W. G. Grace's cricket career (1879 to 1882) with a best analysis of 7–30. His bowling average was 18.00; he had 5 wickets in an innings 3 times. Grace's most significant Test was England v Australia in 1882 at The Oval. Thanks to Spofforth who took 14 wickets in the match, Australia won by 7 runs and the legend of The Ashes was born immediately afterwards. Grace scored only 4 and 32 but he has been held responsible for "firing up" Spofforth. This came about through a typical piece of gamesmanship by Grace when he effected an unsporting, albeit legal, run out of Sammy Jones. Grace made 22
Australian cricket team in England in 1882 with the last ball of his over, clean bowled Ted Peate for 2 to have England all out for 77 off exactly 55 overs. England's innings had lasted a mere 122 minutes, destroyed by the pace of Spofforth, who bettered his first innings career best by two runs, collecting 7 for 44, to give him match figures of 14 for 90, both of which would remain his finest figures. Spofforth's performance included a burst of four wickets for only two runs to leave England just seven runs short of victory in one of the closest and most nail-biting finishes in