Eighty-five to win

England needed 85 to beat Australia at The Oval on 29 August 1882. They made 77. The card gives Frederick Spofforth seven for 44 in the innings and fourteen for 90 in the match, and a result line reading Australia won by 7 runs. It is Test number 9, and it is the one the Ashes are named after.

Sixty-three

Australia batted first and made 63 in 80 overs, and the overs were four balls. It took 133 minutes. Dick Barlow took five for 19 in 31 overs, 22 of them maidens, and Ted Peate four for 31 in 38 overs, 24 maidens. Only Jack Blackham, with 17, passed 13.

England replied with 101. Spofforth took seven for 46 in 36.3 overs. George Ulyett made 26 and Maurice Read 19 not out, on debut, and the lead was 38. Both innings were complete on the first day.

Full scorecard: England v Australia, Only Test, The Oval, 28–29 August 1882 →

One hundred and twenty-two

Hugh Massie made 55 from 60 balls on the second morning, nine fours, and the first wicket put on 66. From there Australia lost ten for 56. Billy Murdoch, the captain, was run out for 29, and Sammy Jones was run out too. Peate took four for 40. The total was 122, and England needed 85.

Seventy-seven

The ledger. Monkey Hornby, the captain, bowled Spofforth 9 at 15. Barlow bowled Spofforth first ball, 15 for two. Then W. G. Grace and Ulyett took it to 51. Ulyett caught behind off Spofforth for 11. Grace caught Bannerman off Boyle for 32, at 53.

Bunny Lucas and Alfred Lyttelton took 55 balls each. Lyttelton was bowled for 12 at 66. Allan Steel caught and bowled for 0, Read bowled for 0, both at 70. Lucas bowled for 5 at 75, Billy Barnes caught for 2 at 75, Peate bowled by Boyle for 2 at 77. Charles Studd, on debut, was 0 not out from no balls faced. Eight wickets for 26 runs.

Spofforth bowled 28 overs, 15 maidens, seven for 44. Harry Boyle bowled 20 overs, eleven maidens, three for 19. Tom Garrett bowled seven overs for 10 without a wicket, and nobody else bowled. Fifty-five overs, 122 minutes, 77 runs.

Maidens

The match had 269.3 overs and 363 runs, which is a run every three balls. In Australia’s 63 Barlow and Peate bowled 46 maidens between them out of their 69 overs. In England’s 77 Spofforth and Boyle bowled 26 out of 48. The scoring rate was not a collapse; it was the game. What made the last innings a collapse was that England needed 85 and had been 51 for two, with Grace in.

The batting orders moved. Australia sent Massie in first in the second innings and dropped Murdoch to four. England sent Grace in first and Hornby with him, and held Studd, who had been bowled first ball by Spofforth on the first day, back to number ten, where the innings ended before he faced a ball.

The obituary

What followed is not on the card. A mock obituary for English cricket appeared in the Sporting Times, ending with a note that the body would be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia. The name stuck to every series between the two sides since, and the card that caused it has no series line at all, because the match was the only Test of the tour.

What the card holds

Two days. Four totals, none above 122. Fourteen wickets for Spofforth for 90 runs in 64.3 four-ball overs. A batter who was not out without facing a ball. Two run-outs in an innings of 122 that decided how many England needed. And a margin of seven, from a target of 85, which is the number the whole of a rivalry was named from.

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No. 11 in Collapse, a series of 16.

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