296 innings at an average of 50.83, including 40 centuries and 66 fifties. The 35-year-old Root is 2144 runs and 11 centuries away from Sachin Tendulkar’s record of most runs and centuries in Test cricket. Looking at his performance, it would not be wrong to say that he can break this record in the coming two to three years. Root has also played 186 ODIs and 32 T20 Internationals in his international career, scoring 7330 and 893 runs respectively. He has scored over 22,000 runs in international cricket for England to date.
The prestigious Border-Gavaskar Trophy series between India and Australia, which previously consisted of four Test matches, has now been extended to five matches for the 2024-25 season. Under the captaincy of Virat Kohli, the Indian team created history by defeating Australia in their own backyard for the first time and won the series 2-1. This made them the first team to ever win a Test series against Australia on Australian soil. In the third Test played in Melbourne Ground on 30 December 2018, India defeated the host team by 137 runs and took a 2-1 lead. The final match ended in a draw and India secured the series victory.
In that match, the Indian team won the toss and elected to bat first, scoring 443/7 in their first innings, with Cheteshwar Pujara scoring 106, Mayank Agarwal 76 and Rohit Sharma 63. The Australian team was then bowled out for just 151 in their first innings, with Jasprit Bumrah taking 6 wickets for 33 runs. In their second innings, India lost 8 wickets for 106 runs, but declared at that score, setting the hosts a target of 399 runs. Australia then scored 261 in their second innings, with Jasprit Bumrah taking 3/53, Ravindra Jadeja 3/82, Ishant Sharma 2/40 and Mohammed Shami 2/71. Jasprit Bumrah was named Player of the Match for his outstanding bowling performance of 6/33 and 3/53.
The Indian team made history on 30 December 2021 by winning a Test match for the first time at Centurion, a ground considered a fortress for the South African team. This victory under the captaincy of Virat Kohli is included in the list of the most historic victories of the Indian team, because for the first time an Asian team won a Test match at this ground. In this match, opening batsman KL Rahul scored a magnificent century in the first innings, giving the team a strong foundation, while Mohammed Shami took a total of 8 wickets across both innings, putting the opposition completely on the back foot. Although India won the first Test of the three-match series, they suffered defeats in the subsequent two matches.
Talking more about the match, India won the toss and elected to bat first, scoring 327 runs, with KL Rahul scoring a century, making 123 runs. This is also the highest individual score by an opening batsman in South Africa. However, the 327 runs scored by Team India in the first innings proved to be too much for South Africa, who were bowled out for just 197 runs. Mohammed Shami played a crucial role in leading India to a historic victory, taking 5 wickets for 44 runs. Team India then scored 174 runs in their second innings, setting a strong target of 305 runs for the hosts. This target also proved too much for South Africa and Shami and Bumrah took 3 wickets each, bowling them out for 191 runs. Thus, India secured a magnificent victory by 113 runs, with KL Rahul being chosen as the Player of the Match for his outstanding performance.
Whenever Pakistan's name is mentioned in international cricket, many bizarre incidents come to mind. You rarely see a team in Test cricket history declare their first innings and then lose by an innings and some runs. It's almost impossible for Pakistan's name not to be on the list of teams holding such embarrassing records. On 30 December 2016 in Melbourne, something similar happened and the Pakistan cricket team etched another shameful record into the history books, becoming only the second team in Test cricket history to lose by an innings and some runs after declaring their first innings. When Pakistan toured Australia in 2016-17 for a three-match Test series, the second match began on Boxing Day and concluded on 30th December. In that match, Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat first and declared their first innings at 443/9. Azhar Ali scored a double century and remained unbeaten on 205 off 364 balls in this innings.
Typically, a score of 443 is considered a good total on a ground like Melbourne, but it proved insufficient for Pakistan. The home team Australia, scored a massive score of 624/8 in their first innings, which is still the highest ever innings total by any team at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Steve Smith scored an 165* and David Warner made 144, while Usman Khawaja scored 97, Mitchell Starc 84 and Peter Handscomb 54. After falling behind by a huge margin of 181 runs in the first innings, Pakistan were all out for just 163 runs in their second innings and suffered a humiliating defeat by an innings and 18 runs. Steve Smith was named Player of the Match for his unbeaten performance.
