Kieswetter makes instant impression

Craig Kieswetter cracked a thrilling century on his England debut to set up a 112-run win over a Bangladesh Cricket Board XI in the opening tour game in Fatullah.

The Johannesburg-born opener was a last-minute addition to the one-day touring party after some eye-catching displays for England Lions, and announced his senior credentials in the most emphatic fashion with 143 off 123 deliveries.

The innings was not without its good fortune, containing as it did four dropped catches and a botched stumping, but the natural timing he showed surely adds to team director Andy Flower’s options at the top of the order ahead of the one-day series.

Vice-captain Paul Collingwood was also in fine form, crashing a carefree 109 off 74 deliveries as England wracked up a mammoth 370 for seven in 50 overs.

Skipper Alastair Cook also prospered - he made a fluent 56 - while off-spinner Graeme Swann impressed with the ball, picking up 4-44 as the home side closed on 258 for nine.

Having set such a formidable target, England were never in any real danger of losing, and Ajmal Shahzad can be pleased with the scalp of Test batsman Shahriar Nafees in the fifth over of the BCB's reply.

Shahzad, who removed both Pakistan openers in the first over of his England debut in the final Twenty20 international last week, burnished his reputation by bowling captain Shahriar for eight.

Things did not improve for the BCB when Swann removed Mahmudul Hasan for 22 in his second over courtesy of a diving catch by Luke Wright.

Nasiruddin Faroq dug in alongside Raqibul Hasan to take his side to three figures, but Swann changed ends and promptly had Faroq lbw for 37, leaving the home side 107 for three.

James Tredwell, hit for a straight six by Naeem Islam earlier, accounted for Raqibul, who made 41, before Swann trapped Naeem Islam lbw and removed Ariful Hoq after twice being lifted over long-on.

Wright took one wicket at the end, while Liam Plunkett picked up two, including top-scorer Sharifullah, in the final over.

It capped a pleasing outing for Cook, leading England for the first time in a 50-over contest.

He had earlier shared an opening stand of 127 with Kieswetter, working the ball around well to make a composed 56 before falling lbw to Alauddin Babu.

Kevin Pietersen was trapped in front by Babu’s next delivery, and Wright benefited from three drops on his way to 25.

Tapash Baisya recovered from a poor start to remove Collingwood, who had hit six sixes, and Matt Prior, who made just eight, in quick succession.

But Kieswetter, who qualified to play for England only a week ago, undeniably stole the show: he struck 14 fours and six sixes, five of which were hit over the bowler’s head, in a graphic illustration of his immense talen

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Razzaq blitz levels series for Pakistan

Abdul Razzaq produced a blistering innings of 46 not out from 18 balls as Pakistan squared the two-match Twenty20 series in dramatic style in Dubai. Defending a target of 148 following a timely return to form for Kevin Pietersen, England's bowlers looked to have the game in the bag as Pakistan slumped to 78 for 5 after 13 overs, following a two-wicket debut over from Ajmal Shahzad, and a brilliant spell of 4-1-14-3 from Graeme Swann.

Razzaq, however, decided that aggression was the best route out of the hole that Pakistan had dug for themselves. After a solitary sighter, he launched Paul Collingwood over midwicket for six twice in two balls, and then repeated the dose one over later, as Luke Wright was battered into the long-off stands.

With 44 runs required from the final five overs, the momentum of the match had suddenly turned, and Fawad Alam kept up the pressure by milking 13 runs from Stuart Broad's next over, including four consecutive twos, and a last-ball boundary as Shahzad on the edge of the circle muffed a half-chance for a diving catch. Three balls later, Fawad continued the onslaught by bludgeoning Tim Bresnan straight down the ground, and though he picked out Eoin Morgan on the midwicket boundary soon afterwards, he had helped add 48 match-changing runs in four overs.

The equation was 18 runs from 12 balls when Shahzad was recalled to bowl the penultimate over of the innings, but Razzaq was ready for his bustling approach and slotted him into the long-off stands for his fourth six of the innings, before sealing the contest with his fifth and largest blow of the night, a mighty heave into the heavens. The game was done and dusted with a full over in hand, to give Pakistan their first victory in 11 outings in all internationals.

