The first
cricket Test match played in
England was at the Kennington
Oval, in south London, in
September 1880. There had
already been three Test matches
pitting England versus Australia
in Melbourne in 1876 and two
years later. But Test cricket
arrived in England with a
victory for the hosts by five
wickets, played on September
6th, 7th and 8th. W.G. Grace,
batting alongside his two
brothers, top scored for England
with a match-winning 152,
compiling the first hundred
partnership in Test cricket.
Another series in Australia saw
the home side winning the
following year but the Ashes
came into being with the only
Test in 1882 back at the Oval.
Australia’s defeat of England by
7 runs against a full-strength
England side saw the Sporting
Times feature a mock obituary
with the body of English cricket
being cremated and the ‘Ashes’
taken to Australia.
The Oval thus became established
as a key venue for English
cricket matches since then, more
often than not being the final
Test match venue in a series.
Australia all out for 44 against
England at the Oval in 1896
remains one of the lowest scores
in Test history.
South Africa was the next
country to play Test cricket,
touring England for the first
time in 1907 and playing at the
Oval in August where the match
was drawn.
1912 may sound like an early
date for the first Triangular
Tournament but it featured
England, Australia and South
Africa playing nine games with
the deciding Test matches
decided at the Oval. England
beat South Africa in two days
and then defeated Australia by
244 runs in the first “Timeless”
Test with a result crucial to
decide the Tournament winners.
The inaugural England versus
West Indies series began in 1928
with an England series win,
finishing at the Oval.
Australia regained the Ashes in
1930 with Donald Bradman scoring
232 at the Oval in the final
Test match to give the tourists
the victory. He scored 974 runs
in the five-match series, at an
average of 139.14, an incredible
Test record
Although only one match was
scheduled for New Zealand’s
first Test series in England in
1931, they performed so well at
Lord’s, an extra two matches
were arranged. The Second Test
at the Oval saw England
victorious and was enough to win
the series. India’s first
official test match was a year
later but they were defeated by
158 runs at Lord’s.
In 1934, after the infamous
England series win on the Ashes
“Bodyline” tour, Australia
retook the honours with a win at
the Oval in 1934, scoring a
mammoth 701. A second-wicket
partnership of 451 in 316
minutes between Ponsford (266)
and Bradman remained a Test
cricket record for years.
The following year was no more
successful for England, with
South Africa winning a series
there for the first time, thanks
to a draw at the Oval in the
fifth Test. In 1936 India
conceded their first double
hundred – at the Oval and scored
by Wally Hammond (217).
Len Hutton’s 364 at the Oval in
1938 in the last Ashes Test
before the Second World War
remained a world record for 20
years until Gary Sobers scored
one run more. It is still the
highest individual English
batting record. England’s 903
for 7 declared remained another
record for 60 years until
overtaken by Sri Lanka versus
India in Colombo.
August 22nd, 1939, England
versus West Indies at the Oval
was the last Test cricket played
for 6½ years with the
intervention of World War.
Test cricket resumed after the
war in 1946 with England taking
on India, a year before the
country’s independence from
British rule. Australia had
already beaten New Zealand in
Wellington earlier in the year
but cricket resumed at Lord’s in
June with a ten-wicket England
win over the tourists. The final
Test at the Oval was a
washed-out draw, notable for
Denis Compton (also an Arsenal
and England footballer) running
out V.M. Merchant for 128 by
kicking the ball onto the
stumps.
Australia won the Ashes in 1948
with a 4-0 victory, completed at
the Oval by an innings and 149
runs. England were humiliated in
their first innings, being
bowled out for 52 - their lowest
score for many years. The match
was also Bradman’s last. He
needed only 4 runs to score
7,000 Test match runs and take
his average to 100 but was
bowled second ball by Hollies
for 0.
England’s series against New
Zealand in 1949, in which all
four Tests were drawn,
highlighted that three days was
too short to complete matches on
a good pitch. Hutton scored 206
in the last Oval Test and
repeated a double hundred
against the West Indies the
following year. Although he
remained not out the West
Indians decided the series 3-1
with a victory in Kennington.
The Oval Test again decided the
series the following year
against South Africa. England
triumphed but Hutton was
dismissed in the second innings
for “obstructing the field” -
the first time in a Test.
England regained the Ashes after
almost 19 years in 1953 at the
Oval in a six-day Test, beating
Australia by eight wickets. Alec
Bedser, on his home Surrey
ground, ended with 39 wickets
for the series – still the third
highest for an Englishman.