Whenever the most thrilling series in Test cricket history is discussed, the Test series between England and Australia naturally comes up. One such thrilling encounter between these two teams took place in 1982-83. On 30 December 1982, England won a match against Australia by a narrow margin of just 3 runs, a match that is still talked about today. In this match, England batted first and scored 284 runs in their first innings, while Australia scored 287 runs in their first innings, including half-centuries from Chris Tavare’s 89 and Allan Lamb’s 83.
Australia then scored 287 runs in their first innings, taking a slender lead of 3 runs, with half-centuries from Kim Hughes’ 66, David Hookes’ 53 and Rod Marsh's 53. England in their second innings, scored a total of 294 runs, with a half-century from Graeme Fowler’s 66, setting Australia a target of 292 runs. However, England bowled brilliantly, reducing the hosts to 218 for 9 wickets. Then the real thriller began. A magnificent 70-run partnership between middle-order batsman Allan Border’s 62* and number 11 batsman Jeff Thomson’s 21 runs almost swung the match in Australia's favour, but at 288, Jeff Thomson fell to Ian Botham's bowling, allowing Australia to win the match by just 3 runs. Norman Cowans’ 2/69 and 6/77 outstanding performance was chosen as the Player of the Match.
For any Asian team to win a Test match on South African soil was considered a major achievement a few decades ago. The Sri Lankan team achieved just that on 30 December 2011 and secured their first-ever Test victory in Durban, South Africa. This win came about a year and a half after the retirement of legendary bowler Muttiah Muralitharan, remains Sri Lanka's only Test victory on South African soil to date and is therefore etched in golden letters in the history of Sri Lankan Test cricket. In that match, Rangana Herath took a total of 9 wickets across both innings, making history in the process.
In that match, Sri Lanka batted first and scored 338 runs in their first innings, including a century of 102 runs from Thilan Samaraweera and a half-century of 58 runs from Dinesh Chandimal. However, South African debutant bowler Marchant de Lange took 7 wickets in that innings. The home team could only manage 168 runs in their first innings, with Hashim Amla scoring 54 runs. For Sri Lanka, Chanaka Welegedara took 5 wickets and Rangana Herath took 4 wickets in that innings. Sri Lanka then scored 279 runs in their second innings, setting the hosts a massive target of 450 runs. Chasing this large target, the South African team was all out for 241 runs, with Rangana Herath's brilliant bowling spell of 5/79. Sri Lanka won the match by 208 runs and Rangana Herath was chosen as the Player of the Match for his performance of 30 runs, 4/49 and 5/79.
Whenever the greatest captains in Indian cricket history are discussed, MS Dhoni's name will be mentioned with great respect and perhaps even at the very top of the list. However, the Indian team did not achieve the same level of success in Test cricket under Dhoni's captaincy as it did in white-ball cricket. Dhoni played his last Test match against Australia in Melbourne on 30 December 2014, but at the time, no one knew that the legendary captain would announce his retirement from Test cricket immediately after the match. That match was also quite memorable, as at one point it seemed that Australia would win, but Dhoni held on until the very end to secure a draw.
In that match, the Australian team batted first and scored 530 runs in their first innings, with new captain Steve Smith playing a magnificent innings of 192 runs. However, the Indian middle order put up a strong fight with Virat Kohli’s 169 and Ajinkya Rahane’s 147, forging a massive 262-run partnership. The Indian team managed to score 465 runs in their first innings. The Australian team then declared their second innings at 318/9. The Indian team now had to chase a target of 384 runs in approximately 66 overs on the final day, which was a daunting task. It was widely believed that the Australian team would win the match, as they had taken 6 Indian wickets for 142 runs in 55 overs. However, MS Dhoni played 39 balls and Ashwin played 34 balls, which helped to save the match and secure a draw. Following this match, Dhoni unexpectedly announced his retirement from Test cricket in the post-match press conference. He continued to play international cricket in the white-ball formats until the 2019 World Cup.
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