England achieve greatest margin of victory in 1938 Test against Australia

By A.C. De Silva

Somewhat the greatest margin of victory in Test cricket was achieved by England at the Oval on 24th August 1938 when they defeated Australia by an innings and 579 runs on the fourth day.

After amassing the record total of 903 for 7 wickets in 15 hours 17 minutes before Hammand declared at the tea interval on the third day.

England dismissed Australia twice in 4 3/4 hours of play.

With Jack Fingleton and Don Bradman both injured and unable to bat, Australia scored 201 and 213.

Then over to India and on March 15th 1983 from India there was the news that Kapil Dev was the youngest bowler to take 200 wickets. He was 24 years, 68 days on that day when he celebrated his 50th Test by completing the 'double' (vs West Indies at Port-of-Spain). Fred Trueman of England was the first bowler to take 300 wickets in Test cricket. He reached the total at the Ovak in his 65th Test on 15th August 1964 when he had Neil Hawke of Australia caught at slip by Colin Cowdrey.

Don Bradman stunning scores

Donald Bradman came off with some stunning scores in his early days. Batting lower down the order Bradman made 270 at number 7 was an extraordinary performance by a player who was the established number 3 batsman and captaining his country for only the third time.

Then there was the news that in 1948 the only batsman to make separate hundreds on successive days of a Test match was Vijay Hazare of India. Playing against Australia at Adelaide he scored 108 of his first innings 116 on 26th January and 102 of his second innings 145 on January 27.

Then comes the news from Pakistan that the youngest to score a double

century was Javed Miandad at the age of 19 years 141 days when he completed his innings New Zealand at Karachi on 31st October 1976.

Then in the early days of cricket comes the news that the fastest hundred in Test cricket was scored in 70 minutes by Jack Gregory for Australia against South Africa in Johannesburg on November 12th in 1921.

Also from India comes the news that in the early days the most runs by a batsman playing in his first Test series is 774 (avg: 154.80) by the mecurial Sunil Gavaskar in four matches for India in the West Indies in 1971. Gavaskar's eight innings were: 65, 67 not out, 116, 64 not out, 1 and 117 not out, 124 and 220. Surgery on a septic finger prevented his playing in the First Test.

Greg Chappell - the highest

The highest individual and aggregate in a Test match is 380 runs by Greg Chappell who scored 247 not out and 133 for Australia against New Zealand at Wellington between March 1 and 6 in 1974.The most runs and only instance of over 300 in a day by one batsman is 309 by Donald Bradman for Australia against England at Headingley, Leeds on July 11 in 1930.

Bradman scored 105 before lunch, 115 between lunch and tea and 89 in the final session.

Bradman is alone in making the record scores for 2 batting positions in Test matches. The highest batting average in a Test career involving more than 5 innings is 99.94 by Bradman for Australia. In 52 Tests he scored 6,996 runs from 80 innings, ten of them undefeated. He averaged a century every 2.8 innings. He needed to score just 4 runs in his final Test innings on Saturday 14th August 1948, in the 5th Test at the Oval, to become the second (after Hammond) to score 7,000 runs and the first to attain a career average of 100. Given a standing ovation by the crowd throughout his progress to the middle, Bradman was then cheered by the England team.

Shortly before Six-O-clock he took guard as safely negotiated the first ball-a leg-break from Eric Hollies. The next was pitched on a perfect length - a googly which spun past Bradman's forward defensive stroke and bowled him.

Longest match in England

The longest match in England in terms of hours of play was the drawn six-day Fourth Test between England and Australia at the Oval in 1975. Actual playing time, exclusing 187 minutes lost and breaks between innings, totalled 32 hours 17 minutes.

Two other six-day matches have been staged in England, both Test matches and Australia at the Oval. In 1930 Australia won at 3.50 p.m. on the last day after rain had prevented play on the penultimate day. Then 42 years later, Australia repeated their victory at 2.49 p.m. on the sixth day.

The lowest innings total in Test cricket is 26 by New Zealand at Eden Park, Auchland on 28th March 1955. Playing the second of two Tests against Hutton's England team which had just retained the Ashes in Australia. New Zealand had contained the tourists to a first innings lead of 46. A crowd of 14,009 saw the home side reduced to 14 for 5 wickets and eventually dismissed in 27 overs by Tyson (2 for 10) Statham (3 for 9), Appleyard (4 for 7) and Wardle (1 for 0).Opening batsman Bert Sutcliffe (11) achieved the only double-figure score of an innings which lasted 106 minutes either side of the tea interval on the third day. Appleyard took 3 wickets in four balls and narrowly missed the hat-trick. It was Hutton's last Test.

The wicket-keeper plays an important part in the game of cricket. The most dismissals by a wicket-keeper in Test cricket is 355 by Rodney Marsh who between 27th November 1970 an January 1984 who held a record 343 catches and made 12 stumpings in 96 matches for Australia. Marsh gained the record on 18th Test at Headingley, Leeds to evertake Alan Knott's total of 263 dismissals.Although Knott was recalled for the last two Tests of that series and held six more catches he was unable to regain the record.

Marsh also holds the record for taking most catches off one bowler, 95 of his victims being caught off his fellow West Australian Dennis Lillee.