Such a finale hadn't looked at all likely for much of the evening, not least when Shahzad - a late replacement for Ryan Sidebottom - was handed the ball to bowl the first over of England's innings. His first delivery was inauspicious, as Imran Nazir clunked him back over his head, but two balls later he had his revenge, as Nazir charged down the pitch to a short but straight delivery, and top-edged a wild smear into the hands of Bresnan at third man.

Before the over was complete, Shahzad had claimed his second, as Imran Farhat flapped another loose pull, this time to Broad at mid-off, and at 4 for 2 after five deliveries, Pakistan were in some serious strife. Though Shoaib Malik and Umar Akmal redressed the balance of the innings with an aggressive third-wicket stand of 36 in five overs, Swann suckered Malik with the first ball of his spell - a leg-side wide that resulted in a smart stumping from Prior - before Shahid Afridi and Akmal both launched ambitious hoicks into the hands of Morgan at midwicket.

Once again, England found themselves unable to defend a total of less than 150 - they have never yet managed that feat in Twenty20 internationals. But it was far from a gloomy evening for their long-term prospects, not least because Pietersen confirmed that he is close to finding his best form. With Jonathan Trott providing solid support in a 98-run stand for the second wicket, Pietersen cracked four fours and three sixes - including one of the biggest hits of the week - to power England along to 148 for 6.

It was blistering batting from Pietersen, whose confidence was sky-high after a measured 43 from 43 balls in Friday's opening contest. Whereas in that encounter he had been happy to play second-fiddle to an excellent performance from Morgan, this time he was ready to resume his more typical front-running approach.

After a sighter from Arafat that fizzed past his leg stump for five wides, Pietersen got into his stride by advancing down the pitch to Razzaq to swing a lofted drive over wide mid-on. His next boundary had a modicum of good fortune as he threaded the gap between gully and backward point with a cramped cut shot, but his next shot in anger was one of pure class - a rifling drive off Saeed Ajmal, that rebounded off the steps of the second-tier hospitality boxes, and left one embarrassed spectator on his backside.

The biggest let-down for England was the continuing poor form of Joe Denly, whose place at the top of the order is now in serious jeopardy following England's decision to call the big-hitting Craig Kieswetter into the one-day party for Bangladesh. Denly came into the contest with a total of 15 runs in his previous four Twenty20 innings, but he managed to add just five more runs to that tally from a further 10 deliveries, before Yasir Arafat nipped a good-length delivery back through his gate.

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England in UAE 2009-10

Two teams looking to the World Twenty20

Match facts

February 19 and 20 2010

Start time 1800 (1400 GMT)

Big Picture

While the tentacles of Twenty20 cricket wrap ever more firmly around the world game, Pakistan meet England in a hastily arranged two-match series that will show just where the two sides lie ahead of the World Twenty20 which starts at the end of April in the Caribbean.

Coming off the back of success in the 50-over series against South Africa, there are flickering signs that England's new gung-ho approach to the shorter format can bear fruit. Yet there is a lingering suspicion that, while their batting has depth, it lacks the match-winning class of someone like Yuvraj Singh in this format. However, Kevin Pietersen possesses an ability that can inspire and frustrate in equal measure and in Eoin Morgan they have one of the brightest prospects in limited-overs cricket.

It's their bowling that looks more vulnerable, lacking decisive pace for the slower wickets in Dubai. You feel Stuart Broad, Ryan Sidebottom, Tim Bresnan and Luke Wright may lack the variety and bite to threaten a free-hitting Pakistan team. It's the spinners, however, who have proved crucial in Twenty20 cricket and Graeme Swann is one of the best in the business.

For their part, Pakistan desperately need a positive result from these games after their drubbing in Australia. With the World Twenty20 just over two months away, the repercussions of the disastrous Australian tour are still being felt. Kamran Akmal, vice-captain in Australia, has been dropped, and his comments to the press ahead of the Hobart Test are being investigated by a board evaluation committee.

