1902
Thirty-six, then rain
Australia were bowled out for 36 at Edgbaston in May 1902, Wilfred Rhodes seven for 17, and followed on 340 behind with a day and a half left. Rain fell for twelve hours that night. The card’s result line reads Match drawn.
England declared at 376 for nine on the second morning at Edgbaston in May 1902 and bowled Australia out for 36 in 23 overs. Australia followed on and were 8 for no wicket at the close. The card’s third-day line reads Australia 46 for two, end of match, and its result line reads Match drawn.
Three hundred and seventy-six
England chose to bat. Johnny Tyldesley made 138 in 262 minutes, Stanley Jackson 53, George Hirst 48. England were 351 for nine at the close of the first day with Bill Lockwood and Rhodes together, and Archie MacLaren declared the next morning at 376 for nine, the last wicket having added 81 without being broken. Lockwood 52 not out, Rhodes 38 not out.
Full scorecard: England v Australia, 1st Test, Edgbaston, 29–31 May 1902 →
Thirty-six
Victor Trumper was bowled by Hirst for 18, which was half the total. Reggie Duff 2, Clem Hill 1, Syd Gregory 0, Joe Darling 3, Monty Noble 3, Warwick Armstrong 0 first ball, Bert Hopkins 5, James Kelly 1 not out, Ernie Jones 0 first ball, Bill Howell 0 first ball. Three byes. The fall of wickets runs 9, 10, 14, 17, 25, 25, 31, 35, 35, 36.
Rhodes: eleven overs, three maidens, 17 runs, seven wickets. Hirst: eleven overs, four maidens, 15 runs, three. Len Braund bowled one over for one run. Twenty-three overs and one ball short of that, and Australia had lost ten wickets for 36, with four of the eleven not scoring and three of those out to the first ball they faced.
The follow-on
Australia were 340 behind and had to bat again, and were 8 for no wicket when the second day ended. What followed is not on the card. Twelve hours of rain fell overnight, the ground was unplayable, and there was no cricket on the third day until a quarter past five. Australia reached 46 for two in 28 overs, Trumper caught for 14, Duff for 15, and the match was over.
The second day, then, had three innings on it: the last 25 runs of England’s, the whole of Australia’s 36, and the first eight of the follow-on. It was a three-day match, Test number 70, and the card’s close-of-play lines are the only clock it has.
The card shows the third day as a single line. A side that had been bowled out for 36 the afternoon before, following on with a day to survive, survived it in 28 overs because there were only 28 overs to survive.
What the number is
Thirty-six is the total India made at Adelaide in 2020, a hundred and eighteen years later, and the lowest Australia had made in a Test. Rhodes’s seven for 17 was, the record has it, the cheapest seven-wicket haul in Tests for more than a century. The card lists it as a bowling line, one of three, and gives no rank.
It was the first Test of the 1902 series, and the card’s series line reads level, nought all, which it stayed after the second Test was rained off too. The series was settled at Old Trafford, by three runs, in July.
What the card holds
A declaration at 376 for nine with an unbroken last wicket of 81. A total of 36, half of it from one man. Seven for 17. A follow-on enforced with a lead of 340 and a second innings of 46 for two that was never finished. Two umpires, Jim Phillips and William Hearn, who stood for less than an hour on the last day. And a draw, which is what the card has to call a match the weather ended.
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No. 15 in Collapse, a series of 16.
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