Drawn Test Matches - The Great Ones

[Fuller Pilch]

As a kid Greatbatch in Perth 1989 was a personal favourite.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

McCullum's 302 is another

 

[Lillian Thomson]

I remember that series pretty well too, being one of the earliest summers when I watched the game. Bev Congdon seemed to bat forever in the first two tests.

I liked the drawn first test against Pakistan in 1974. The Headingly wicket was viewed as being tricky at the time, although the scores weren't especially low. Pakistan secured a large first innings lead but we bowled them out quite cheaply to set up a target of around 280. The fourth day was really tense, at the end of which we needed 44 with 4 wickets left. Fletcher contributing well again, oddly enough. And then the last day was washed out.

That Pakistan series had two memorable draws and one of the most tedious in history. At Lords Pakistan got caught on a wet wicket after rain in the first innings and a real sticky dog in the second innings after the rain leaked under the covers. England only needed 87 to win and the last day was washed out again. The Oval was a featherbed in the mid 70's and only 21 wickets fell in 6 days of the third Test (A nonsense rule existed for a few years whereby if the series wasn't decided the final Test had six days).

 

[AndrewB]

AFAICT that only applied to Ashes series: the only 6-day Tests in England were in 1972 and 1975 against Australia (plus there were various timeless final Tests from 1912-1938, of which the 1930 Test actually reached the 6th day). The 1974 Oval Test against Pakistan was a dull draw, but only over 5 days.

 

[AndrewB]

England v NZ at Lord's in 1931 (NZ's first Test away from home) was sufficiently entertaining that two more Tests were arranged for later in the summer because of it.

NZ 224 (having been 130-1)
Eng 454 (having been 62-4 and 190-7: Ames and Allen added 246 for the 8th wicket)
NZ 469-9d
Eng 146-5

 

[Lillian Thomson]

The most famous draw is possibly the “Timeless” Test between South Africa and England in 1939. England were closing in on nigh on 700 to win after 10 days when they had to leave to catch a boat.

 

[tony p]

England v West Indies 1963 Lords (WI 301 & 229, Eng 297 & 228-9, Cowdrey at the non-striker's end with his arm in plaster for the last two balls) is an obvious contender.

Most definitely this game.

Due to rain & Bad Light earlier in the match it went down to the Last Ball.

Some great cricket in this match. Trueman, match figures of 11-152, And Derek Shackleton, recalled to play for England after 11 years aged 38, match figures 84.2-36-165-7.
Ted Dexter played one of his great innings in the first innings, 70 off 73 balls in 81 minutes. Brian Close played a courageous inning in the second, 70, often hit by short balls.

For the Windies, Kanhai, 73 & Solomon, 56, got first innings fifties.
In the second, Basil Butcher played in my opinion one of the least remembered Test Hundreds with 133 out of 229, batting at number four, with seventeen 4's & two 6's, without this innings, we wouldn't have had this great finish.

England needed 8 runs off the last over, they got singles off the second & Third balls, Shackleton was run out off the fourth, & David Allen blocked Wes Hall's last two balls for the draw. Cowdrey has said, he would have batted Left-handed if he had to face.

 

[weeman27bob]

The most famous draw is possibly the “Timeless” Test between South Africa and England in 1939. England were closing in on nigh on 700 to win after 10 days when they had to leave to catch a boat.

Am I the only one who found/finds the incredibly frustrating to have read about when they were younger? I can understand the practical reasons behind it, but so annoying that it finished as a draw.

 

[Bijed]

I guess an infamous one would be England vs Pakistan at the Oval 2006, the (alleged) ball tampering one where Hair ruled Pakistan to have forfeited.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

I guess an infamous one would be England vs Pakistan at the Oval 2006, the (alleged) ball tampering one where Hair ruled Pakistan to have forfeited.

Infamous match, but it wasn’t a draw.

 

[Bijed]

Infamous match, but it wasn’t a draw.

