47 Fun Facts About Test Cricket

What is the result when a Test's five days end before either side has won?

A draw, however far ahead one side may be. A tie is rarer still, since it needs the scores level with the side batting last all out.

England and Australia play Test series for which trophy, named after a mock obituary in 1882?

The Ashes took their name from the Sporting Times, which mourned English cricket after a home defeat: 'The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia.'

Which offence cost England 19 World Test Championship points in 2023?

Slow over rates: a Test day should bring 90 overs, and each over short now costs a point, so England lost 19 across four Tests that summer and Australia 10.

At which ground was the first recognised Test played in March 1877?

The MCG staged it from 15 March, and Charles Bannerman hit Test cricket's first century there, 165, before retiring hurt.

Which 1977 match repeated the first Test's 45-run result?

The Centenary Test marked 100 years of Test cricket, and Derek Randall's 174 took England close before they fell 45 short, the very margin of 1877.

A Test side trailing by 200 runs or more can be made to bat again at once under which rule?

The follow-on lets a captain whose side leads by at least 200 on first innings send the opposition straight back in, saving time in the push for a win.

Which West Indies fast bowler of the 1970s and 80s was nicknamed 'Whispering Death'?

Michael Holding got the name for his smooth, silent approach to the crease and the venom of what followed it.

The first international cricket match, in New York in 1844, pitted the United States against which country?

Canada won by 23 runs on a third day, after bad weather wiped out the second, and 33 years before the first Test.

Whose unbeaten 135 won the 2019 Headingley Test against Australia by one wicket?

Ben Stokes added 76 for the last wicket with Jack Leach, who made one of them, days after England had been bowled out for 67.

What did the 'I' in ICC stand for when the body was founded in 1909?

Imperial: the Imperial Cricket Conference took only countries within the British Empire, and became the International Cricket Conference in 1965.

Which opener, who made 774 runs in his debut series in 1971, was the first to 10,000 Test runs?

Sunil Gavaskar so dominated that 1971 series in the Caribbean that calypso singer Lord Relator wrote a song in his honour, about the home bowlers failing to get him out.

What is a lower-order batter called when sent in near the close of play to protect a better one?

A nightwatchman is only meant to survive until stumps, yet in 2006 Australia's Jason Gillespie went in as one and made an unbeaten 201, the only Test double century by a nightwatchman.

In which city was the last timeless Test abandoned in 1939, so that England could catch their ship home?

Durban saw play spread across twelve days, and England were 654 for 5, only 42 short of their target of 696, when they had to leave.

Which country became the tenth Test nation in 2000?

Bangladesh were granted full Test status in June 2000, three years after winning the ICC Trophy for associate nations, and made their debut in Dhaka that November.

Which two countries were granted Test status together in June 2017?

Ireland and Afghanistan were confirmed as Full Members on 22 June 2017, and when the two met in 2019 Afghanistan won in only their second Test.

Which Australian media tycoon staged the breakaway 'Supertests' of 1977-79?

Kerry Packer signed the world's best players in secret after the Australian board refused his Channel Nine the exclusive TV rights to home Tests.

Where was the first day/night Test played, in November 2015?

Adelaide Oval staged it from 27 November 2015, after the ICC approved floodlit Tests in a bid to lift crowds and TV ratings.

What colour ball is used in day/night Tests?

Pink replaced the traditional red for floodlit Tests. Yellow and orange balls were also tried, but pink proved the preferred option.

Which side tied a Test with Australia in 1986?

India lost their last man lbw with the scores level and one ball left in Madras, and Australia had played in the only other tied Test too, in 1960.

At which ground was the first tied Test played in December 1960?

The Gabba finish saw three wickets fall in the final over, the last to Joe Solomon's direct hit from square leg with the scores level.

Who lifted the inaugural World Test Championship trophy in June 2021?

New Zealand needed the reserve sixth day in Southampton, then chased 139 to win by eight wickets as time was running out.

Who beat Australia at Lord's to win the 2025 World Test Championship final?

It ended a long wait for a global title for the Proteas.

Who retook the Test record score in 2004 with an unbeaten 400 against England?

Brian Lara had lost the record to Matthew Hayden's 380 only months earlier, and became the first man ever to win it back.

Matthew Hayden's 380 in 2003, briefly the highest score in Tests, came against which side?

Zimbabwe won the toss in Perth and chose to bowl first, and Hayden's 380 carried Australia to 735 for 6 declared and an innings win.

Whose unbeaten 365 in 1958 stood as the highest Test score for 36 years?

