It
was Australia's turn to tour England in 1886, this
time bringing a weak side to play in the three match
series. Spofforth, Palmer and Garrett were all approaching
retirement as test players. Scott captained the tourists
while Steel captained England in all three Tests.
The
first match was played at Old Trafford, Manchester.
Pilling and Hornby were recalled to play for the home
team, however neither he nor Barnes could play due
to injury and were replaced by Barlow and Briggs (both
Lancastrians). It was to prove a tight opening Test
match and a low scoring one at that. Australia scored
205 and in reply England scored 223, a lead of 18
runs. Barlow bowled superbly in the second innings,
taking 7 - 44 and Australia bowled out for 123 runs.
England made heavy weather of the run chase as they
only managed to win by 4 wickets, chasing a target
of 106 runs.
Due
to the win and performance Briggs and Barlow kept
their places. Lord's was the venue for the second
match in the series. Shrewsbury scored a tremendous
century 164, and England's highest individual score
to date as they reached 353 all out. The total was
too much for Australia, dismissed for only 121, Briggs
taking 5 wickets for 29 runs. Forced to follow on,
Briggs did even better in the second innings, taking
6 wickets for 45, a match return of 11 - 74 and Australia
collapsing - 106 all out.
In
the third and final Test match of the series W.G.
Grace overtook Shrewsbury's highest test score for
England (scored in the last game) by scoring 170 runs.
This was also the total of the opening stand for England,
a record for either side. Scotton was the other batsman
and scored only 34 of the 170 runs between them, stuck
on 24 runs for over an hour! England's score of 434
was again too much for the Australian side and were
bowled out for 68 and 149 respectively. Lohmann caused
the damage in both innings by taking 7 - 36 and 5
- 68.
England
retained the Ashes comfortably with a 3- 0 win.
Briggs
ended the series as best bowler taking 17 wickets
at a cost of only 7.76 per wicket.
Shrewsbury
was top batsman scoring 243 runs at an average of
60.75.
|
