Following on, and winning

Australia won the toss at Sydney on 14 December 1894, batted, and made 586. England made 325 and followed on. Six days after the match began, Australia were all out for 166 chasing 177, and the card’s result line reads England won by 10 runs.

Five hundred and eighty-six

Australia were 21 for three. Then George Giffen made 161 and Frank Iredale 81, and Syd Gregory came in at 192 for four and made 201. Jack Blackham, the captain and wicketkeeper, made 74 at number ten, and the ninth wicket put on 154. Tom Richardson bowled 55.3 overs for five for 181. The innings took 172.3 overs, the whole of the first day and part of the second.

England replied with 325, Albert Ward 75, Johnny Briggs 57, Bill Brockwell 49, and Giffen four for 75 from 43 overs. That was 261 behind. Blackham had the choice and made England bat again.

Full scorecard: Australia v England, 1st Test, Sydney, 14–20 December 1894 →

Four hundred and thirty-seven

Ward made 117 in the second innings, Jack Brown 53, Francis Ford 48, Briggs 42, and Bill Lockwood 29 at nine. England were 268 for four at the close of the fourth day and finished on 437, which left Australia 177 to win, in a match with no limit on its days.

Giffen bowled 75 overs in that innings, 25 of them maidens, for four for 164. In the match he bowled 118 overs, took eight wickets and scored 202 runs. Nobody else on the card comes close to that on either side of it.

One hundred and thirteen for two

Australia closed the fifth day on 113 for two. Giffen was 30 not out and Joe Darling 44, and 64 were needed with eight wickets in hand. The sixth day is the one the card was kept for.

Rain fell overnight and changed the pitch, which is not on the card either.

Darling was caught for 53 at 130. Giffen was leg before to Briggs at 135. Iredale caught and bowled Briggs at 147. Gregory, who had made 201 in the first innings, was caught behind for 16 at 158. Reedman stumped at 159, Turner caught at 161, Jones caught at 162, Blackham caught and bowled at 166. Eight wickets fell for 53 runs, and Australia finished ten short.

Bobby Peel took six for 67 in 30 overs, one of them the previous evening and five on the last day. Briggs took three for 25. Between them they bowled 41 of the 68 overs and took nine of the ten wickets.

The choice

The card does not say why Blackham enforced the follow-on, because in 1894 it was not a choice. The Law made the follow-on compulsory once the deficit passed a figure the Law set, and it did not become the fielding captain’s option until 1900. What the card shows is the consequence: Australia bowled more than 320 overs in the match and batted last, on the sixth day, needing 64 with eight wickets left, and lost.

It was the first Test won by a side that had followed on, and it has happened three times since: at Headingley in 1981, at Kolkata in 2001, and at Wellington in 2023, by one run. The card’s own coverage list carries the headlines: forced to follow on yet won, Peel’s mission impossible.

Nine debuts, six days

Nine players were making their Test debuts, five of them for Australia including Darling and Iredale, four for England including Archie MacLaren and Brown. The umpires were Charles Bannerman and Jim Phillips. The match ran from Friday to the following Thursday, with the Sunday a rest day. The card lists it as Test number 42.

What the card holds

A first innings of 586 by the side that lost. A 201 and a 161 in the same innings. A follow-on enforced with a lead of 261. A target of 177 and a total of 166, with 113 of it made the evening before. And a margin of ten, in a match of 1,514 runs, which is the smallest number on the card and the only one that decided anything.

••••••

No. 6 in Declared, a series of 15.

NextForty-five, twice