Garfield Sobers had never made a Test century before this one, at Sabina Park in Kingston, and the record he set lasted until 1994.

Who is the leading run-scorer in Test history, with 15,921?

Sachin Tendulkar waited more than a year between his ninety-ninth and hundredth international hundreds, and when the hundredth came in March 2012 his side lost the match.

Who took his 800th Test wicket in his farewell match in 2010?

Muttiah Muralitharan went into that last Test at Galle needing eight wickets, and the eighth was the final wicket of the innings, taken with the last ball he bowled in Tests.

Who retired in 2007 with a then-record 708 Test wickets?

Shane Warne's 708 was the most any bowler had taken when he stopped, yet the record was broken before the year was out.

Who became the first fast bowler to take 700 Test wickets, in March 2024?

James Anderson reached the mark on the last morning of a Test his side then lost by an innings, the end of a 4-1 series defeat.

Which spinner took 19 of the 20 Australian wickets to fall at Old Trafford in 1956?

Jim Laker's spin partner Tony Lock bowled one more over than him in that match, on the same pitch, and took a single wicket.

Who was the second bowler to take ten wickets in a Test innings, in 1999?

Anil Kumble struck after the openers had put on 101 in a chase of 420: six wickets fell for 27 more runs, and he went on to take all ten.

Who hit a record 54-ball Test century in his final Test, in 2016?

Brendon McCullum walked out at 32 for 3, after his side had been sent in on a seaming Christchurch pitch, and attacked from the start.

Viv Richards's 56-ball century in 1986 came at which Caribbean venue?

Antigua was his home island, and the hundred at St John's sealed a 5-0 series sweep in front of his own crowd.

Which batsman needed just four runs in his last Test innings to average 100, and was bowled for a duck?

Don Bradman was bowled by Eric Hollies at The Oval in 1948, which left his career average at 99.94.

In July 2025, who passed Rahul Dravid's record for most Test catches by an outfielder?

Joe Root got there with his 211th, a one-handed diving catch at slip at Lord's to dismiss Karun Nair.

Who was the first bowler to 400 Test wickets, reaching it at home in Christchurch?

Richard Hadlee was knighted in 1990 while still playing, and retired that year with 431 wickets from 86 Tests.

Who is the only player with 400+ Test wickets and 5,000+ Test runs?

Kapil Dev once hit Eddie Hemmings for four sixes in four balls at Lord's, in 1990, which was just enough to make England bat again.

Which left-arm fast bowler, a master of late swing with the old ball, finished with 414 Test wickets?

Wasim Akram took hat-tricks in back-to-back Tests in March 1999, barely a week apart and both against Sri Lanka.

Which Surrey opener, first-class cricket's record century-maker, became the first professional cricketer to be knighted?

Jack Hobbs was a late bloomer on paper: about half of his hundreds came after he turned 40, and he was 46 when he made his last Test century.

Which Victorian cricketer later captained England at bowls?

W. G. Grace hit two triple centuries within eight days in 1876, and led the national bowls side in its first international in 1903.

Which system, first used in a Test in 2008, lets a player challenge the umpire's decision?

DRS began as a trial in a three-Test series in Sri Lanka in 2008, and a side loses a review only when its challenge fails.

Which yellow-covered cricket annual has appeared every year since 1864?

Wisden was founded by John Wisden, a bowler known as the 'Little Wonder', who once took all ten wickets in an innings at Lord's, every one of them bowled.

A week after Melbourne's Boxing Day Test, which ground traditionally hosts the New Year Test?

The SCG Test starts in the first days of January, and its third day is Jane McGrath Day, which raises money for breast care nurses.

Which Ahmedabad ground became the world's largest cricket stadium after a rebuild finished in 2020?

Narendra Modi Stadium took that name in February 2021, on the day the rebuilt ground staged its first Test, a day-night match.

What nickname is given to the cap presented to Australian players on Test debut?

The baggy green is rarely replaced, and Steve Waugh made a point of it, wearing the same frayed cap year after year rather than ask for a new one.

Which captain devised the Bodyline tactic used on the 1932-33 tour of Australia?

Douglas Jardine had his fast bowlers pitch short at the batsman's body with catchers packed on the leg side, and the row strained relations between the two countries.

What did Cameron Bancroft use to rough up the ball in the 2018 Cape Town Test scandal?

Sandpaper was caught on camera in Cameron Bancroft's hands, and he was banned for nine months while his captain and vice-captain got a year each.