On 2 March 1896 at the Old Wanderers in Johannesburg, Surrey's George Lohmann took 9 for 28 in 14.2 four-ball overs as South Africa were bowled out for 197 in their first innings. It was the first nine-wicket innings haul in Test cricket and stood as the best Test bowling figures in the world for sixty years until Jim Laker's 10 for 53 at Old Trafford in 1956. Lohmann would finish the series with 35 wickets at 5.80, still the highest tally in any three-Test series.
South African Test cricket had begun only in 1888-89; the 1895-96 series was its third. England under Lord Hawke toured with a strong but not full-strength side. Lohmann, who had been forced out of county cricket by tuberculosis, had taken the South African winter as part of a recuperation programme.
England 482; South Africa replying on a fast pitch with patchy bounce. Lohmann came on as first-change after Briggs and Hearne; the wickets fell almost from the moment he entered the attack.
England, captained by Lord Hawke and powered by Lohmann's lifetime form, had crushed South Africa in the First Test at Port Elizabeth — Lohmann 7/38 and 8/7 with a hat-trick, dismissing the home side for 30. The Second Test moved to the rough Old Wanderers ground in Johannesburg, then a corrugated-iron-fenced patch of veld on the northern edge of the gold-rush city.
England batted first and made 482; Tom Hayward 122. South Africa replied: Lohmann came on first change and bowled medium-fast off-cutters that pitched on a length and rose unevenly. Frank Hearne and Jimmy Sinclair offered the only resistance. Lohmann took 9 for 28 from 14.2 overs (four-ball overs of the era, so 57 deliveries), with one wicket falling to a run-out. South Africa were 197 all out and were forced to follow on. Lohmann took 3 for 43 in the second innings; England won by an innings and 197 runs.
Lohmann's series figures across the three Tests — Port Elizabeth, Johannesburg and Cape Town — were 35 wickets at 5.80. No bowler has ever taken more wickets in a three-Test series. His career Test bowling average of 10.75 across 18 Tests remains the lowest of any bowler with 100-plus Test wickets.
England 482 all out; Hayward 122.
South Africa 4/0; Lohmann opens the bowling change.
First wicket falls in his second over; six in the next ten.
Lohmann finishes 14.2-6-28-9.
South Africa 197 all out; one wicket a run-out.
Follow on; Lohmann 3/43 second innings.
England win by an innings and 197.
Series wickets: Lohmann 35 at 5.80 — still a three-Test record.
2 Mar 1896
England 482; Hayward 122.
3 Mar
Lohmann 9/28; South Africa 197 all out.
3 Mar
Follow on; Lohmann 3/43 second innings.
4 Mar
England win by an innings and 197.
“Lohmann's average for the South African Tests of 1895-96 — 5.80 — is the most extraordinary figure in the records of Test cricket.”
Lohmann took six more Test wickets in the Cape Town finale, finishing the tour with 35 series wickets. His tuberculosis worsened on his return to England; he played little county cricket after 1898 and died in Matjiesfontein, South Africa, in December 1901 aged 36. The 9/28 stood as the Test record until Jim Laker's 10/53 in 1956.
The first 9-wicket Test innings, by the most under-used statistical great in cricket history. Lohmann's series average of 5.80 will not be approached again.
Lohmann's 9/28 is one of the most under-celebrated landmark spells in cricket. The Old Wanderers, where it was bowled, was demolished in 1946; only a plaque marks the site near the Park Station precinct in Johannesburg. The performance has been overshadowed in the public memory by Laker's 10-for, but the 'first 9-for' status is still uncontested in any history of Test cricket.
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.