• May 16 down the years

England power past Australia to claim World Twenty20

Captain Paul Collingwood hit the winning runs © Getty Images

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2010
Craig Kieswetter and Kevin Pietersen powered England to victory in the World Twenty20 with an irresistible 111-run second-wicket stand. Chasing a target of 148, Kieswetter and Pietersen broke the back of the chase in an 11-over alliance, but fittingly it was left to England's captain, Paul Collingwood, to seal the victory with 18 balls to spare.

Also, on this day in 2010 Rafael Nadal claimed a record 18th ATP Masters title and an unprecedented clay-court hat-trick, beating old foe Roger Federer in Madrid. Nadal moved once win clear of Andre Agassi with a 6-4 7-6(5) win over the world No. 1 and defending champion with a dominant showing on his favoured surface. The Spaniard became the first man to win all thre clay-court Masters title in one season, having already claimed the Monte Carlo and Rome Masters events. Nadal went on to claim a fifth French Open title at Roland Garros and regain the world No. 1 ranking from Federer.

1982
Alex Higgins regained the world professional snooker title after ten years. He gave himself the chance by making the best break of all time (May 14) and now took revenge on six-time champion Ray Reardon, who'd beaten him in the 1976 Final. Reardon was 49 by now, 16 years older than Higgins, but there was enough left in the tank to make a real match of it. Higgins found himself in a similar situation to the 1980 final (May 5), but on the other end of it. He kept edging further in front as Reardon kept coming back at him. Dracula led 5-2 at one point but the Hurricane levelled at 7-7 and led 10-7 overnight. Then Reardon won two in a row, so did Higgins, so did Reardon again. Higgins won the next to lead 13-11, then went 15-12 ahead before Reardon levelled at 15-all. Higgins didn't lose his nerve. He won the last frame with a typical flourish: a break of 135 to regain the title 18-15. Then it was wife and daughter hugging time, but you can almost forgive him that.

1970
Gabriela Sabatini was born in Buenos Aires. More of a dark sultry pin-up than a top tennis player, she had perfumes and dolls and roses named after her. She did win the US Open singles title in 1990 - and against her nemesis Steffi Graf, who had beaten her in the final two years earlier. But Sabatini's grotesquely weak serve stopped her winning any other Grand Slam singles titles. It was especially feeble in the 1991 Wimbledon final, when she had a hesitant Graf on toast but lost 8-6 in the third. She also lost to Graf in the final of the 1988 Olympic Games but helped her win the Wimbledon doubles in 1988, when they took the deciding set 12-10.

1999
Richmond were already doomed when they beat Bedford Blues 106-12 away, the biggest win in any English Premiership match. Richmond were one of the oldest rugby union clubs in the world, founded in 1861 - but the sudden rush to professionalism destroyed them. Their income wasn't matching the wages they were paying and they were already in administration. Before long, they ceased to exist completely.

1955
The first British boxer to fight for the world heavyweight title after the War. When Rocky Marciano trained for a fight, he really trained. None of the few weeks they take nowadays. He disappeared to the Catskill Mountains for three months at a time. But this time his heart wasn't in it. He was running out of credible opponents, and Don Cockell wasn't one of those. Marciano knew it, his trainers knew it, Cockell had no illusions. He'd outpointed Roland LaStarza in London, but Marciano had destroyed LaStarza just before that. 'I just can't get excited about this fight,' moaned the champ. 'Everybody says this guy's nothing. If he's nothing, what am I fighting him for?' So the Rock didn't train as hard as usual - and Cockell must have wished he had. Instead of a quick knockout, Marciano took a long time finishing him off. Cockell was a natural light-heavyweight (he'd lost a British title fight to Randy Turpin in 1952). He bulked up for tonight, but that left him with a roll of fat around the middle. A sluggish Marciano missed with a lot of punches and caught him with elbows and head butts, some after the bell. He put Cockell through the ropes in the eighth and knocked him down twice in the next. They both retired the following year, Marciano undefeated after one more defence, Cockell after losing his next two fights.

Niki Lauda was involved in a horrendous accident later in the 1976 season © Sutton Images

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1976
Reigning world champion Niki Lauda won the Belgian Grand Prix. It was the fifth race of the Formula 1 season and he'd won three of them. Britain's James Hunt dropped out after only three laps with transmission trouble, but was in contention for the title in the last race on October 24.

2004
Swim king Aleksandr Popov (born November 16 1971) collected his 21st gold medal in the European Championships, a record that still stands. He won the 50 metres freestyle for the fifth time. He was 32 and the slowest qualifier, but overcame the disadvantage of lane eight to beat good swimmers like Stefan Nystrand of Sweden and Italy's Lorenzo Vismara. It was Popov's 10th individual gold at the Championships, equalling the record of Yana Klochkova, who finished only third in the 400 freestyle today.

1996
Cameron Sharp was aptly named. A runner who won bronze in both sprints behind fellow Scot Allan Wells at the 1982 Commonwealth Games, he was disappointed to finish with silver at the European Championships that year. In 1978 he and Wells won Commonwealth gold in the sprint relay. Today in 1996, Sharp won his case for compensation against the East Cumbria Health Authority. Negligence in a Carlisle hospital left him with brain damage after a road accident five years later.

1975
Muhammad Ali kept his world heavyweight title by stopping Ron Lyle in Las Vegas. The scoring was tight up till then: one judge had them level on points. Lyle, normally a big puncher, boxed at long range to avoid falling into the trap Ali set for George Foreman (October 30). But a right to the jaw in the 11th round left him helpless in a corner, and the referee stopped the fight.

1942
Piet Greyling was born. Jan Ellis (born January 5 in the same year) caught spectators' eye - but Greyling was the real class act in that Springbok back row. He scored two tries on his debut, against France in 1967, but only three more in his other 25 international matches. But tries were just a bonus. A strong tackler and glutton for work, Greyling was arguably the best blindside flanker of all time. He was one of the few plusses on the dismal 'demo' tour of the British Isles in 1969-70, scoring tries against England and Ireland. Otherwise it was generally all success until his last match, when he captained a waning team against England on June 3 1972.

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