ON THIS DAY
Follow UsThere are days when the Gods just don't want to be entertained, and July 17, 1888, was one such day. The first Test match of the Ashes series that year was played at Lord's that lasted just two days, with 27 wickets falling on Day 2 - a record that still stands after 135 years!
There was good reason for this calamity, though.
During those times, the practice of covering the cricket pitch, let alone the outfield, hadn't started, as the teams would wait for the Sun to dry it. Consequently, the natural drying after heavy rain would result in uneven bounce making it extremely difficult for the batsmen.
On July 16, the match had started in good, dry conditions after an initial downpour but the proceedings were a hint of things to come. Batting first, the Aussies could put up a meager total of 116 runs before getting bundled with English bowlers Bobby Peel (4/36) and Johnny Briggs (3/26) taking the majority of the wickets.
Skipper Pecry McDonnell and Jack Blackham were the highest scorers for Australia, making 22 runs each. Jack Edwards’ unbeaten 21 runs had provided some semblance of control to the visitors, who knew that the hosts would suffer just as poorly.
Before Day 1 ended, England were already 18/3, with the mercurial WG Grace still holding his crease at 10 runs. A total of 13 wickets had fallen on the first day of the match, but the spoiler was yet to come.
The hosts could add just 35 more runs to the scoreboard before getting wrapped up, with Johnny Briggs being their top scorer with 17 runs. In fact, barring Briggs and Grace (10), no English batsman could reach double figures. For Australia, Charlie Turner (5/27) led the way with the ball, having some help from John Ferris, who had three wickets to his name.
Both the teams had finished their first innings in the initial hours of Day 2 itself, with everyone hoping for a proper Test match of cricket thereafter. However, the match altogether ended in the next few hours, with both Australia and England getting all out.
With seven wickets already falling in the morning, no one expected to see 20 more crumbling on the same day. But Australia were wrapped up for just 60 runs, following the lead of 63 runs from the first inning. England’s George Lohmann and Peel had jointly taken eight wickets.
The Aussies could have seen a worse total had it not been for the ninth wicket 24-run stand between Ferris and Turner after the visitors were down to 18/7. However, even this target of 113 runs looked mountainous given how the match was faring.
The last innings was left with 17 scalps already fallen and only 98 runs put on the board on Day 2. After saving Australia the blushes with the bat, Ferris and Turner would go on to take five wickets each in a matter of hours to wrap up England for just 62 runs.
Had Australia not batted in the second innings, they would still have won by a run. It was the lowest Test match aggregate at that time. The highest run-scorer of this match was Grace, with a tally of 24 runs in the second innings.
27 wickets falling on a day was unheard of until then, and the record is yet to be broken. The closest to this record is 23 wickets falling on a single day of Test cricket when South Africa hosted Australia in Cape Town.
