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Rh approached his great feats in 1878, 1880, 1882, and 1884. The modern Australian bowler has horrified the old school, who used with justice to complain of the unfair delivery of Crossland and others, for two of the 1896 eleven bowled with no doubt unfair deliveries; in fact, the Australians began to throw when the vice was stamped out in England. But whatever may happen in the future, there can be no doubt that reciprocity was established between the two countries: England learned much from the Australians in bowling and fielding, and Australia learnt much from England in batting.

In 1897 Stoddart took out a team to Australia that Englishmen were content to believe was the best that ever visited Australia. Richardson was included, and, with the exception of Abel and Gunn, and perhaps one other alteration in October 1897, Englishmen were confident that an eleven had been sent out which would defeat the best Australian eleven. There has been a rude awakening: out of five test matches, Australia has easily won