The first ever Test match in 1877 was a memorable one for a lot of reasons. The match between the touring James Lillywhite XI and a combined Victoria and New South Wales XI was later given the status of the first ever Test match to be played. It was a thrilling match which ended with the Australians winning it by 45 runs. As expected, there were many firsts in the match. Generally, the most notable one was the first ever century by Charles Bannerman, who also had the honour of scoring the first half-century and his contribution of 67.35% of total runs (165 out of 245) is Test match record till date.
As always, the batsmen took all the glory and not many people remember the five-wicket hauls from Billy Midwinter (5/78 in England first innings), Alfred Shaw (5/38 in Australia second innings) and above all Tom Kendall’s match winning 7/55 during England’s second innings which helped his team defend 153 runs.
Kendall, who was born on 24th August 1851, was a left-arm slow to medium pace bowler and left-handed lower order batsman. Just like Bannerman, Kendall was also born in England and later moved to Victoria in Australia and used to play club cricket for Richmond.
Those were the early days of cricket in Australia and so he did not play many matches which were given First- Class status. Hence his record reads only eight First-Class matches. Two of those were the first two Test matches ever and as we have already mentioned he played a key role in Australia’s triumph. In total he took 14 wickets in those two matches and for a limited period of time he enjoyed the status of highest wicket taker in Test match cricket.
Interestingly, Kendall was not picked for the 1878 tour of England for some reason. Four years later, he took a job in a newspaper named ‘The Mercury’ and moved to Tasmania which effectively finished his First-Class cricket career. In those days, Tasmania was not part of the regular Australian domestic cricket and so he left playing lower grade matches.
Post that his cricket career was limited which included a tour to Tasmanian neighbours New Zealand. ESPNCricinfo says, Tom Kendall is “perhaps, the best Australian bowler who never came to England”.