11th July 1968 was the first day of the 3rd Ashes test at Edgbaston, Birmingham. It was also a special occasion as the English captain Colin Cowdrey was playing his 100th test. A famous name who was identified as a batting prodigy from a very young age and given stability to English middle order for a very long time, Cowdrey was the first player to play the 100th test match.
Altough there was no play on day one, John Edrich and Geoff Boycott provided a good start to England once play started on day two. Cowdrey came to bat at the score of 80/1 and added 108 runs with Edrich who scored 88 before getting out. Ken Barrington came but was dismissed immediately for a duck. At 189 for 3, Australians hoped for a come back in the test match as Cowdrey was also not looking comfortable and called up Boycott as his runner. But in Tom Graveney, Cowdrey found an able ally and they batted together till end of the days play. Cowdrey was unbeaten on 95.
Next day after a nervy start for first thirty minutes Cowdrey finally reached his 21st test century. It was a great achievement to score a century on the 100th test match and it was celebrated a lot by the British media as the test match ended in a draw.
With this century he started a tradition of scoring century on the 100th test which till now have been met by only very few special cricketers. More than 20 years later Javed Miandad became the second player to achieve the feat in Lahore and was joined by Gordon Greenidge next year. Since 2000, this feat is achieved by five batsmen. The list includes Alec Stewart, Inzama-ul-Haq and two South Africans Graeme Smith and Hasim Amla, the latest entrant. But the achievement of Ricky Ponting was special as he scored centuries in the both innings of his 100th test against South Africa at Sydney Cricket Ground in 2006.