They are also currently without a chief selector, Iqbal Qasim having stood down, and travelled to Dubai without Coach Intikhab Alam, who has been summoned instead to answer questions over the rout in Australia. Their captain, Shahid Afridi, is in the midst of a two-match ban for ball tampering, and significant changes have been made to the squad which toured Australia.

Obviously, there is a great deal of work to do if Pakistan are to successfully defend their World Twenty20 title in the West Indies, and though their form in this format has been good in recent times, these games provide a vital chance to build stability and find some confidence ahead of the tournament. Much will depend on how quickly the squad can get past the squabbles which arose in Australia, and gel as a unit.

Form guide (last 5 T20Is, most recent first)

Pakistan LWWWW

England LWLWL

Watch out for

Umar Akmal, still not yet 20, is a precocious talent whose rapidly-rising stock has already given an indication of his importance to the future of Pakistan's batting. Possessed with aggression, fearlessness, and good technique, he has constructed significant innings in all three formats, and it is hard to believe he has only been playing international cricket for less than eight months. Akmal was the leading run-scorer in the one-day series whitewash in Australia, with 187 runs at 37.40, including two half-centuries. He was last man out as Pakistan choked in the solitary Twenty20 of that series, but the last time he played at Dubai's International Cricket Stadium he made a match-winning 56 not out against New Zealand on a difficult pitch.

If England's new-found flair for limited-over batting could be attributed to a single factor, Eoin Morgan is probably it. Known for dexterous flicks and reverse sweeps, it's his crisp hitting and uncluttered approach that has impressed most in his short England career. On the slower pitches in Dubai, his ability to find the boundary will be crucial for an England side that has a history of choking against good spin bowlers. His most dominating performances have come while setting a total but England may also need him to deliver in a run chase if they are to overcome the World Champions.

Team news

Pakistan are a side in turmoil. In addition to the dropping of Kamran Akmal and Intikhab Alam's absence on this tour, Shahid Afridi is serving a two-match ban for the 'ball-biting' incident during the fifth ODI in Perth, which will keep him out of the first match. With Mohammad Asif still banned from entering the UAE, and uncertainty over Mohammad Aamer's recovery from the groin injury that ruled him out of the last three ODIs and the Twenty20 in Australia, one of either Yasir Arafat, Wahab Riaz or Mohammad Talha could play.

Pakistan: (probable) 1 Imran Nazir, 2 Imran Farhat, 3 Umar Akmal, 4 Shoaib Malik (capt), 5 Khalid Latif/Shahid Afridi, 6 Fawad Alam, 7 Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), 8 Abdul Razzaq, 9 Yasir Arafat, 10 Umar Gul, 11 Saeed Ajmal

Having watched Joe Denly falter again against the Lions, England would have been tempted to test Craig Kieswetter at the top of the order, after he completed a four-year qualification period on Tuesday. Yet it would be too much of a snub to the selected squad and captain Paul Collingwood confirmed he was backing Denly to come good with Jonathan Trott in the opening berth. With James Anderson resting his knee in Lancashire England's pace bowling will be led by Stuart Broad and Ryan Sidebottom but Graeme Swann will remain their linchpin.

England: (probable) 1 Jonathan Trott, 2 Joe Denly, 3 Kevin Pietersen, 4 Paul Collingwood, 5 Eoin Morgan, 6 Luke Wright, 7 Matt Prior (wk), 8 Tim Bresnan, 9 Stuart Broad, 10 Graeme Swann, 11 Ryan Sidebottom.

Pitch and conditions

With both of these games day-night fixtures the players will at least avoid competing in the desert city at its hottest. Nevertheless we can expect shirt-soaking temperatures and a dry surface unlikely to offer much interest to the fast bowlers.

Stats and Trivia

Paul Collingwood has a perfectly inconsistent record as Twenty20 captain, winning eight and losing eight from 16 completed matches in charge.

