Australian cricket team in England in 1882
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| 1882 Australia v England Test | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Teams | |||||||
 England |
 Australia |
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| Captains | |||||||
| A N Hornby | Billy Murdoch | ||||||
| Most Runs | |||||||
| George Ulyett (37) W. G. Grace (36) |
Hugh Massie (56) Billy Murdoch (42) |
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| Most Wickets | |||||||
| Ted Peate (8) Dick Barlow (5) |
Fred Spofforth (14) Harry Boyle (5) |
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The 1882 Australia v England series was at the time considered to be part of another first-class cricket tour of England, by a combined team from the Australian colonies, but the match arranged between the Australians and an England side was later accepted to be a Test match. Although it was not known at the time, the one-off match played at The Oval in south London would become the birth of The Ashes.
The English side had lost the previous tour to Australia, but had remained undefeated at home by visiting Australian sides. Australian victory for the first time in England was widely condemned in the English press, including the publication of a satirical obituary which stated that English cricket had died, and the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia. The English media then dubbed the next English tour to Australia in 1882–83 as the quest to regain The Ashes.
Despite the Australia v England match later receiving Test status, and being the match that triggered the birth of The Ashes, the 1882 match is not considered to be part of The Ashes since it precedes the introduction of the trophy. For the tour as a whole, see the Australian cricket team in England in 1882.
Contents |
[edit] Squads
| England |
Australia |
|---|---|
[edit] Match details
[edit] First (and only) Test: England v Australia (28-29 August 1882)
 Australia |
63 (80 overs) J McC Blackham 17 (54) |
& | 122 (63 overs) | Australia won by 7 runs [1] The Oval, London, England |
 England |
101 (71.3 overs) G Ulyett 26 (59) |
& | 77 (55 overs) WG Grace 32 (54) |
Day one
Billy Murdoch won the toss for Australia and chose to bat first. The decision proved a poor one though, as Australia were easily skittled out for a meagre 63 in 80 overs, taking just over 2 hours. The captain himself tried to offer resistance with a slow defensive 13, and experienced wicket-keeper/batsman Jack Blackham top-scored with 17, but the only other batsman to reach double-figures was Tom Garrett with 10. Inspired bowling from opening bowler Ted Peate who took 4 for 31, and Dick Barlow who produced a devastating 5 for 19, ripped the Australian batting order apart on a greensih wicket that gave more assistance that it first seemed.
England began their run chase with openers Dick Barlow and WG Grace, but 'The Doctor' was unable to reproduce his usual heroics, clean bowled by the express pace of Fred Spofforth for 4. A steady succession of wickets followed with only George Ulyett (26 of 59 balls) and Maurice Read (19 off 54 balls) providing any real resistance as Spofforth's pure pace provided too much firepower for the England line-up to deal with. He collected 7 for 46 off 36.3 overs including an astonishing 18 maidens. 4 of his seven dismissals were clean bowled. Despite Spofforth's excellent bowling, England had established a first innings lead of 38, being all out for 101. Stumps were called at the end of England's first innings.
Day two
The second day began with Australia beginning their second innings. The opening pair of Alick Bannerman and Hugh Massie faired much better than in the first innings, putting on 66 for the first wicket - more than the whole team's total in the first innings. The loss of Massie triggered a mini-collapse with Australia losing 4 for 13 over the next few overs before captain Billy Murdoch added a well needed 29 to the middle-order, but the last 4 wickets then fell for 8 runs. Alec Bannerman was top scorer with a well made 55, and Australia were all out for 122 in 63 overs, an overall lead of 84.
The Australians were greatly demoralised by the manner of their second-innings collapse, but fast bowler Fred Spofforth, spurred on by some gamesmanship on the part of his opponents, refused to give in. "This thing can be done," he declared. Spofforth went on to devastate the English batting, taking his final four wickets for only two runs to leave England just seven runs short of victory in one of the closest and most nail- (or umbrella-) biting finishes in the history of cricket.
England had over a day and a half remaining with which to gather the relatively low target of 85 for victory. Their batting line-up certainly had the first class cricket experience with which to do it as well, but young the New South Welsh fast bowler Fred Spofforth had other ideas. Already on a high from his career best 7 for 46 in the first innings, he set about the destruction of England in the second.
