ON THIS DAY
Follow UsThe first-ever Test match was held on September 6, 1880, in a bid to sum up a memorable English county season. Secretary of Surrey, CW Alcock had given English skipper Lord Harris the Oval ground to assemble a team for a three-day match between England XI and the visiting Australian players for the county season.
The term “Test” was still unknown to cricket fans, but that didn’t deter them from rushing to the ground to watch the game. Lord Harris quickly managed to form a team with his best possible players, which missed a few prominent names, while the visiting Australians almost played to their full strength barring their fearsome pace bowler Fred Spofforth.
There were many firsts during this match, quite understandably. English great WG Grace would open the batting for the country with his brother EM Grace, a feat that was repeated only after 89 years when Hanif and Sadiq Mohammad would open for Pakistan against New Zealand.
English skipper Lord Harris opted to bat first in front of a packed Oval consisting of 20,814 spectators on the first day. The Grace brothers forged a 91-run stand - the best partnership to date by brothers - before WG would go on to make the first-ever century in the first-ever Test match.
Having the English weather by his side, WG would bat for almost four hours to score 154 runs in 294 balls, scoring 12 boundaries in the process. After partnering with his brother for 91 runs, WG would then stand with Bunny Lucas for 120 runs and finally with Billy Barnes for another 58 runs before Joey Palmer dismissed the bearded giant.
However, Lord Harris’ 52 and Allan Steel’s 42 helped England reach a steep total of 420 runs. In the absence of Spofforth, the Aussie bowlers struggled for wickets initially, but Alec Bannerman and William Moule managed three wickets each, apart from Palmer and George Alexander’s contributions.
The English bowler, in response, ran riot on the Australian batters, with Fred Morley taking the first five-fer in a Test match. Among the wicket-takers was WG Grace as well, who would dismiss Moule’s wicket with his fifth ball of the match.
Having wrapped up Australia for just 149 runs, they were asked to follow on, a move that almost backfired for England. While most Australian batsmen failed in the second innings as well, skipper Billy Murdoch would score 158 runs - which became the highest number of runs scored in the first-ever Test match, and that too by a captain.
Further help by middle-order batsman Percy McDonnell meant Australia ended with a lead of 56 runs - a small target for England. WG Grace had bowled 28 overs in the second innings, where he took two wickets and decided to come down the order. It was a calculated risk, given the small target.
But, before England realized they were 31/5 in no time with Aussie bowlers Palmer and Boyle running the show. Eventually, Grace would be summoned to come in at number 5 as his unbeaten 9 runs of 20 balls would take England over the rope.