Pakistan’s first official Test
was in England in 1954 but there
was no play at Lord’s until the
fourth day. The Oval Test match
squared the series with Pakistan
winning by 24 runs – becoming
the first team to win a Test in
their first rubber in England.
The match also saw the world
record for wicketkeeping
dismissals going to Godfrey
Evans, who overtook Oldfield’s
130.
The first series in England to
produce results in each match
occurred in 1955 with England
beating South Africa at the Oval
to take the series 3-2 at 5.15pm
on the last day.
Jim Laker’s record 46 wickets in
the Ashes series of 1956 was
completed at the Oval with a
further seven in a drawn game
which saw England triumph.
Despite boasting Sobers,
Worrell, Weekes and Walcott, the
West Indies were dismissed for
89 and 86 at the last Oval Test
in 1957 for a 3-0 England win.
England failed to defeat New
Zealand in the last Oval Test in
1958, which would have given
them five victories in a series
for the first time, but did so
against India the following
year.
Fred Trueman became the first
bowler to take 300 Test wickets
in the Oval Ashes match in 1964.
This was followed by Colin
Cowdrey’s 5,000th Test run in
England’s second innings which
the hosts failed to win, thus
giving the Ashes to Australia.
The frustrating draw against
South Africa at the Oval in 1965
(a series which the home side
won 1-0) was symbolic of the
following years before their
political isolation.
Ken Barrington’s 142 against
Pakistan at the fifth Oval Test
against Pakistan in 1967 helped
England win by eight wickets. He
became the first batsman to
score a century on each of
England’s six Test grounds and
equalled the then record of 52
scores of 50 or more.
England’s victory in 1968
squared the Ashes at 1-1 but
only after a freak rainstorm on
the final day of the series at
the Oval meant they won with
five minutes remaining. Four
years later Australia squared
the series 2-2 in the fifth Oval
Test; where Ian and Greg
Chappell became the first
brothers to score centuries in
the same Test innings.
Intikhab Alam (who later coached
Pakistan to World Cup victory in
1992) became the first player
from his country to score 1,000
runs and take 100 wickets with
his display at the Third Oval
Test in 1974.
The first World Cup match at the
Oval, in the first tournament in
1975, was in the 7th match,
where Australia won in a
high-scoring game versus Sri
Lanka, Turner scoring a century
before lunch. The Aussies lost
the next game in Kennington to
the West Indies who then
defeated New Zealand in the
Semi-Final at the Oval on June
18th by five wickets.
The four-match Ashes series in
1975 followed the inaugural
World Cup. The fourth Test at
the Oval was a draw but saw
England’s highest second innings
total against Australia – 538 -
with Bob Woolmer top scoring
with 149, taking him 394 minutes
to reach the century.
The 1976 rubber saw West Indies
triumph 3-0. The Oval Test was
won by 231 runs and witnessed a
majestic 291 by Viv Richards,
completing 829 runs in the
series. Michael Holding’s match
analysis was 14-149 (still the
best return for a West Indian),
while more records were broken
by Alan Knott with his 219th
wicketkeeping victim.
England won the 1977 Ashes 3-0,
but a waterlogged ground meant
the Oval Test was a draw. Geoff
Boycott scored his 5,000th Test
run (finishing on an average for
the series of 147.33) while Jeff
Thomson took his 100th wicket in
his 22nd Test. Half of those
competing then went into the
Test wilderness after
contracting to play World Series
cricket.
The second World Cup again saw a
Semi-Final win for West Indies
at the Oval on June 20th, 1979,
defeating Pakistan by 43 runs,
thanks to 73 by Gordon Greenidge
who was man-of-the-match.
The 1979 England versus India
series ended in a thrilling
climax at the Oval. Set a target
of 438 in eight hours, India
finished just eight runs short
thus leaving England 1-0
winners. This was Ian Botham’s
21st Test and he’d achieved the
quickest double (1,000 runs and
100 wickets).
The same scenario was repeated
in 1982 – with India needing
victory to level the series. At
the Oval Botham scored his
highest Test score of 208,
breaking Sunil Gavaskar’s ankle
in the process with a fierce
shot.
The last Test at the Oval in the
classic 1981 Ashes series never
lived up to the previous five
and ended in a draw, although
Dennis Lillee was
man-of-the-match with 7-89 in
England’s first innings.
