How it unfolded
Scheduled during a tour of Australia by James Lillywhite's English professional side, this match was later recognized retrospectively as the first Test. Charles Bannerman, facing the very first ball bowled by Alfred Shaw, stayed at the crease and built a score of 165 before retiring hurt with a finger injury — two-thirds of Australia's first-innings total of 245, the first century in Test history and still, to this day, the highest proportion of a team's total ever scored by one batter. England managed only 196 in their first innings. Australia collapsed to 104 in the second, leaving England a modest target of 154, but left-arm bowler Tom Kendall took 7 for 55 to bowl England out for 108, sealing a 45-run win. Played over four days with no time limit and four-ball overs, the match had an odd echo a century later: the Centenary Test at the same ground in 1977 was also won by Australia — by 45 runs.
Why it still matters
This match turned international contests from one-off spectacles into an institution. Test cricket adopted the two-innings-per-side structure as its standard from here on, and every career record kept today traces back to this starting point. Proof that England could lose away from home created demand for regular touring series, a demand that led directly to the birth of the Ashes five years later.