Ah yeah, they awarded it to England at the time, then the ICC later declared it a draw but then gave it back to England right? For some reason I'd forgotten the last bit

 

[AndrewB]

Thanks L&L.
Looking back at the 1974-75 match, I wonder how often the first three innings of a test have been within two runs of each other. Maybe that's the only occasion.

Checking up on this and related questions:

6 Tests had the first three innings all within 10 runs of each other (including one involving a declaration) and one was even closer than the match above:

2: WI v Aus, Port-of-Spain, 1978: WI 292 & 290, Aus 290 & 94
3: Aus v Eng, Melbourne, 1974: Eng 242 & 244, Aus 241 & 238-8
8: Eng v Aus, Lord's, 2019: Eng 258 & 258-5d, Aus 250 & 154-6
9: PK v Zim, Rawalpindi 1993: PK 245 & 248, Zim 254 & 187
10: Eng v Aus, Oval, 1890: Aus 92 & 102, Eng 100 & 95-8
10: Aus v Eng, Melbourne, 1982: Eng 284 & 294, Aus 287 & 288

(Another 10 matches had the first three innings all within 20 runs, two involving declarations)

Note that for Melbourne 1974, Oval 1890 and Melbourne 1982 all four innings were within 10 runs: Melbourne 1982 is the only one of the three in which the four innings were all completed.


Just looking at the first innings: 8 Tests saw the teams tied; another 7 had one side leading by 1 run.

A few teams have been bowled out for the same score in each innings:
NZ v Ind, Hamilton, 2009: NZ 279 & 279, Ind 520 & 39-0
SA v SL, Cape Town, 1998: SA 418 & 264, SL 306 & 306
Ind v Aus, Kolkata, 1956: Aus 177 & 189-9d, Ind 136 & 136
NZ v WI, Wellington, 1956: WI 404 & 13-1, NZ 208 & 208 (following on).

 

[wpdavid]

That Pakistan series had two memorable draws and one of the most tedious in history. At Lords Pakistan got caught on a wet wicket after rain in the first innings and a real sticky dog in the second innings after the rain leaked under the covers. England only needed 87 to win and the last day was washed out again. The Oval was a featherbed in the mid 70's and only 21 wickets fell in 6 days of the third Test (A nonsense rule existed for a few years whereby if the series wasn't decided the final Test had six days).

All I would add is that the drawn match at The Oval included the slowest England hundred ever; 329 deliveries (I think) by that man Fletcher. At one point on Friday when Sibley remained on 90 for about half an hour I thought he might beat the record, but sadly not to be.

 

[Nintendo]

Aus vs Pakistan 1st test 2018 comes to mind. Australia batted 140 overs to draw the match, was a pretty mighty effort for a smith and Warner-less aus overseas.

 

[quincywagstaff]

Don't think it's been mentioned so far but the Perth Test of the Oz v NZ 2001/02 Test series was a ripper. NZ dominated the Test but Australia made a great effort at the 4th innings chase so that all three results were possible (and hence the series result) going into the final hour of the match.

 

[vcs]

Wasn't it NZ who made the 4th innings chase? I remember McGrath bowling way wide of off stump in the last couple of overs.

 

[_Ed_]

Wasn't it NZ who made the 4th innings chase? I remember McGrath bowling way wide of off stump in the last couple of overs.

That was the first test in Brisbane.

 

[Line and Length]

A drawn Test that was made exciting by bold declarations was between Australia and New Zealand in 1997.

Australia v New Zealand. 3rd Test November 27- December 1 1997. Hobart

Australia won the toss and elected to bat, compiling a solid score thanks to a century by opener Matthew Elliott who shared a 197 run partnership with Greg Blewett.

Australia 1st Innings 400 (M.Elliott 114, G.Blewett 99, M.Waugh 81, S.Doull 3 - 87, S.O'Connor 3 - 101, C.Cairns 2 - 86).

Rain threatened to ruin the Test but New Zealand's young captain Stephen Fleming brought it to life late on the third day by declaring 149 runs behind Australia. It was an exciting move from a daring captain and a precursor to some of his later captaincy. A highlight of the innings was Matthew Horne's maiden Test century.

