The Ashes at the Sydney Cricket Ground

1882


February 17, the Association Cricket Ground hosted its first Test match. Australia bested England by five wickets.

1882

Australia toured England and played one Test at Kennington Oval, London. Australia won by 7 runs and caused an uproar, having beaten their hosts on English soil for the first time.

This photograph documents Australian cricketing greats, Billy Murdoch, Fred Spofforth, Harry Boyle and Alick Bannerman.

1882

A telegram sent to Sydney relaying Australia’s Test win at The Oval on August 29, 1882.

1882

Commiserations for the English team were published in newspapers as mock memoria and obituaries to the death of English cricket.

1882-1883

During the Australian tour Bligh was given, by lady admirers, a perfume bottle in the shape of an urn and an embroidered velvet bag to house his 'ashes' urn.

These items form The Ashes that are contested by England and Australia in Test cricket.

1884-1885

The first Test series of five matches, England won 3-2.

1886-1887

Regarded as one of the strongest Test teams to leave England, Alfred Shaw's XI faced a gallant Australian bowling attack in the two-Test series held at the ACG.

On the opening day of the second Test, C.T.B. Turner took 5-41 and J.J. Ferris 5-71 to dismiss England for 151. However, the English prevailed 2-0.

1887-1888

C.T.B. Turner bowled magnificently with match figures of 12-87, only to see the Australian batting order collapse.

Australia lost by 126 runs. Turner’s match figures remain the best for Test bowling at the SCG.

1894-1895

No Ashes Test has had a bigger reversal of fortunes than the one played at the SCG in December 1894. Having made England follow on, Australia was 2 for 113 at stumps on day five, needing just 64 to win.

But it rained that night, and on a gluepot the next day Australia lost eight wickets for 53. England’s spinner Bobby Peel took six wickets.

1895

Fourth Test match at the Sydney Cricket Ground, February 1895. Australia won by an innings and 55 runs.

1897-1898

Making his first Test appearance in Australia, K.S. Ranjitsinhji scored 175 and Archie MacLaren 109, in England’s nine-wicket win at the SCG.

Despite the loss, Australian left-handers Joe Darling (101) and Clem Hill (96) impressed with the bat.

1901-1902

The England cricket team won the first Test at the SCG but lost the series 4-1 to Australia who retained the Ashes.

1907-1908

Plagued by illness and overcome by superior batting, England lost the Ashes 4-1.

1911-1912

Australia's Dr. Herbert Vivian "Ranji" Hordern, in a stellar performance, took 32 wickets in this Test series.

With match figures of 12 for 135 in the first Test, Ranji assisted Australia in claiming their only win of the series. England won
4-1.

1914-1919

International cricket ceased due to World War One.

First-class cricket continued at the SCG in 1914-15, but took a hiatus from 1915-16 to 1917-18.

1924-1925

In the fifth Test at the SCG, Bert Oldfield caught England’s legendary batsman Jack Hobbs (off Sid Gregory) wide on the leg-side for a second ball duck, one of the most famous of all wicketkeeper dismissals.

1928-1929

Talented debutante Don Bradman failed to impress selectors in the first Test and was dropped to 12th man at the SCG. Yet, standing in for injured Archie Jackson, he chased the leather for two days as England's Walter Hammond compiled 251.

Meanwhile spinner Don Blackie became the oldest Australian to make a Test debut at 46 years, 253 days old.

1936-1937

Intense speculation about leadership plagued newly crowned captain and selector Don Bradman, as the Australians finished the second Test at the SCG with consecutive defeats.

Yet Bradman, a determined strategist, turned the tables making a classic innings of 212 in the fourth Test and strategically manoeuvering his tailend spinners around a sticky wicket to secure victory in the fifth. The Australians became the first team to win an Ashes series from two down.

1939-1945

International cricket ceased due to World War Two.

In this period the SCG was used for military purposes, as well as some domestic sporting competitions.

1946-1947

In December 1946, 38-year old Don Bradman and the opener Sid Barnes each scored 234 against England, and between them added 405.

Their partnership is still a Test record for the fifth wicket and a Test record for any wicket at the SCG.

1950-1951

Having discovered how to spin a ball by flicking it with his middle finger as a soldier in World War Two, Jack Iverson did not take up cricket seriously until he was in his 30s.

He made the Test side at 35 and in 1950-51 mesmerised England’s batsmen. At the SCG he took 6 for 27.

1962-1963

Ranked as one of the slowest scoring Test series, Australia drew with England with 1-1 from five matches.

1965-1966

Best remembered for England's dominance in batting, the third Test at the SCG represented the worst result at home since
1911–12.

Although Australia received a hammering by the English, the Ashes were retained due to a series draw.

1970-1971

In February 1971, England’s fast bowler John Snow hit Australian tailender Terry Jenner with a bumper. Afterwards an agitated spectator manhandled Snow while he was fielding on the SCG boundary.

When the crowd threw beer cans onto the field, England’s captain Ray Illingworth led his team off the field. The walk-off lasted just 10 minutes. Illingworth's team defied the Sydney crowds and won the series 2-0.

1974-1975

When Greg Chappell caught Geoff Arnold close-in off Ashley Mallett at the SCG, Australia regained the Ashes they had lost in 1970-71.

It was Australia’s first Ashes series win since 1964. At a time when English cricket was strong, the win signalled the highpoint of the Chappell era.

1978-1979

Australia was poised for a victory in the fourth Test at the SCG, until England's captain Mike Brearley led a bowling assault that overwhelmed the Australian batting order. With Australia all out for 111 in the second innings, England had brought about one of the greatest comebacks in Ashes history.

1986-1987

The fifth Test at the SCG was a dead rubber, but is best remembered as “Taylor’s match”.

Peter Taylor was a relatively unknown off-spinner who gained selection for the fifth Test and wowed crowds by taking 6-78 off 26 overs.

The Test debutant was awarded the man of the match for his efforts.

1990-1991

In 1990-91 a notoriously determined and ruthless Allan Border captained the Australian team in an aggressive campaign to retain the Ashes.

They won the five Test series 3-0. During the third Test at the SCG, Border brought up his 3000th Test run against England.

1994-1995

In the third Test at the SCG, Australia was saved from defeat by an unlikely eighth-wicket stand between Warne and May that lasted 77 minutes. The match was a draw and Australia won The Ashes for a third consecutive time.

1998-1999

Australian Stuart MacGill captured career-best match figures of 12-107, as Australia defeated England by 98 runs.

2010 - 2011

This series was decided 3-1 in England's favour in the fourth Test, yet England approached the fifth and final Test at the SCG with vengeance, out-playing Australia in all areas.

England's Alistair Cook dominated the batting with an innings of 189, to bring his series total to 766 runs at an average of nearly 128.

2017 - 2018

After enduring extreme weather conditions, with Day 4 of the Test declared the hottest day in Australian Test history, Australia thrashed it out besting England by an innings and 123 runs in the final Test at the SCG. Australia shown here celebrate a 4-0 victory over the English.