Episode 3 of 3

First Test Match

Name: First Test Match
Start: 1877-03-15
End: 1877-03-17
Location: Melbourne Cricket Ground

When: 15-17 March 1877
Where: Melbourne Cricket Ground
Part of: First Test cricket match: England v Australia at Melbourne

The first Test cricket match was played between a Combined Australian XI and James Lillywhite's XI at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in March 1877.

The match began at 1.05 p.m. on 15 March 1877. It was played from 15 to 17 March. Australia won the match by 45 runs. This match is retrospectively awarded Test status, although the format was not officially recognized until the 1890s.

Sources

Test cricket Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-24
History of Test cricket from 1877 to 1883 Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-29
Melbourne Cricket Ground Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-27

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.