New Zealand 1st Innings 6 - 251 decl (M.Horne, A.Parore, B.Young 31, S.Waugh 3 - 20, P.Reiffel 2 - 27)

Mark Taylor reciprocated at lunch the next day, setting New Zealand 288 to win in two sesssions.

Australia 2nd Innings 2 - 138 decl (M.Taylor 66, G.Blewett 56)

New Zealand went for it with openers Horne and Nathan Astle (promoted up the order) scoring at better than a run a ball. However, when they departed, Shane Warne ripped through the middle order. When Daniel Vettori was the 9th wicket to fall, New Zealand still need 66 runs to win while Australia needed just one wicket off 64 balls. Simon Doull and Shayne O'Connor batted out the final tense 38 minutes scoring just 1 run as they defended grimly.

New Zealand 2nd Innings 9 - 223 (C.McMillan 41, A.Parore 41, N.Astle 40, M.Horne 31, R.Twose (29, S.Warne 5 - 88, P.Reiffel 2 - 47)

It was a thrilling way to end a great Test and the duo's unlikely survival emboldened Fleming to continue down the path of aggressive captaincy.

 

[Bahnz]

Probably the best but most painful drawn test from an NZ perspective was their first boxing day test at the MCG.

Australia started the test 1-0 up in the series. AB won the toss and ignored conventional Aussie cricket wisdom by electing to field first. It looked like a mistake when John Wright and Martin Crowe forged an imposing partnership that took NZ to 2/187. However, Wright's departure triggered a collapse, as McDermott and Whitney took advantage of NZ's moderate resources in the middle order to reduce the tourists to 254/7. Only some characteristically attacking batting from Ian Smith helped to lift NZ over the 300 mark.

NZ 317 (Wright 99, Crowe 82, McDermott 5/96)

With the pitch still offering a bit of life, Hadlee made early inroads into the Aussie top order, accounting for Boon, Marsh and Dean Jones in relatively short order. But from there the going got significantly tougher. While Hadlee and John Bracewell continued to periodically pick up wickets, all of the Australians made handy contributions with only Dyer the Liar being dismissed for less than 30 and Peter Sleep scoring a valiantly 90 to help Australia to a small but vital first innings lead.

Australia 357 (Sleep 90, Waugh 55, Hadlee 5/109))

On the 4th day of the match, New Zealand got off to a reasonable start with Horne and Wright adding 73 for the first wicket. After both openers were dismissed in short order, Crowe again took the lead, playing a stylish and attacking innings. After his dismissal for 78, Australia looked in the box seat to push on for the win, but handy lower order innings from Dipak Patel and Hadlee helped New Zealand to push their lead past the 200 mark going into the final day.

NZ 286 (Crowe 79, Wright 43, Dodemaide 6/58)

Australia went into the last day as favourites, but everyone knew that Hadlee could yet win NZ the match. For most of the first 2 sessions, Australia played him well and it was Hadlee's backup dancers - Morrison and Chatfield - who kept Australia from running away with the match by dismissing Jones and Boon. The critical moment came when Australia were 100 runs from victory, when Hadlee pinned AB in front. Mike Veletta and Peter Sleep helped Australia to push on, but after tea Hadlee finally crashed through, dismissing Sleep, Dyer and Dodemaide in short order to leave NZ 1 wicket away from victory. The last pair of McDermott and Whitney would then survive the next 5 overs (and 1 incredibly adjacent lbw appeal). Bowling his 31st over the day (and 75th of the match), a visibly exhausted Hadlee was unable to breach Whitney's defences as Australia reclaimed the Trans Tasman Trophy.

Australia 230/9 (Boon 54, Border 43, Hadlee 5/67)

 

[vcs]

^^ That sounds like a hell of a match.

From India's perspective, we got an important rain-assisted draw in the first Test of our tour of England in 2007, after which we went on to dominate the rest of the series, winning 1-0. Think Panesar was denied an LBW shout when we were 9 down and just before the rain came. That's the only occasion I can think of where India actually benefited from the rain, whereas we've generally been unlucky with it in recent years.