Pakistan have an unblemished record in Twenty20s at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, having beaten Australia and New Zealand at the venue last year. Afridi, who will miss the first game against England, was Player of the Series against new Zealand.

England and Pakistan have only played each other twice in Twenty20s, with both games played in England. Pakistan overcame England at Bristol in 2006, but England pulled one back in the midst of Pakistan's successful run at the World Twenty20 last year, racking up an impressive 185 for 5 at The Oval to progress to the Super Eights.

Quotes

"It's an opportunity to utilise the time before the World Twenty20. We have two matches against England and they are a good side. We have in our team some youngsters who are very talented and they are getting their opportunity. I'm hoping and I'm sure they will do well."

Shoaib Malik, Pakistan's stand-in captain, is hoping the new generation of players perform, with their side desparate for a win after a string of defeats to Australia.

"Pakistan are a very strong Twenty20 side and we're going to have to be right on our game to beat them. It might be a good time to play them, but you never quite know what you're going to get on the day so I think we've just got to concentrate on our own game and see what we get on the day." 

England captain Paul Collingwood tries his best to avoid the 'mercurial' cliché.

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England : One-Day International cricket records

Team records

• Highest team total: 391–4 (50 overs) v Bangladesh at Nottingham in 2005
• Lowest team total: 86–10 (32.4 overs) v Australia at Manchester in 2001

Individual records

• Most matches: 171 – Paul Collingwood
• England is one of only two Test-playing nations (the other being Bangladesh) to have no players over the 200-cap milestone in ODIs
• Longest Serving Captain: 60 matches – Michael Vaughan

Batting

• Most runs: 4677 – Alec Stewart
• Best average: 45.41 – Kevin Pietersen (as of 29 Nov 2009)
• Highest individual score: 167* – Robin Smith v Australia at Birmingham in 1993
• Record partnership: 226 – Andrew Flintoff and Andrew Strauss v West Indies at Lord's in 2004
• Most centuries: 12 – Marcus Trescothick

Bowling

• Most wickets: 234 – Darren Gough
• Best average: 19.45 – Mike Hendrick
• Best bowling: 6/31 – Paul Collingwood v Bangladesh at Nottingham in 2005
• Best strike rate: 32.2 – James Anderson
• Best economy rate: 3.27 – Mike Hendrick

Wicketkeeping

• Most dismissals: 184 – Alec Stewart
• Most dismissals in a match: 6 – Alec Stewart v Zimbabwe at Manchester in 2000; Matt Prior v South Africa at Nottingham in 2008

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Tournament History

World Cup

1975: Semi-Final

1979: Runners up

1983: Semi-Final

1987: Runners up

1992: Runners up

1996: Quarter-Final

1999: Group Stage

2003: Group Stage

2007: Super Eight Stage

2011:

ICC Champions Trophy

(known as the "ICC Knockout" in 1998 and 2000)

1998: Quarter-Final

2000: Quarter-Final

2002: Group Stage

2004: Runners up

2006: Group Stage

2009: Semi-Final

ICC World Twenty20

2007: Super Eight Stage

2009: Super Eight Stage

2010:

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Test and ODI International grounds

Listed in order of date first used for Test match

The Oval, London (Surrey)

Old Trafford, Manchester (Lancashire)

Lord's, London (Middlesex)

Trent Bridge, Nottingham (Nottinghamshire)

Headingley, Leeds (Yorkshire)

Edgbaston, Birmingham (Warwickshire)

Bramall Lane, Sheffield (Yorkshire)

Riverside, Durham (County Durham)

SWALEC Stadium, Cardiff (Glamorgan)

ODI only

Bristol (Gloucestershire)

Rose Bowl, Southampton. Test and ODI status from summer 2011. (Hampshire)

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Team Colours

England's kit is manufactured by Adidas, who replaced previous manufacturer Admiral on 1 April 2008.

When playing Test cricket, England's cricket whites feature red piping across the chest and trouser legs. The three lions badge is on the left of the shirt and the name and logo of the sponsor Vodafone is on the right. The Adidas logo features on the right sleeve. English fielders may wear a navy blue cap or sun hat with the ECB logo in the middle. Helmets are coloured similarly.

