Australian cricket team in England in 1964

The Australian cricket team toured England in the 1964 season to play a five-match Test series against England for The Ashes.

Australia won the series 1-0 with 4 matches drawn and therefore retained The Ashes.

Test series summary

• 1st Test at Trent Bridge, 4–9 June 1964 – match drawn
• 2nd Test at Lord's, 18–23 June 1964 – match drawn
• 3rd Test at Headingley, 2–7 July 1964 – Australia won by 7 wickets
• 4th Test at Old Trafford, 23–28 July 1964 – match drawn
• 5th Test at Kennington Oval, 13–18 August 1964 – match drawn

In the decisive Third Test, Australia was 187-7 in reply to England's 268 when Ted Dexter decided to take the new ball. In response, Peter Burge, the last recognised batsman, went on the attack. He scored 160, well supported by Neil Hawke and Wally Grout, the last three wickets adding 211. This left England 121 behind on first innings and they could not recover.

Since a draw in the Fourth Test would ensure that Australia would retain the Ashes, they batted on till they had reached 656-8 before declaring, with Bob Simpson scoring 311, belatedly his first Test century. England responded with 611 (Ken Barrington 256, Ted Dexter 174) and the match ended in the dullest of draws.

Ceylon

The Australians had a stopover in Colombo en route to England and played a one-day single-innings match there against the Ceylon national team, which at that time did not have Test status.

External links

CricketArchive – tour summaries

Annual reviews

• Playfair Cricket Annual 1965
• Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 1965

Further reading

• Bill Frindall, The Wisden Book of Test Cricket 1877-1978, Wisden Group, 1979
• Chris Harte, A History of Australian Cricket, Andre Deutsch, 1993
• Ray Robinson, On Top Down Under: Cassell Australia (1975) ISBN 0-7269-7364-5.