Cricket's first Test match was played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground from 15 to 19 March 1877. A combined Australian XI captained by Dave Gregory beat James Lillywhite's touring English professionals by 45 runs. Charles Bannerman scored 165 retired hurt — the first Test century — and Tom Kendall took 7 for 55 in the second innings to clinch the win. The match was not officially designated a Test until decades later, but it has stood ever since as the start point of international Test cricket.
Lillywhite's tour was a private commercial venture — eleven professional players from England (almost all from the north and the south coast counties), travelling at their own risk for a share of the gate. They had played fifteens against colonial sides through the Australian and New Zealand summer of 1876-77.
The Melbourne match was promoted as the first eleven-a-side game between an English touring side and an All-Australian XI. England's first-choice wicketkeeper, Ted Pooley, was missing — he had been arrested in Christchurch after a betting dispute and was awaiting trial. The Australians went into the match underdogs in English betting; the home press treated it as a serious challenge.
The match arose almost by accident. James Lillywhite's professional touring party, on the way home from a New Zealand leg of their colonial tour, agreed to play a fifteen-a-side game in Melbourne against an All-Australian XI as the climax of their Australasian visit. The Australians, led by Dave Gregory of New South Wales and including five Victorians, four New South Welshmen and one Tasmanian (Tom Kendall), were given an even-numbered match — eleven a side — for the first time. Australia won the toss and batted on a hard MCG pitch. Charles Bannerman, opening, took strike to Alfred Shaw of Nottinghamshire, who delivered the first ball ever bowled in what would become Test cricket. Bannerman responded with a virtuoso 165 before retiring with a split finger, an innings that accounted for 67% of Australia's first-innings 245. England replied with 196, Australia made 104 in their second innings (Shaw 5/38), and England, set 154 to win, were dismissed for 108. Tom Kendall, the Hobart-born left-arm medium-pacer, took 7/55 to win the match by 45 runs.
Day 1: Bannerman 165 retired hurt; Australia 245 all out
Day 2: England all out 196 (Harry Jupp 63, Billy Midwinter 5/78)
Day 3: Australia 104 (Shaw 5/38, Lillywhite 4/70)
Day 4: England 108 chasing 154; Tom Kendall 7/55; Australia win by 45 runs
15 Mar 1877
Australia win toss; Shaw bowls the first ball to Bannerman
15 Mar 1877
Bannerman retires hurt on 165; Australia 245 all out
17 Mar 1877
England 196 in reply; Australia 104 in second innings
19 Mar 1877
Kendall 7/55; Australia win by 45 runs
“There never was such a beginning to anything as Bannerman's 165 was to Test cricket.”
The Australian XI shared a winner's purse and were feted in Melbourne. Lillywhite's side, stung by the defeat, agreed to a return match a fortnight later at the same ground; England won that second match by 4 wickets, levelling the unofficial 'series' at 1-1. Both fixtures were retrospectively classified as Tests by historians in the early 20th century.
Australia win by 45 runs in what posterity has fixed as the first Test match. Bannerman's 165 retired hurt and Kendall's 7/55 are the founding individual performances of Test cricket.
The 1877 Melbourne match is the founding fixture of Test cricket. Its centenary was celebrated in March 1977 with the Centenary Test on the same ground, won by Australia by exactly the same margin — 45 runs. The MCG still treats the original match as the start of its Test history; a plaque on the members' wing commemorates the date.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.