Sipu Jha
“In affectionate remembrance of English cricket which died at The Oval, 29th August, 1882. Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances, RIP. NB The body will be cremated and the Ashes taken to Australia.“Australia’s first win on English soil against a full-strength England side on August 29, 1882 led to this mock “obituary”, written by young London journalist Reginald Shirley Brooks. It appeared in the Sporting Times and laid the foundation for what would later become one of cricket’s most enduring traditions.England’s seven-run defeat at The Oval had already been followed by plans for a tour of Australia. The Honourable Ivo Bligh, later the eighth Earl of Darnley, had been chosen to lead the side even before that loss. But the tone of the tour changed after the defeat. Three weeks later, when the team set sail, the mission was clear: recover the Ashes.The tour comprised three Tests. Australia won the first Test at Melbourne by nine wickets. England responded in the second Test at the same venue, winning by 27 runs. With the series level, the third Test became decisive. England won by 69 runs, and it was widely accepted that they had “recovered” the Ashes.With honours considered restored, both teams agreed to play an additional match. This game, later designated retrospectively as the fourth Test (Test No. 13 in chronological order), was played at the Sydney Cricket Ground starting February 17, 1883. It is this match that stands apart in cricket history, not just for the result, but for an experiment that has never been repeated.Bligh won the toss and chose to bat. England made 263 in their first innings. AG Steel remained unbeaten on 135. Four of the six Australian bowlers shared the wickets. George Giffen, carrying a leg injury, did not bowl.Australia replied with 262. George Bonnor, opening the batting, scored 87 in 165 minutes, hitting seven fours. Captain Billy Murdoch was dismissed without scoring but ran between the wickets for the injured Giffen, who made 27. Wicketkeeper Jack Blackham added 57. England used seven bowlers, with five of them taking wickets.England’s second innings produced 197. Billy Bates, the Yorkshire slow round-arm bowler known among friends as “The Duke” because of his taste in dress, top-scored with 48. Australia used five bowlers, and each finished with two wickets.Australia then chased 199. Alec Bannerman scored 63 in 175 minutes, with six fours and a SIX. Murdoch once again ran for Giffen, who added 32 to go with his earlier 27. Australia won by four wickets.The match officials were Edward Elliott, who had played eight first-class matches mainly for Victoria, and James Swift, who had just one first-class appearance. The four innings totals — 263, 262, 197 and 199 — showed how closely matched the contest was, with a compliance factor of just two runs.What set this match apart, however, was an agreement reached before play began. In a decision unique in cricket history, it was decided that each innings would be played on a different pitch. Four innings, four separate wickets. Wisden recorded the experiment with restraint, noting simply: “Each innings was played on a fresh wicket.”That decision, taken jointly by both teams, has never been repeated at Test or first-class level. More than a century later, this forgotten Test remains the only match where the idea was put into practice, leaving behind a brief but striking example of how early cricket was still willing to test the limits of its own laws.After that tour, The Ashes were returned to England on January 30, 1883, in the form of a burnt bail in an urn. It was long thought that the Ashes — a small urn believed to hold the remains of a bail burned after the third match — were gifted to Bligh by a group of women in Melbourne. However, in 1998, Lord Darnley’s daughter-in-law, then aged 82, said the contents were actually the ashes of her mother-in-law’s veil, not a bail. Other accounts have suggested the ashes may have come from a ball. As a result, the exact origin of the Ashes remains disputed.After Lord Darnley died in 1927, the urn was presented to the MCC by his Australian-born widow, Florence. The urn is now kept at the cricket museum at Lord’s, along with a red and gold velvet bag made for it and the scorecard from the 1882 match.The text on the urn is as follows:-When Ivo goes back with the urn, the urn;Studds, Steel, Read and Tylecote return, return;The welkin will ring loud,The great crowd will feel proud,Seeing Barlow and Bates with the urn, the urn;And the rest coming home with the urn.
English 
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