England v South Africa 1913-14

Toss: South Africa. Test debuts: South Africa - H.V.Baumgartner, J.M.Blanckenberg, A.H.C.Cooper, J.L.Cox, P.A.M.Hands, P.T.Lewis, G.L.Tapscott; England - M.W.Booth, Hon. L.H.Tennyson.

The first of the Test matches made it clear that South Africa would have no chance against the M.C.C.'s team. Their side was carefully chosen, Natal, the Transvaal and the Western Province furnishing three representatives each. Taylor, on winning the toss, gave a superb display of batting, but he could get very little help. Playing Barnes with perfect confidence, he was the last man out, his innings of 109 lasting about three hours and twenty minutes. In face of a total of 182, the Englishmen had, of course, no cause for anxiety. At the call of time on the first day the score stood at 94 for two wickets, and it was not until the third day, when rain restricted cricket to less than an hour, that the innings ended for 450. The fielding was faulty, several catches being missed. Hobbs hit up his 82 out of 136 in less than two hours and gave no chances. In strong contrast to Hobbs's brilliancy, Douglas was batting four hours and a quarter for his 119. In South Africa's second innings, the batsmen, with the single exception of Nourse, found Barnes, Relf and Woolley far too much for them. England won by an innings and 157 runs.