The Experiment Test England in Australia 1882-1883
The Experiment Test England in Australia 1882-1883
This is an interesting bit of test cricket history. The English having beaten the Australians 2-1 in the scheduled 3 game series played a 4th against Australia. For this match the captains decided to experiment by using a separate pitch for each of the four innings. Let’s see if this “Experiment” would be a success or a failure.
Winning the toss in Sydney, Ivo Bligh elected to have a bat. England had a pretty bad first innings if it wasn’t for All-Rounder Allan Steel. The Englishmen made a defiant 135 against an Australian attack consisting of Spofforth, Palmer and Boyle, whilst the rest of his team batted poorly with just a supporting 48 coming from Charles Studd. The Australians scored 262 in response just 1 run short of the English 263 this time it was a much more team rounded effort with a George Bonnor 87 (really begging to think this is an unlucky number), 20s from Boyle, Palmer and Giffen and a 57 from Jack Blackham. England’s Second Innings was a normal one good amount of runs from All players but nothing special, a 48 not out from Billy Bates the highlight. This left the Australians 199 runs for victory. Alec Bannerman got them of to a flyer with a 63 run knock even though it was a very slow innings taking 3hrs. Jack Blackham made his second 50 for the match a lovely 58 not out. The Australians won by 4 wickets.
All in All this game was far from bad but far from great. I didn’t even know that they experimented like this back in the day especially given they counted it as an official test match. It was also Ivo Bligh’s last game given he was only averaging 10 it made sense to drop him but he will forever be remembered as the English Skipper who brought back the Ashes.
Alex's Rating: 7/10
