On This Day In Cricket - January 9

9 January has seen several key moments in cricket history across all formats and eras. The day includes historic matches, breakthrough performances and milestones that really helped shape cricket. Below, we have listed some of the best moments of this day that left a lasting impact on the game and people still recall them often.

On This Day - January 9, 2011- South Africa vs India Only T20I in Durban

On 9 January 2011, the only T20 International match between India and South Africa was played at the Kingsmead Ground in Durban, in which India achieved a remarkable victory in the Super Over. India won the toss and elected to bat first. Rohit Sharma top-scored for India with 53 runs of 34 balls, including four fours and three sixes. Suresh Raina also played a useful innings of 38 runs from 29 balls and played a key role in taking the team's score to 168.

This was the same ground where India defeated Pakistan in a bowl-out in the 2007 World Cup. In the second innings, South African opener Morne van Wyk scored the highest 67 runs. Indian fast bowler Munaf Patel took 2 wickets for 42 runs in 4 overs, while Rusty Theron took 2 wickets in 3 overs for South Africa. This was also Munaf Patel's T20I debut match, in which he made a mark with an outstanding delivery. Under MS Dhoni's captaincy, India once again performed brilliantly under pressure and Rohit was chosen for the Man of the Match.

On This Day - January 9, 2006 - First T20I Played in Australia

T20I cricket was held for the first time on Australian soil on 9 January 2006. This match was played between Australia and South Africa in a day-night format at The Gabba in Brisbane. Risky Ponting led the Australian team in this match, while Graeme Smith led the South African team. A total of 11 players made their debuts in this match, 10 players from both teams made their T20I debuts and Australia’s Stuart Clark made his T20 debut. Australia won the toss and decided to bat first. 38,894 spectators gathered at the Gabba to watch this new format of T20I, a very large number at that time.

In the first innings, the Australian team set a huge target of 209, with the help of Damien Martyn’s 97 and Andrew Symonds’ 57 runs. South Africa's Shaun Pollock, Monde Zondeki and Johan Botha took one wicket each in the first innings. While chasing the target, South Africa had a very bad start and lost 2 wickets back-to-back for just 7 runs. Mark Boucher scored the highest 29 runs for the team and bowlers Nathan Bracken, Mick Lewis, James Hopes, and Andrew Symonds took 2 wickets each. The South African team was all out for just 114 runs in 18.3 overs and Australia won this historic match by a huge margin of 95 runs. Damien Martyn was named Man of the Match for his notable innings. Australia made a brilliant start in T20I cricket at home and showed that they have the potential to become world champions in this new format as well.

On This Day - January 9, 1968 - Jimmy Adams Was Born

Jimmy Adams, former West Indies captain and a brilliant all-rounder, was born on 9 January 1968 in Port Maria, Jamaica. He was a left-handed batsman, a useful left-arm spin bowler and an excellent fielder. In his first 12 Tests, he scored 1,132 runs at an average of 87, which was the best debut after Sir Don Bradman. He made his Test debut on 12 April 1992 against South Africa in Bridgetown and his ODI debut on 17 December the same year against Pakistan in Sydney.

He played cricket for Jamaica for 20 years and scored over 11,000 runs in first-class cricket. Jimmy scored a total of 3,012 runs in 54 matches of his Test career at an average of 41.26, with his highest score of 208* against New Zealand in 1995. He took 27 wickets in Tests and 43 in ODIs and holds the record for taking 5-wicket hauls once in both formats. His Test five-wicket haul came against New Zealand in Barbados in the 1995/96 series, where he took 5 wickets for 17 runs. After retiring from cricket in 2004, he served as the head coach of the English county team 'Kent' from 2012 to 2016. Then, from January 2017 to 2023, Jimmy also held the responsibility of Director of Cricket for the West Indies. In August 2021, he was awarded Jamaica's national honour the Order of Distinction (OD) for his services to cricket.

On This Day - January 9, 2009 - Rahul Dravid's Unbeaten 123 in Taupo

Rahul Dravid delivered an outstanding performance of 123* runs against New Zealand in the 1st ODI match of India's tour of New Zealand in Taupo. This was his best performance at that time and he was also named Man of the Match for this performance. India scored 257 runs in 47 overs, but despite Dravid’s outstanding performance, they lost the match. Later, New Zealand was given a revised target of 261 runs in 47 overs as per the Duckworth-Lewis (D/L) method and they scored the runs to win the match.

India won the toss and elected to bat first. When India's score was 201/4 in 43.5 overs, play was stopped due to heavy rain. Rahul Dravid was on 83 and Ajay Jadeja was on 7. After the rain stopped, the match was reduced to 47 overs per innings, meaning only 3.1 overs remained in India's innings. Rahul Dravid batted aggressively in these last 19 balls and took the team score to 257/5 with his amazing unbeaten century. A technical fault in a floodlight tower stopped play for about 50 minutes in the second innings, but till then, New Zealand had already scored 168/3 in 30.4 overs. However, when the match started again, the target was reduced to 200 runs in 39 overs under the D/L rule. New Zealand scored 200 runs in 38 overs for the loss of 5 wickets and won the match.

On This Day - January 9, 2007 - Australia's Record T20I Rout at SCG

The first T20 International (T20I) match between Australia and England was played at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) on 9 January 2007. In this match, Australia showcased a remarkable batting performance and set the highest world record score in a T20I at that time with 221/5. Cameron White was chosen as Man of the Match for his highest 48 runs in the innings for Australia. This was the only T20 International match of England's tour of Australia that was played at the Sydney Ground.

Australia captain Ricky Ponting won the toss and took the bold decision of batting first. They scored a mammoth total of 221 runs for the loss of 5 wickets in the stipulated 20 overs, in which Adam Gilchrist played the highest innings of 48 runs. In the second innings, England chased down Australia's target with full force, but despite this, England never looked in a position to win and could only manage 144 runs for 9 wickets in 20 overs. Symonds and Ben Hilfenhaus took two wickets each for England and helped Australia win by a huge margin of 77 runs.

On This Day - January 9, 2010 - Virat Kohli and Suraj Randiv Emergence

The 5th Tri-Nation Tournament in Bangladesh match was played between Sri Lanka vs India on 10 January 2010 at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur, Dhaka. During this match, players like Virat Kohli, Upul Tharanga and Suraj Randiv were emerging at the international level. Gautam Gambhir, who was in poor form for some time, also made his comeback in this match and young bowler Sudeep Tyagi made a good start to his career by dismissing Upul Tharanga in the very first over.

Sri Lanka won the toss and decided to bat first and scored a total of 213 runs with the help of 68 runs from captain Kumar Sangakkara and 56 runs from Suraj Randiv. Indian bowlers Zaheer Khan and Amit Mishra took 3 wickets each in the match. India responded with a blistering innings in the second innings, winning the match by 8 wickets in 32.4 overs, with Gambhir and Virat scoring 71 runs each. Zaheer Khan was named Man of the Match for his superb bowling. Cricket reports considered it India's best fielding performance since last year's Champions Trophy.