Australia 42 — Lohmann and Peel on a Sticky, Sydney 1888

The 1887-88 tour was the strangest in 19th-century cricket: two English sides on the road simultaneously, with no obvious path to a Test until the agents combined for one game. Lohmann had emerged in 1886 as the best young bowler in England; Peel had succeeded Peate at Yorkshire in 1887.

Both English sides had played extensive colonial matches before merging. The Sydney pitch was dry on the first morning but rain on the evening of day one transformed it.

England's strange 1887-88 itinerary saw two competing English sides tour Australia at the same time, organised separately by Shaw/Shrewsbury and Lord Sheffield. Only one Test was played, at Sydney from 10 to 15 February 1888 — England drawing both touring squads into a single representative XI under Walter Read.

Ferris and Turner ran through England for 113 in the first innings; Shrewsbury top-scored with 44. The wicket then took a soaking. By the end of day one, with rain having reduced the surface to a sticky, Australia were 35/8 — Lohmann and Peel bowling unchanged for 75 minutes. The match was suspended for five days because the next day was a Sunday and the pitch needed to dry. When play resumed on the Friday, Lohmann and Peel finished the job: Australia 42 all out, Lohmann 5/17, Peel 5/18.

England made 137 second time around, set Australia 209 to win. Turner took 7/43 — the kind of figures that earn 'man of the match' awards in modern Tests but here were not enough to save the home side, who folded for 82. England won by 126 runs.

The match is the centrepiece of Lohmann's emergence as the world's best bowler and Peel's establishment as the Yorkshire spinner of his generation. It also remains one of the lowest Australian totals in Tests at home.

“On a wicket so sodden you might have planted potatoes in it.”

Lohmann was the leading bowler of the 1888 English summer and the best bowler in the world by the time he sailed for South Africa in 1895. Peel went on to take 101 Test wickets at 16.98 and was Yorkshire's spearhead until his sacking in 1897. Turner finished 1888 with 283 first-class wickets in England, then a record.