The first match of the World Cup
in 1983 was at the Oval on June
9th, where England beat New
Zealand by 106 runs, Alan Lamb’s
102 from 105 balls setting up
the win and Snedden had the
dubious honour of the most
expensive bowling in World Cups
– 12-1-105-2. Another group
match here saw the West Indies
triumph by 66 runs over India
(who reversed the result in the
Final), helped by a century from
Viv Richards. The West Indians
reached the last game with
another Semi-Final Oval win,
this time against Pakistan by
eight wickets.
Already 4-0 down when the West
Indies came to the Oval Test in
1984, England only had pride to
play for. Despite Botham’s 300th
test wicket England slumped to a
5-0 defeat.
Botham, after being banned for
drug-taking, returned to face
New Zealand in 1986 at the Oval,
producing a wicket with his
first ball. In the second
innings he took his 356th
victim, then a Test record.
With only one result in the
five-match series, Javed
Miandad’s 260 in the Oval Test
was enough to draw the match and
give Pakistan victory. It was
their highest Test score (708)
and then the sixth highest of
all-time.
The West Indies completed a 4-0
series win over England at the
Oval in 1988, Malcolm Marshall
completing 35 wickets for the
rubber, a record between the two
sides.
The sixth Ashes Test in 1989 at
the Oval was only the second in
the series England failed to
lose. Terry Alderman’s 41st
wicket and Mark Taylor’s 839th
run were both one of the highest
series aggregates of all time.
England versus India in 1990 was
drawn in the Third Test at the
Oval, handing the series to the
hosts. Graham Gooch’s 752 runs
was the third highest for an
Englishman in any series and the
most against India.
An historic victory in 1991 at
the Oval against the West Indies
saw the series levelled at 2-2.
The following season, Pakistan
gained the series with victory
in Kennington by 10 wickets,
with Wasim Akram and Waqar
Younis devastating in the first
half of their careers.
Australia had already retained
the Ashes by the sixth Test in
1993 so England’s Oval win was
little consolation in a 4-1
series defeat.
South Africa’s first series back
in England since 1965 was
levelled 1-1 in the third Oval
Test. The home side won by eight
wickets, thanks to a remarkable
9-57 bowling performance by
Devon Malcolm, the sixth best
figures of all-time.
A draw in the sixth Test at the
Oval ensured England against the
West Indies in 1995 was drawn
2-2; Brian Lara’s 179 took him
to 765 runs for the series, the
13th highest run aggregate. West
Indies’ 692-8 declared is their
highest score in England.
Pakistan secured a 2-0 win with
an Oval victory the following
year while the Ashes year of
1997 ended 3-2 to the visiting
Australians. England’s win in
the last Oval Test was becoming
a habit, again meaningless in
the context of the series. Glenn
McGrath’s 36 wickets again
reached the all-time list.
Sri Lanka won their first Test
match at the Oval in 1998 by 10
wickets, helped by big tonnes
from de Silva and Jayasuriya and
match figures of 16-220 for
Muralitharan, the fifth best in
history. His 9-65 in the second
innings was the seventh in the
record books.
New Zealand secured a 2-1 win at
the Oval in the last Test in
England of the millennium. In
2000, the London ground was
again the deciding Test against
the West Indies with England’s
158-run victory securing the
series 3-1, finally banishing
the ghosts of their
arch-tormentors over the years,
Ambrose and Walsh, who still
managed over 50 wickets between
them in the rubber.
Another duo who were England’s
bowling foes during this period,
McGrath and Shane Warne, took 63
wickets between them as
Australia took a 4-1 Ashes
triumph. 11 wickets for Shane
Warne at the Oval in 2001 aided
a win by an innings and 25 runs.
Despite a weather-affected
match, over 1,000 runs were
scored in the drawn Oval Test in
2002, with England and India
sharing the series 1-1. Series
top-scorers Vaughan and Dravid
fell either side of 200 in both
first innings.
England’s nine-wicket victory at
the Oval in September 2003
squared the series against South
Africa 2-2, helped by a 268-run
partnership between Trescothick
and Thorpe.
A ten-wicket victory at the Oval
in 2004 gave England a 4-0 win
over the West Indies, with the
tables truly turned from the
1980s.
The classic Ashes series of 2005
culminated in a stalemate at the
Oval on September 12th. Warne’s
12 wickets in the match and 40
in the series (8th highest ever)
were not enough to stop England
reclaiming the Ashes, with 158
from Kevin Pietersen when it
mattered in the second innings
securing the 2-1 win.
2006 at the Oval saw another
historic match – this time for
the wrong reasons. England won
by forfeit, thus winning the
series 3-0, when Pakistan
refused to return to the field
following umpire Hair’s
allegations of ball-tampering.
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