Test cricket: the enduring images 1
From Grace to Waugh
James Lillywhite (seated, centre) took a team to Australia and played a match against a Combined XI at the MCG which went on to become the first Test. Alfred Shaw, seated on Lillywhite's right, bowled the first ball of Tests•ESPNcricinfo Ltd
Victor Trumper was a star of cricket's golden age - from 1890 to 1914 - when the game was played by amateurs known for their attractive and carefree styles. He could score under any sort of conditions, especially thriving on pitches affected by rain, and many believed he was a better batsman than Bradman•Getty Images
English cricket was severely weakened because of the First World War but even so Australia's 5-0 win in the first post-war Ashes was unexpected. Warwick Armstrong, the Australian captain, (in the photo) scored 158 in the first Test in Sydney which the home team won by 377 runs. The other matches were won just as convincingly. It was 86 years before the next Ashes whitewash •PA Photos
Don Bradman set the course for Bodyline with his imperious batting on the 1930 tour of England. And he was at his most dominant at Headingley, where he set the record for the highest individual score, with 334. Though the match was drawn, Bradman's epic innings was not the reason: he had reached his hundred before lunch and closed day one on 309. Bradman scored a record 974 runs in the five Tests, and Australia won 2-1•Getty Images
Bradman needed four runs in his final Test, at The Oval, for an average of 100. But he was bowled for a duck off his second ball, when he misread a googly by Eric Hollies. His average, still unattainable, finished at 99.94. Australia won the Test by an innings and 149 runs, and the series 4-0•Getty Images
Jim Laker became the first Test bowler to take all 10 wickets in an innings, in the Ashes Test at Old Trafford in 1956. He had achieved the feat two months earlier for Surrey against the touring side. But while he took 12 in that game, Laker managed 19 in Manchester•PA Photos/Getty Images
Australia were leading 1-0 going into the final Test of the 1968 Ashes. At the start of day five they needed 339 runs with eight wickets in hand. Opener John Inverarity batted calmly on the dead track, even as his side collapsed to 85 for 5 at lunch. Rain interrupted England's efforts to square the series, and once the pitch was mopped, 75 minutes remained. Basil D'Oliveira gave England the breakthrough with Barry Jarman's wicket, and after that Derek Underwood took 4 for 6 in 27 balls - Inverarity falling to him in the final three minutes•Getty Images
Maybe it was the earliest indicator of the need for DRS in international cricket. The Dunedin Test in 1980 was marred by ill will and complaints of poor umpiring, which all came to a head when Michael Holding, upset to have been denied a caught-behind by umpire John Hastie, kicked the stumps over. West Indies lost the match by one wicket, and the series 1-0. The next series they lost was in 1995•Getty Images
New Zealand won their first Test in England at Headingley in 1983. Lance Cairns took seven in the first innings and Ewen Chatfield five in the second as New Zealand got there by five wickets with a day to spare•Getty Images
Another ugly side of cricket presented itself in the Faisalabad Test in 1987. Mike Gatting and Shakoor Rana screamed obscenities at each other after the umpire called Gatting a cheat for moving a fielder during a delivery. Gatting said that he had only asked the fielder to stop coming any closer. The match was halted for a day, resuming only after Gatting, forced by the England board, sent a written apology to Rana •Getty Images
Australia's first victory in England, by seven runs at The Oval in 1882, prompted a newspaper to publish a mock obituary (saying the ashes of English cricket would be taken to Australia). And when England won the away series next season, a group of women presented the England captain, Ivo Bligh, with an urn reportedly containing the ashes of a burnt bail. It was the start of Test cricket's oldest rivalry•Getty Images
The central figure of that golden age was WG Grace, who was responsible for turning cricket from a pastime to an international sport. At 18 he scored 224 not out for England against Surrey, in a match he left halfway through in order to participate in and win a quarter-mile hurdles championship, and at 50 he was still opening for England. He scored over 54,000 first-class runs over a 43-year career•Getty Images
West Indies made their Test debut in England in 1928. They lost all three Tests by an innings, prompting Wisden to ask if their debut had been a little premature. It wasn't, as they showed during England's tour to the Caribbean in 1929-30 - drawing the series 1-1. Allrounder Learie Constantine (in picture) went on to become one of West Indies' star players - not just for his outstanding cricketing abilities but for campaigning against racial prejudice in West Indies and elsewhere•ESPNcricinfo Ltd
To counter Bradman, England captain Douglas Jardine devised leg theory, where his fast bowlers, Harold Larwood and Bill Voce, would bowl short outside leg stump with a ring of fielders on the leg side. The bowling, aimed at the body, and hence nicknamed Bodyline, caused an outrage in Australia. The Australian captain Bill Woodfull (in the photo) was struck on the heart by Larwood, and Bert Oldfield was knocked unconscious during the Adelaide Test. But the man for whom Bodyline was devised scored a hundred and three half-centuries in the series, which Australia lost 4-1•Getty Images
