Wisden on Grace by Jonathan Rice

Author:Jonathan Rice
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781472911643
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2019-11-24T00:00:00+00:00

England v Australia

Second Test Match, at Kennington Oval, Monday, Tuesday, August 11 and 12, 1890

Australia 92 (Trott 39; Martin 6–50) and 102 (Trott 25; Martin 6–52);

England 100 (Gunn 32; Ferris 4–25) and 95–8 (M. Read 35; Ferris 5–49).

England won by two wickets.

The colonial players had sustained so many defeats that it was unreasonable to expect the same amount of interest that had been excited in previous years by the meeting with England at The Oval, but when the Surrey ground the day before the match was saturated by rain, good judges, remembering what Turner and Ferris are capable of on a damaged wicket, confidently predicted a capital game, and their anticipations were more than realised. The opening day’s play was just what might have been expected after the great amount of rain that had fallen. The ball beat the bat all through the afternoon, and between 12 o’clock and the drawing of stumps 22 wickets went down for an aggregate score of only 197.

The Australians, who won the toss, and of course took first innings, were batting nearly two hours and a half for a total of 92… England on going in to bat started very badly, Grace being easily caught at slip from the first ball he received; Shrewsbury at the end of half an hour’s cricket being finely taken at point with the score at ten; and Mr W. W. Read being bowled at 16… the innings being finished off for a total of 100, or only eight runs to the good. With the ground in a very difficult state, the Australians lost Barrett and Ferris in their second innings for five runs, and the second day they stayed in till 25 minutes to two, the last wicket falling for 102, which left England 95 to get to win. Under ordinary circumstances the task of getting 95 runs would have been an easy matter for the England team, but with the wicket as it was it was impossible to feel over-confident. Mr Grace ought for the second time in the match to have been caught from the first ball that he received, but Trott at point dropped a ball that was cut straight into his hands. Despite this lucky let-off, however, the four best England wickets fell for 32 runs, the interest then reaching a very acute point.

… As it was, the score had been taken to 83 – only 12 to win with six wickets to fall – when Maurice Read was caught at long-on for an invaluable 35. On his dismissal there came a collapse that recalled the great match in 1882, Mr Cranston, Lohmann and Barnes being dismissed in such quick succession that with eight men out two runs were still wanted to win. Amid indescribable excitement Sharpe became Mr MacGregor’s partner, and five maiden overs were bowled in succession, Sharpe being beaten time after time by balls from Ferris that broke back and missed the wicket. Then at last the Surrey player hit a

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