In limited overs cricket, England's ODI and Twenty20 shirts feature the Vodafone name and logo across the centre, with the three lions badge on the left of the shirt and the Adidas logo on the right. In one-day cricket, England wear a navy shirt and navy trousers. In Twenty20 cricket, England wear navy trousers and a red shirt.

From January 2010 Vodafone will be replaced by Brit Insurance as team & shirt sponsors.

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England Cricket : Governing Body

The England and Wales Cricket (ECB) is the governing body of English cricket and the England cricket team. The Board has been operating since 1 January 1997 and represents England on the International Cricket Council. The ECB is also responsible for the generation of income from the sale of tickets, sponsorship and broadcasting rights, primarily in relation to the England team. The ECB's income in the 2006 calendar year was £77.0 million.

Prior to 1997 the Test and County Cricket Board (TCCB) was the governing body for the English team. Apart from in Test matches, when touring abroad the England team officially played as MCC up to and including the 1976–77 tour of Australia, reflecting the time when MCC had been responsible for selecting the touring party. The last time the England touring team wore the bacon-and-egg colours of the MCC was on the 1996–97 tour of New Zealand.

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England Cricket Performances

England have traditionally been one of the stronger teams in international cricket, fielding a competitive side for most of cricket's history. Up to the end of 2007 England had played 867 Test matches, winning 301 (34.72%), losing 252 (29.06%), and drawing 314 (36.22%) 639 players had been capped for their country. Up to the Super 8 World Cup match against Australia on April 8, 2007, England had played 464 ODIs, winning 224 (48.28%), losing 221 (47.63%), tying 4 (0.86%) and having 15 (3.23%) with no result. 203 players had played for England in ODIs up to that date.

After Australia won The Ashes for the first time in 1881–82 England had to fight with them for primacy and one of the fiercest rivalries in sport dominated the cricket world for seventy years. In 1963 this duopoly of cricket dominance began to fall away with the emergence of a strong West Indies team.

England failed to win a series against the West Indies between 1969 and 2000. England similarly failed to compete with Australia for a long period and the The Ashes stayed in Australian hands between 1989 and 2005. England struggled against other nations over this period as well and after a series loss to New Zealand in 1999 they were ranked at the bottom of the ICC Test cricket ratings. From 2000, English cricket had a resurgence and England reached the final of the ICC Champions Trophy in 2004 and regained The Ashes in 2005. The team was second behind Australia in the Test rankings following victory in the 2005 Ashes series, although the 2006–07 whitewash, coupled with a 2008 series defeat to South Africa, and the 2008–09 series loss to the West Indies means England are ranked 5th in the ICC Test rankings as of May 2009. ODI performances have been very poor with England falling to 7th place in the ICC rankings.

In the 2006/07 tour of Australia The Ashes were lost in a 0–5 "whitewash" (see 2006-07 Ashes series) but England did succeed in clinching victory in the Commonwealth bank ODI Tri-series against Australia and New Zealand. The loss of The Ashes prompted the announcement by the England and Wales Cricket Board of an official review of English cricket amid much criticism from the media, former players and fans. England failed to reach the semi finals of the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies after defeats against New Zealand, Sri Lanka and South Africa.

In the summer of 2009 England regained The Ashes in a 2–1 series win with a 197 run victory against Australia at the Brit Oval, Kennington, London (20–23 August). Andrew Strauss was named nPower Man of the Series and all-rounder Andrew Flintoff retired from international Test cricket at the end of the 5th Test.

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England Cricket Matches

Upcoming fixtures

• England will tour and host Bangladesh in 2010
• England will host Pakistan in August to September 2010.
• England will tour Australia between November 2010 and February 2011.
• England will host India in 2011. The teams will contest 4 Test matches, 5 ODI matches and a Twenty20 match.
• England will host Sri Lanka in 2011.

