Tom Kendall, a Tasmanian-born left-arm medium-pacer and the only Tasmanian in the side, took 7 for 55 to bowl Australia to a 45-run win in the first Test at Melbourne. England, set 154 to win, were dismissed for 108 on the fourth day, leaving Kendall with the first match-winning bowling figures in Test history.
Kendall was the only Tasmanian in the All-Australian XI and a left-arm medium-pacer of the orthodox finger-spin variety. The Australians regarded him as their best change bowler.
England, set 154 in the fourth innings on a wearing Melbourne pitch, began the chase confidently. Harry Jupp and John Selby put on 40 for the first wicket before Kendall came on at the southern end.
Kendall had been born in Bedford in 1851 and emigrated to Hobart as a boy. By 1877 he was the most respected slow-medium left-armer in the Australian colonies. Picked for the All-Australian XI, he was given the new ball with Frank Allan unavailable. In the first innings he bowled tidily for 1/54. The second innings — England chasing 154 to win — was his moment. He removed Harry Jupp early, then ran through the middle order, taking the wickets of Charlwood, Greenwood, Selby, Emmett, Armitage and Lillywhite to finish with 7 for 55 in 33.1 four-ball overs. England, all out for 108, were beaten by 45 runs. Kendall played only one more Test, the Sydney rematch of January 1879, by which time his form had collapsed amid reports of heavy drinking. He moved back to Tasmania, where he played and umpired into the 1890s.
Kendall removes Jupp; England 40-1
Three quick wickets in the middle order
Lillywhite bowled to end the match — Kendall 7/55
Australia win by 45 runs
Day 4 morning
England begin chase of 154
Day 4 mid-morning
Kendall replaces Garrett, removes Jupp
Day 4 lunchtime
England collapse to 93-7
Day 4 afternoon
Kendall bowls Lillywhite; Australia win by 45 runs
“Kendall bowled magnificently. The Englishmen could not get him away.”
Kendall was carried off the ground by Australian supporters and given a share of the gate money. He played for Australia again in January 1879 against Lord Harris's tourists, took 1/24, and never represented his country again. He died in Melbourne in 1924.
The first match-winning bowling performance in Test cricket. Kendall's 7/55 has its own peculiar place in the record books — the figures of a one-Test wonder who bowled out England.
Kendall's 7/55 stood as the best bowling figures in a Test innings until Fred Spofforth's 7/46 at the Oval in 1882. His career — two Tests, eight wickets, one decisive performance — remains the template for the one-Test hero who decided cricket's first international.
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.