Old Trafford Cricket Ground - Notable Moments at Old Trafford

Notable Moments At Old Trafford

• 1902 – The Australian Victor Trumper hit a hundred before lunch on the first day; Australia went on to win the Test by 3 runs – the third closest Test result in history.

• 1909 – Frank Laver, the Australian player/manager, took 8–31 in a drawn Test.

• 1930–1948 – Donald Bradman played three Tests at Old Trafford, scoring just 81 runs at 27.00 – his innings being 14 (1930), 30 (1934) and 7 and 30* (1948). He told Bill Frindall that the light was always so bad that he couldn't see the ball.

• 1938 – The second rained-off Test. In a desperate effort to ensure play, the groundstaff moved the turf from the practice pitch to the square – a unique attempt.

• 1956 – Jim Laker became the first person to take all 10 wickets in a Test match innings, achieving figures of 10 for 53 in the fourth Test against Australia (the only other bowler to take all 10 wickets in an innings is Anil Kumble of India in 1999). Having also taken 9 for 37 in the first innings, Laker ended the match with record figures of 19 for 90, which remain unmatched to this day.

• 1961 – With England firmly in control going into the fourth day, Richie Benaud took 6–70 to win Australia the game. The great Lancashire and England player Brian Statham also took his only Test 'five for' on his home ground.

• 1963 – On 1 May, the first ever one day cricket match took place at Old Trafford, as the Gillette Cup was launched. Lancashire beat Leicestershire in a preliminary knock-out game, as 16th and 17th finishers in the Championship the previous year, to decide who would fill the 16th spot in the one-day competition.

• 1971 – The Gillette Cup semi-final between Lancashire and Gloucestershire was played in near-darkness. With the time approaching 8.45 pm on July 28 and 25 runs still needed from the five remaining overs, David Hughes hit 24 off a single over and set up a notable Lancashire victory.

• 1981 – Ian Botham hit 118, including six sixes (the second greatest number in an Ashes innings), which he has called "one of the three innings I would like to tell my grandchildren about".

• 1984 – Sir Vivian Richards scored his notable 189 not out for the West Indies in the first one-day international for the Texaco Trophy against England. Batting at number four, Richards had made 95 when he was joined by the last batsman Michael Holding with the West Indies in a parlous position at 166 for 9. Together they added 106 runs for the final wicket. Richards hammered 21 fours and 5 sixes. The West Indies won the match convincingly by 104 runs.

• 1990 – Sachin Tendulkar scored his first Test hundred at the age of 17 – becoming the second youngest centurion – to help India draw.

• 1993 – Shane Warne's "Ball of the Century" to Mike Gatting. In the same game, Graham Gooch was out handled the ball for 133 – only the fifth out of seven times this has ever happened.

• 2000 – Michael Atherton and Alec Stewart played their hundredth Tests, against the West Indies.

• 2005 – The third Test of the Ashes series ended in a nailbiting draw, with thousands of fans shut out of the ground on the final day as tickets were sold out.

• 2010–11 – The wickets were relaid, changing their extremely unusual East-West axis to a more conventional North-South layout. The Brian Statham End to the East, and Stretford End to the West, were replaced by the Pavilion End to the North, and the Brian Statham End to the South.