Thirty, in ninety-four balls

The list of five collapses on this site starts in 1887 with England’s 45. Nine years later South Africa made 30 at Port Elizabeth, on 14 February 1896, in 94 balls, lower than four of the five. The card notes that it stood as the lowest score in Test cricket until New Zealand made 26 in 1955. It took fifty-nine years to be beaten and it has been beaten once.

Two days

South Africa won the toss and put England in. England made 185, C. B. Fry 43 and Tom Hayward 30, Bonnor Middleton five for 64. South Africa replied with 93, George Lohmann seven for 38, and England had lost a wicket in their second innings, for nought, by the close. Three innings in a day, and a fourth begun.

On the second day England went from 0 for one to 226, Sammy Woods 53, and South Africa were set 319. They were all out for 30 in 18.4 overs, and the overs were five balls, which is where the 94 comes from. The match took two of its three days.

Full scorecard: South Africa v England, 1st Test, Port Elizabeth, 13–14 February 1896 →

The thirty

The ledger. Tommy Routledge 2, Frank Hearne 5, Robert Poore 10, Jimmy Sinclair 0, Charles Fichardt 1, Charles Hime 8, Barberton Halliwell 3, Robert Gleeson 1 not out, Frederick Cook 0, Middleton 0, Joseph Willoughby 0. Extras, nought. Poore’s 10 was the top score and a third of the total.

The fall of wickets: 4, 11, 11, 18, 18, 28, 29, 30, 30, 30. Twice two wickets fell at the same score, and then three fell at 30, which is the hat-trick. Cook bowled, Middleton bowled, Willoughby caught Hayward, all off Lohmann, and the card notes that he ended the match with it on the second day.

Eight for seven

Lohmann bowled 9.4 overs, five of them maidens, for 7 runs and eight wickets. The card notes that it set a new Test record. With the seven for 38 in the first innings he took fifteen for 45 in the match, and South Africa’s twenty wickets fell for 123.

The other two bowlers in the second innings were Hugh Bromley-Davenport, seven overs for 23 and Fichardt leg before, and Hayward, two overs, both maidens, Hime bowled. Hayward’s figures read 2-2-0-1, which is the line the card gives to the man who took the only wicket Lohmann did not.

The pair

Lohmann opened the batting in England’s first innings and was caught for 0, the first wicket down with the score at 0. He batted at six in the second and was bowled for 0. The man who took fifteen wickets for 45 made a pair, and was on the card as England’s worst batter and South Africa’s whole problem.

Fifteen debuts

The card lists fifteen Test debutants, eight for England and seven for South Africa. Among the eight is Woods, whom the card notes was making his debut for England after playing for Australia, and whose 53 was the top score of the match. Among the seven is Middleton, who took nine wickets in it. Lord Hawke was also playing his first Test, and made 0 and 30. Tim O’Brien captained.

The card lists no umpires. It lists a toss won by the side that lost by 288, a top score for the match of 53, and a second innings in which the whole side made what one batter had managed in the first. Routledge and Hearne had put on 29 for the first wicket on the first day; on the second the first wicket fell at 4 and the tenth at 30.

What the card holds

A total of 30 with no extras, so every run was scored off the bat. A top score of 10. Three wickets at the same score to end the match, and the note that names them a hat-trick. A bowler with 8 for 7 and a pair. And a margin of 288, which is more than nine times what the losing side made in its second innings, in a match that England won with a day to spare.

••••••

No. 10 in Collapse, a series of 16.

NextCowans’s six for 77