West Indies won their first series in England, in 1950, largely due to the efforts of their spin twins, Sonny Ramadhin and Alf Valentine, who took 59 wickets in the four Tests. But it was also the series where the three Ws - Frank Worrell (in the picture), Everton Weekes and Clyde Walcott - were named so for their run-making. Worrell scored two hundreds, including a maiden double, and Weekes and Walcott made a century each•Getty Images
Australia needed one run off the final two balls of the game against West Indies with a wicket in hand in Brisbane in 1960. Lindsay Kline hit to square leg and the non-striker, Ian Meckiff, raced down the pitch, but Joe Solomon threw down the wicket with only the width of the stump for his target. The match was the first tie in Test history•Getty Images
One of cricket's most horrific injuries took place in England's Auckland Test in 1975. Ewen Chatfield, New Zealand's 24-year-old debutant fast bowler, was at the crease and New Zealand were nine-down in their follow-on. Peter Lever bowled a short ball that Chatfield tried to fend away but ended up deflecting into his head. He fell to the ground, unconscious, twitching and moaning, and his heart stopped beating for a short while, but on reaching hospital he regained consciousness, and was told he had sustained a hairline fracture to the skull•The Cricketer International
On day four of the 1981 Headingley Test there were 500-1 odds on an England victory. When Ian Botham came out to bat during the follow-on, England were five down and still trailing by 122 runs, but he unleashed an utterly savage innings of a run-a-ball 149, which turned the game around. Bob Willis took eight second-innings wickets and England the match by 18 runs, becoming only the second team to win after following on•Getty Images
West Indies won all five Tests against England in 1984, making it the first time such a feat had been achieved in the country, and only the fifth in Test history. Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner and Michael Holding were at their menacing best, and the batsmen were just as dominating, especially Gordon Greenidge, whose 214 at Lord's helped West Indies chase 342 in five and a half hours•Getty Images
A young and inexperienced Australian side, led by Allan Border, unexpectedly won the Ashes 4-0 in 1989. Border, along with coach Bob Simpson, inspired a side of future stars like Steve Waugh, Dean Jones, Mark Taylor and Ian Healy to massive wins at Headingley, Lord's and Trent Bridge•Getty Images
Jack Hobbs took over the batting mantle from Grace and went on to score 61,237 runs with an average of 50.65, and scored 197 centuries. Before the war Hobbs was an attacking batsman with strokes all round the ground, but after it, nearing 37, he cut the risky shots out of his repertoire but remained a poised batsman. He is the oldest player to score a Test hundred, at 46•Getty Images
Four years later it was India making their Test debut, with a one-off match at Lord's. Fast bowler Mohammad Nissar took six wickets and Amar Singh made the side's first half-century, but they lost to England by 158 runs•ESPNcricinfo Ltd
In 1938, 22-year-old Len Hutton, playing his sixth Test, broke Bradman's record of the highest individual Test score with 364 at The Oval. Hutton batted for more than 13 hours, and added 382 with Maurice Leyland for the second wicket. England's margin of victory still remains the largest in Tests - an innings and 579 runs - and they drew the series 1-1•Getty Images
Pakistan, who made their Test debut in 1952, won their first Test in England two years later - a 24-run win at The Oval. Fazal Mahmood and Mahmood Hussain bowled England out for 130 to get a three-run lead. But Pakistan struggled against the left-arm spin of Johnny Wardle, and Wazir Mohammad's 42 was the only substantial score of the innings. However, Fazal wasn't done yet: defending a target of 168, he dismissed Len Hutton, Peter May, Denis Compton and Tom Graveney, and ended with 12 wickets for the match•Getty Images
Fred Trueman became the first bowler to take 300 Test wickets, during the drawn Ashes Test at The Oval in 1964. When he dismissed Ian Redpath and Garth McKenzie off successive balls, it seemed possible he would get to the landmark with a hat-trick. Neil Hawke survived the hat-trick ball but did end up as Trueman's 300th victim•Getty Images
Before the start of their 1976 home series against West Indies, England's Tony Greig had said he would make the visitors grovel. The unseemly remark came back to bite him when West Indies' fast bowlers - Michael Holding, Andy Roberts and Wayne Daniel - tore through England's line-up. Holding was exceptionally fast, and took a career-best 8 for 92 (14 for the match) at The Oval. He finished with 28 at 12.71 from five Tests. West Indies won 3-0•Getty Images
Australia were leading the Ashes 2-0 going into the fourth Test in Melbourne. They were set 291 to chase in two days, but had lost nine wickets by the end of day four. When Allan Border came out to bat with Jeff Thomson the next morning, they needed 37 more. The two inched along till only four were required. Ian Botham bowled Thomson a half-volley, which he tried to push for a single, getting an edge instead, and England won by three runs •Getty Images
The second time a Test was tied was in Chennai in 1986. Dean Jones' 502-minute double-hundred set up the match. India needed 348 to win on the final day and were inching towards the narrowest of victories at 344 for 9. Ravi Shastri took a single off the third ball, leaving Maninder Singh to get one run from the last three. But Maninder was trapped lbw off the penultimate delivery•Wisden