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England Cricket in 21st Century

With the appointment of Duncan Fletcher as coach and Nasser Hussain as captain, England began to rebuild the team. They won four consecutive Test series which included impressive wins against West Indies (a first in 32 years) and Pakistan. England were still no match for Steve Waugh's Australia and lost the 2001 Ashes 4–1. Good results against India and Sri Lanka gave England some hope for the 2002–03 Ashes series but a 4–1 defeat showed that they were still inferior to Australia. But that setback did not stop England's resurgence as they defeated the West Indies 3–0 and followed up with whitewashes against New Zealand and the West Indies at home. A victory in the first Test against South Africa at Port Elizabeth meant Englandhad won their eighth successive Test, their best sequence of Test match wins for 75 years.

In 2005,England under Michael Vaughan's captaincy and aided by Kevin Pietersen's batting in his maiden series (most notably 158 at the Oval), and Andrew Flintoff's superb all-round performances, defeated Australia 2–1 to regain the Ashes for the first time in 18 years.

Following the 2005 Ashes win, the team suffered from a serious spate of injuries to key players such as Vaughan, Flintoff, Ashley Giles, Steve Harmison and Simon Jones. As a result, the team underwent an enforced period of transition.

In the home Test series victory against Pakistan in July and August 2006, several promising new players emerged. Most notable were the left-arm orthodox spin bowler Monty Panesar, the first Sikh to play Test cricket for England; and left-handed opening batsman Alastair Cook. Meanwhile England's injury problems allowed previously marginal Test players such as Paul Collingwood and Ian Bell to consolidate their places in the team.

The 2006–07 Ashes series was keenly anticipated and was expected to provide a level of competition comparable to the 2005 series. In the event,England, captained by Flintoff, lost all 5 Tests to concede the first Ashes whitewash in 86 years.

England's form in ODIs had been consistently poor. They only narrowly avoided the ignominy of having to play in the qualifying rounds of the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy. Despite this, in the ODI triangular in Australia, England recorded its first ODI tournament win overseas since 1997. But, in the 2007 Cricket World Cup, England lost to most of the Test playing nations they faced, beating only the West Indies and Bangladesh, although they also avoided defeat by any of the non-Test playing nations. Even so, the unimpressive nature of most of their victories in the tournament, combined with heavy defeats by New Zealand, Australia and South Africa,left many commentators criticising the manner in which the England team approached the one-day game. Coach Duncan Fletcher resigned after eight years in the job as a result and was succeeded by former Sussex coach Peter Moores.

Since then, England's Test record has been indifferent and the team has slumped to fifth in the ICC rankings. There was a convincing 3–0 Test series win over West Indies in 2007 but it was followed in the second half of the summer by a 1–0 loss to India, although England did defeat India 4–3 in the LOI series.

In 2007, England toured Sri Lanka and New Zealand, losing the first series 1–0 and winning the second 2–1. They followed up at home in May 2007 with a 2–0 win against New Zealand, these results easing the pressure on Moores, who was not at ease with his team, particularly Pietersen, who succeeded Vaughan as captain in 2008, after England had been well beaten by South Africa at home.

The poor relationship between Moores and Pietersen came to a head in India on the 2008–09 tour.England lost the series 1–0 and both men resigned their positions, although Pietersen remained a member of the England team. Against this background, England toured the West Indies and, in a disappointing performance, lost the Test series 1–0. Almost immediately, they played West Indies in a home series which they won 1–0.

The second Twenty20 World Cup was held in England in 2009 but England suffered an opening day defeat to the Netherlands. They recovered to defeat both eventual champions Pakistan and reigning champions India but were then knocked out by West Indies.

This was followed by the 2009 Ashes series which featured the first Test match played in Wales, at SWALEC Stadium, Cardiff. England drew that match thanks to a last wicket stand by bowlers James Anderson and Monty Panesar. They won the Second Test at Lords while the rain-affected Third Test at Edgbaston was drawn. In the Fourth Test at Headingley, England suffered one of their worst results for some years and were heavily beaten by an innings. The series was decided at The Oval, where England had to win to recover the Ashes.Thanks to fine bowling by Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann and a debut century by Jonathan Trott, England won by 177 runs.

