Things
did not look good for the Australian's when they arrived
at Lord's for the first of three Test matches at Lord's.
England had now won seven games on the trot, and to
make matters worse they had played three warm up games
and lost them all.
Heavy
rain caused the first test to start late, the wicket
suffered and Australia batting first fell for 116.
However, this turned out to be the highest score of
the game as both sides struggled to perform with the
bat. England's two innings were 53 and 62 (Turner
taking 5 wickets in each innings, Ferris taking 5
wickets in the second). Australia in their second
innings scored 62 runs leaving England to score 123
runs to win, although as previously mentioned they
fell way short. In a remarkable match, 27 wickets
fell in 3 hours at a cost of 157 runs.
The
series moved on to the Oval, and partly due to the
victory but mainly because they were playing at Surrey,
the Surrey selectors chose 5 Surrey players! Only
three Surrey men were playing at Lord's and with another
change, Grace took over the captaincy from Steel.
It was a better performance from the English side
as they quickly rolled Australia over for only 80
runs. With a reply of 317 runs, the game was over
as far as Australia were concerned as they fell for
100 all out in their second innings. England won the
match by an innings and 137 runs. The series all square,
the teams moved up North to Old Trafford.
England
scored 172 runs for their first knock, and although
they didn't think so at the time, it was to prove
an important score. Australia struggled, loosing two
wickets before the close of play and a further 18
by lunch on the second day. This was a record in Test
match history, the most wickets falling before lunch.
Two other records also fell in the match, the shortest
innings in a Test match (69 minutes) and the shortest
test in England (6 hours, 34 minutes of play).
Since
their debuts in Test cricket Turner and Ferris had
taken 85 wickets of the 96 wickets taken by Australian
bowlers. Turner took 21 wickets in the three match
series at 12.42 a piece. Peel (England) took 24 wickets
at 7.54 each. |
