this was undoubtedly the least successful of all the Australian elevens. Their season's record showed: Matches played, 38; won, 9; lost, 7; drawn, 22. Here again, as in 1884, England v. Australia was to be played at Manchester, Lord's, and the Oval; but it is unnecessary to give an account of these three matches. It will suffice to say that at Manchester England won by four wickets, at Lord's by an innings and 106 runs, and at the Oval by an innings and 217 runs. It will thus be seen that eight matches have now been played between England and Australia. England has won five, Australia has won one, and two have been drawn. We hardly think, in face of these facts, anyone can say that the Australians have succeeded in establishing their superiority over English cricketers.
An opportunity has lately been offered of comparing the individual performances, both in bowling and batting, of the leading English and Australian cricketers, in the carefully compiled statistics contained in a recent work entitled 'England v. Australia,' by Messrs. Brummfitt and Kirby. We there find that, in all the matches played since 1878 between the Australians and the various English teams, both in this country and in Australia, of the eleven batsmen who have the best averages the first four are Englishmen, followed by two Australians, then come three Englishmen, then one Australian, with an Englishman in the last place. The averages are as follows:—
| Batsmen | Number of innings |
Times not out |
Total runs |
Average |
| W. G. Grace | 57 | 3 | 1,955 | 36·2 |
| A. G. Steel | 53 | 4 | 1,637 | 33·4 |
| A. Shrewsbury | 85 | 13 | 2,221 | 30·8 |
| W. W. Read | 46 | 2 | 1,338 | 30·4 |
| W. L. Murdoch | 187 | 21 | 4,574 | 27·5 |
| W. Barnes | 76 | 5 | 1,832 | 25·8 |
| C. T. Studd | 28 | 2 | 663 | 25·5 |
| R. G. Barlow | 93 | 13 | 1,987 | 24·8 |
| H. H. Massie | 85 | 5 | 1,906 | 23·8 |
| Lord Harris | 30 | 1 | 688 | 23·7 |
