Australian cricket team in England in 1882 Australian cricket team in England in 1882 The 1882 Australia v England series was at the time considered to be part of another first-class cricket tour of England, by a combined team from the Australian colonies, but the match arranged between the Australians and an England side was later accepted to be a Test match. Although it was not known at the time, the one-off match played at The Oval in south London would become the birth of The Ashes. The English side had lost the previous tour to Australia, but had remained undefeated at home by visiting Australian sides.
Australian cricket team in England in 1882 on a greenish wicket that gave more assistance that it first seemed. England began their run chase with openers Dick Barlow and WG Grace, but 'The Doctor' was unable to reproduce his usual heroics, clean bowled by the express pace of Fred Spofforth for 4. A steady succession of wickets followed with only George Ulyett (26 off 59 balls) and Maurice Read (19 off 54 balls) providing any real resistance as Spofforth's pure pace provided too much firepower for the England line-up to deal with. He collected 7 for 46 off 36.3 overs including an astonishing 18 maidens. Four of