England v India
1932-06-25
On 25 June 1932 Cottari Kanakaiya Nayudu led India onto Lord's for India's first Test match, the first non-white captain of an Empire side at headquarters. Mohammad Nissar's three early wickets reduced England to 19 for 3 and India lost by only 158 runs in a result that took English critics by surprise.
England v India
1932-06-25
On 25 June 1932 India played its first Test, against England at Lord's, captained by Cottari Kanakaiya Nayudu after the Maharaja of Porbandar quietly stood aside on the morning of the match. India lost by 158 runs, but Mohammad Nissar took 5 for 93 with raw fast bowling, Amar Singh chipped in with 2/75 and 74 with the bat, and CK Nayudu stiffened the order. India had become the sixth Test-playing nation, after Australia, England, South Africa, West Indies and New Zealand.
New Zealand v England
1930-01-10
On 10 January 1930 New Zealand played their first Test match, against an MCC side at Lancaster Park, Christchurch. Tom Lowry captained the home team and Stewie Dempster batted nearly four hours for 136 in the second innings. England won by eight wickets but New Zealand's elevation to Test status was the inter-war period's quiet expansion of the international game.
England v West Indies
1928-06-23
On 23 June 1928 the West Indies played their first ever Test match, against England at Lord's. Bowled out for 177 and 166, they lost by an innings and 58 — but the team led by Karl Nunes and including the young Learie Constantine had crossed the threshold from regional cricket into Test cricket.
South Africa v England
1889-03-12
On 12-13 March 1889, at St George's Park, Port Elizabeth, South Africa became the third Test-playing nation. England, captained by C Aubrey Smith — later a Hollywood actor — won by 8 wickets inside two days. Smith took 5 for 19 in the first innings, his only Test wickets; Owen Dunell, the South African captain, became the first man to lose a Test toss for South Africa.
England v South Africa
1889-03-12
Charles Aubrey Smith was a tall fast-medium Sussex amateur with one of the strangest run-ups in cricket history — a sweeping curve that started from deep mid-off or even from behind the umpire and brought him in at the crease from an unexpected angle. WG Grace remarked it was 'rather startling when he suddenly appears at the bowling crease'. In March 1889, Smith captained the first English side to play a Test in South Africa, took 5/19 in the first innings of that Test, and remains the only player ever to captain England in his one and only Test appearance.
South Africa v England
1889-03-26
On 26 March 1889 at Newlands, Cape Town, Augustus Bernard Tancred batted through a South African innings of 47 all out, finishing 26 not out as Johnny Briggs took 8 for 11 around him. The performance was modest in raw terms but historic: Tancred became the first batsman to carry his bat through a completed innings in Test cricket. His unbeaten 26 out of 47 remains the lowest score by anyone carrying their bat through a Test innings, more than 130 years later.
Australia vs England
1877-03-15
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.
Australia vs England
1877-03-19
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.
Australia vs England
1877-03-16
Billy Midwinter, the Gloucestershire-born Australian all-rounder, took 5 for 78 in England's first innings of the inaugural Test at Melbourne — the first five-wicket haul in Test cricket. He went on to become the only man to play Test cricket for both England and Australia.
Australia vs England
1877-03-15
Fred Spofforth, the leading fast bowler in the Australian colonies, refused to play in the first Test in March 1877. His protest was over the selectors' decision to pick Victorian Jack Blackham as wicketkeeper rather than the New South Welshman Billy Murdoch, the keeper Spofforth had bowled to all his career. Australia won without him.
Australia vs England
1877-03-15
Tom Garrett of NSW was 18 years and 232 days old when he opened the bowling for Australia in the first Test in March 1877. He remains the youngest player ever to represent Australia against England — a record that has stood for nearly 150 years. Garrett took 2/22 and 2/9 in the match and went on to play 19 Tests over the next decade.
Australia vs England
1877-03-13
Frank Allan of Victoria, hailed by W.G. Grace and others as 'the bowler of the century', sent a telegram two days before the first Test telling the selectors he could not play because it was carnival week in Warrnambool and his friends were in town. He never played in the inaugural Test and ended up with a single Test cap two years later.