Australia's fortress, and New Zealand's long wait

Travis Basevi and George Binoy07-Oct-2009

What is Australia's longest winning streak at home? Which team has strung together the most successive victories in a foreign country? How many Tests did New Zealand play in England before they won one? It's what we've dug up in this week's List - consecutive wins and losses in a particular country.

The 21st century Australian outfit possesses the two longest winning streaks in a particular country - 12 Tests at home between January 1999 and 2001, and another 11 consecutive victories between December 2005 and January 2008. The first streak began with the fifth Ashes Test at the SCG in 1999, included whitewashes against Pakistan, India and West Indies, and ended with a series of three draws against New Zealand. The second run started after Jacques Rudolph's match-saving century at the WACA in 2005 and comprised two wins against South Africa, five against England, and two each against Sri Lanka and India. That streak also ended at the WACA, with a 72-run defeat to India.

If Rudolph hadn't scored that fourth-innings hundred, Australia would have strung together 21 wins in a row because, before that Test against South Africa in Perth, they had 10 wins on the trot against New Zealand, Pakistan, ICC World XI, and West Indies. On the whole, between January 1999 and 2008, Australia played 54 Tests at home, winning 45 and losing only two. The longest streak the all-conquering West Indies team of the 1980s managed was only seven consecutive wins, in 1985-86.

It isn't Australia, though, but England who have the most consecutive wins in a foreign country. England beat South Africa, who were playing their first Test, by eight wickets in Port Elizabeth in March 1889 and over the next decade won seven Tests on the trot in South Africa. England's run ended with a thrilling one-wicket victory for the hosts in Johannesburg in 1906, the first Test of a series South Africa won 4-1.

Australia, though, aren't far behind. They rarely are. The 1936 Cape Town Test was the first of four consecutive innings victories in South Africa, after which they won two more Tests, by eight and five wickets. Their run of six successive wins was halted by a high-scoring draw in Johannesburg in 1950 or else their innings-victory in the next Test, at St George's Park, would have been their eighth in a row in South Africa.

The Perth defeat to India also prevented Australia from equalling Pakistan's run of 26 Tests without a defeat (draws included). Pakistan were unbeaten at home for six years between December 1980 and 1986, winning 14 and drawing 12 Tests. That streak was preceded by a 19-match unbeaten run (14 draws, two wins) dating back to 1969, and Pakistan were also undefeated at home for 15 Tests (nine draws, six wins) until 1990 after the loss to West Indies in Lahore in 1986.

The longest unbeaten run in a foreign country is England's 23 Tests in New Zealand between January 1930, when England toured for the first time, and February 1975. They won 10 and drew 13 of those Tests and only suffered their first defeat in New Zealand in Wellington in 1978.

West Indies were also undefeated in England for 23 Tests between 1973 and 1988. However, they haven't won any of their last 14 Teststhere: losing 12 and drawing two Tests since the victory at Edgbaston in 2000.

New Zealand also had to wait decades for their first win in England. They drew their first match there, at Lord's in June 1931, and endured 10 more draws and 17 defeats before finally winning a Test by five wickets at Leeds in 1983.

South Africa suffered a winless period at home between January 1931 and March 1950. They played 24 Tests during that time, against England and Australia, losing 11 and drawing 13. It is the most consecutive home matches by a team without a single victory. South Africa's eight straight home defeats against England between 1889 and 1899 are also the second-highest number of consecutive home losses, after Bangladesh's 13.

The most consecutive ODI wins in a country is Australia's 16-match streak in the Caribbean. It began with the 2007 World Cup, during which they won all 11 matches to retain the title, after which they blanked West Indies 5-0 in a bilateral series in 2008. That was their last 50-over assignment in the Caribbean and so their streak hasn't ended yet.

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