This victory has left England in fifth place in the ICC rankings but it had the effect of demoting Australia from first to fourth. England's next series is away to South Africa, who have taken over the top ranking.

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The Ashes

England would lose their first home series 1–0 in 1882 with The Sporting Times famously printing an obituary on English cricket:

“ In Affectionate Remembrance of ENGLISH CRICKET, which died at the Oval on 29th AUGUST, 1882, Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances R.I.P. N.B. - The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia. ”

As a result of this loss the tour of 1882–83 was dubbed by England captain Ivo Bligh as "the quest to regain the ashes". England with a mixture of amateurs and professionals won the series 2–1.Bligh was presented with an urn that contained some ashes, which have variously been said to be of a bail, ball or even a woman's veil and so The Ashes was born. A fourth match was then played which Australia won by 4 wickets but the match was not considered part of the Ashes series.England would dominate many of these early contests with England winning the Ashes series 10 times between 1884–98.During this period England also played their first Test match against South Africa in 1889 at Port Elizabeth.

The 1899 Ashes series was the first tour where the MCC and the counties appointed a selection committee. There were three active players: Lord Hawke, W.G. Grace and HW Bainbridge who was the captain of Warwickshire. Prior to this, England teams for home Tests had been chosen by the club on whose ground the match was to be played.

The turn of the century saw mixed results for England as they lost four of the eight Ashes series between 1900 and 1914.During this period England would lose their first series against South Africa in the 1905/06 season 4–1 as their batting faltered. The 1912 season saw England take part in a unique experiment. A nine Test triangular tournament involving England, South Africa and Australia was set-up. The series was hampered by a very wet summer and player disputes however and the tournament was considered a failure with the Daily Telegraph stating:

“ Nine Tests provide a surfeit of cricket, and contests between Australia and South Africa are not a great attraction to the British public. ”

With Australia sending a weakened team and the South African bowlers being ineffective England dominated the tournament winning four of their six matches. The Australia v South Africa match, at Lord's, was notable for a visit by King George V, the first time a reigning monarch had watched Test cricket.England would go on one more tour against South Africa before the outbreak of World War I.

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History

The first recorded incidence of a team with a claim to represent Englandcomes from 9 July 1739 when an "All-England" team which consisted of eleven gentlemen from any part of England, exclusive of Kent. This team played against 'the Unconquerable County' of Kent and lost by a 'very few notches'. Such matches were repeated on numerous occasions for the best part of the century.

In 1846 William Clarke formed the All-England Eleven. This team would eventually compete against a United All-England Eleven with annual matches occurring between 1857 to 1866. These matches were arguably the most important contest of the English season, if judged by the quality of the players.

Early tours

The first overseas tour occurred in September 1859 with England going to North America. This team had six players from the All-England Eleven and six from the United All-England Eleven, and was captained by George Parr. With the outbreak of the American Civil War, attention turned to Australia and New Zealand with the inaugural tour of Australia taking place in 1861–2. England would visit New Zealand in 1863–64 with the tour being the first to be organised by the Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC). Most tours prior to 1877 were played "against odds", meaning the opposing team was permitted to have more than 11 players (usually 22) in order to make for a more even contest.As a result these matches were not considered first-class matches and were organised purely for commercial reasons.

James Lillywhite led the England team which sailed on the P&O steamship Poonah on 21 September 1876. They would play a combined Australian XI, for once on even terms of 11 a side. The match, starting on 15 March 1877 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground came to be regarded as the first Test match. The combined Australian XI won this Test match by 45 runs with Charles Bannerman of Australia scoring the first Test century. At the time this match carried little significance and was classed as another tour match and was labelled as the James Lillywhite's XI v South Australia and New South Wales.The first Test match on English soil occurred in 1880 with England winning this series 1–0. The series was also the first for England to field a fully representative side with W.G. Grace being present in the team.

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