OTD | Nat Thomson, the first man to be dismissed in a Test match, was born in 1839

The history of cricket is filled with some interesting facts and anecdotes which still thrill cricket fans throughout the entire 147-year-long history of the oldest format of the game. A similar kind of fact in Test history is associated with May 29 (Today). Do you remember who was the first-ever batter to get dismissed in the history of the traditional format of the game? 

Something very hard and strange fact to remember but not to worry, we’ll take you back to the history books with an interesting fact related to this day, May 29; it was the same day when the first-ever dismissed batter in Test history was born, the name is none other than the Australia wicketkeeper-batter Nat Thomson (Nathaniel Frampton David Thomson). 

Thomson was born on May 29, 1839, in New South Wales’ capital city of Sydney. He came to open the innings for Australia against England in the first-ever Test match in history. However, Thomson failed to survive a bit long and was trapped by England’s then-second-strike pacer Alien Hill; the former could score only 1 run before getting dismissed in a ‘clean bowled’ by Alien Hill. 

Here’s a look at Nat Thomson’s brief cricketing career

Later, Thomson went on to play 2 Tests for Australia, scoring 67 runs in 4 innings, with 3 catches behind the wickets. Besides that, he also played 27 First-Class matches for New South Wales, scoring 705 runs in 51 innings, hitting 3 half-centuries. He also took 23 catches and 7 stumps behind the wickets. 

Speaking of the action of the first-ever Test match in history, played between England and Australia at the MCG in Melbourne. Aussie skipper Dave Gregory won the toss and batted first and scored 245 runs in the first innings before bundling out England at the score of 196 runs. Later, in the second innings, Australia scored 104 runs and took a lead of 153 runs to set a target of 154 runs for the visitors. 

England failed to chase down the target and were bundled out at the score of 108 runs; eventually, the hosts Australia won the first-ever Test match by a margin of 45  runs. 

Also read: Former Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq was born in 1974