Wisden
England 1 Australia 0

Australia in England 1880

The Wisden Almanack doesn't carry a full report of Australia's 1880 tour of England - the practice of summing up tours in that way did not start until 1884. However, there is a brief report of the solitary Test played - the first one on English soil, at The Oval in September 1880. It was prefaced by an apologetic note from "the compiler", regretting that "the limited space allotted to the Australians; matches in this book precludes the possibility of giving a lengthened account of this famous contest".

For the first time, England took on Australia with a fully representative side. WG Grace, the biggest name in 19th-century cricket, scored 152 of England's imposing total of 420, then Nottinghamshire's fast left-armer Fred Morley took 5 for 56 as Australia were shot out for 149. They did better in the follow-on - skipper Billy Murdoch made 153 not out of their 327 - but England were left with a smallish target to win. Although both Grace's brothers made ducks in their only Test (Fred died later that year), England won by five wickets.

In all the Australians played 37 matches, winning 21, losing four and drawing 12. Only ten of those games were first-class, and Australia won five of those and drew three. Apart from the Test, their only first-class defeat came at the hands of Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge. GE "Joey" Palmer took 66 wickets in the first-class games, while Percy McDonnell topped the batting averages with 391 runs.

Match reports for

Only Test: England v Australia at The Oval, Sep 6-8, 1880
Report | Scorecard

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