England had reached 15 when he clean bowled captain Albert Hornby for 9. He removed Dick Barlow also clean bowled the very next ball to find himself on a hat trick. W G Grace and George Ulyett then put together a partnership of 36 before Spofforth had Ulyett caught behind for 11. Grace fell 2 runs later, caught by Bannerman off the bowling of Harry Boyle for 32. England were stuttering at 53 for 4, still needing 31 for victory.
A sluggish 12 off 55 balls from wicket-keeper Alfred Lyttelton took England onto 66 for 5, but he then had his middle-stump dramatically uprooted by Spofforth. Steel was then caught and bowled by Spofforth for a third ball duck, and Read clean bowled for a second ball duck in the same over. When Lucas was likewise bowled by Spofforth for 5, England were self-destructing at 75 for 8, needing just 10 more runs for victory. The very next over from the other end, Harry Boyle removed Barnes for 2, and then with the last ball of his over clean bowled Ted Peate for 2 to have England all out for 77 off exactly 55 overs. They had a day and a half with which to get 85 runs, but had lasted a mere 122 minutes, destroyed by the pace of Spofforth, who bettered his first innings career best by two runs collecting 7 for 44, and giving him match figures of 14 for 90. It would remain his finest display and remain his match and innings career best figures.
At first the crowd fell deathly silent, unable to fathom how England had collapsed so dramatically. Then as the fine bowling display sank in, the rushed onto the field to congratulated Spofforth and Boyle for their remarkable achievement.
[edit] Post match
England's astonishing collapse had shocked the English public, and the press savaged the players. It was the first time England had been beaten in England. On 31 August, in the great Charles Alcock-edited magazine Cricket: A Weekly Record of The Game, there appeared a now-obscure mock obituary:
- SACRED TO THE MEMORY
- OF
- ENGLAND'S SUPREMACY IN THE
- CRICKET-FIELD
- WHICH EXPIRED
- ON THE 29TH DAY OF AUGUST, AT THE OVAL
- ----
- "ITS END WAS PEATE"
- ----
Two days later, on September 2, a second, more celebrated mock obituary, written by Reginald Brooks under the pseudonym "Bloobs", appeared in The Sporting Times. It read as follows:
- In Affectionate Remembrance
- of
- ENGLISH CRICKET,
- which died at the Oval
- on
- 29th AUGUST, 1882,
- Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing
- friends and acquaintances
- ----
- R.I.P.
- ----
- N.B. — The body will be cremated and the
- ashes taken to Australia.
Ivo Bligh fastened on to this notice and promised that, on the tour to Australia in 1882–83 (which he was to captain), he would regain "those ashes". He spoke of them again several times over the course of the tour, and the Australian media quickly caught on. The three-match series resulted in a two-one win to England, notwithstanding a fourth match, won by the Australians, whose status remains a matter of ardent dispute.
In the twenty years following Bligh's campaign, the term "The Ashes" largely disappeared from public use. There is no indication that this was the accepted name for the series -- at least not in England. The term became popular again in Australia first, when George Giffen, in his memoirs (With Bat and Ball, 1899), used the term as if it were well known.[1]
The true and global revitalisation of interest in the concept dates from 1903, when Pelham Warner took a team to Australia with the promise that he would regain "the ashes". As had been the case on Bligh's tour twenty years before, the Australian media latched fervently onto the term, and, this time, it stuck.
[edit] Records
[edit] Individual records
| Most runs | Hugh Massie | 56 |
| Most wickets | Fred Spofforth | 14 |
| Most catches (excluding wicket keepers) | William Gilbert Grace | 4 |
| Highest individual innings | Hugh Massie | 55 |
| Best innings bowling | Fred Spofforth | 7/40 (1st Innings) |
| Highest match total | Hugh Massie | 56 |
| Best match bowling | Fred Spofforth | 14/90 |
[edit] Team records
| Best Innings | Australia | 122 (2nd Innings) |
| Worst Innings | Australia | 63 (1st Innings) |
| Tosses Won | Australia | 1 (out of 1) |
[edit] Other records
[edit] Notes
- ^ Gibson, A., Cricket Captains of England, p. 26.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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