When did each Test-playing nation win its first Test? ft. India and Pakistan
Ireland created history on Friday when they beat Afghanistan at the Tolerance Oval in Abu Dhabi for their first-ever Test win. Since the nation is a newly minted Test side, this win will give them a lot of confidence in playing against more established sides in the future.
Their opponents had won their first Test in 2019 when they beat them in Dehradun by seven wickets thanks to good showings with the bat by Rahmat Shah in both innings.
However, Afghanistan seemed to be off their game in this Test, which they were hosting, and Ireland cashed in on that to pick up this momentous win.
Set a target of 111, Ireland were reduced to 13/3 at one stage and then 39/4 at another before Balbirnie, along with wicketkeeper-batter Lorcan Tucker sealed the deal.
Skipper Andrew Balbirnie, who was at the crease when the Irish sealed the deal with six wickets in hand in the second innings, was understandably a happy man.
"It is nice to get the monkey off the back. There was a list coming up on the screen every so often about when the first Test win came. Very special to be a part of the group to do that," Babbirnie said after the game.
"It's right up there. For me I've played a lot of cricket for Ireland but certainly that's as big a moment for me. A lot of players before us didn't get a chance to play Test cricket so fortunately we're part of that history now. We got to play and got to win. It's a lot bigger than cricket. Hopefully, we will inspire some people back home to want to be Test match cricketers and hopefully we can back them up to do it," he added.
India and Pakistan both won their first Tests each in the year 1952
While Ireland got their momentous first win ever in Test cricket in 2024 against Afghanistan, it is nice to recollect that England and Australia were the earliest proponents of the game and played the first-ever Test match from March 15 to 19 in 1877.
Australia won that game, marking it as the first time they did so in Test cricket. England won the second Test of that series, played from March 31 to April 4 in Melbourne to mark their first-ever win in the sport.
India's first Test win came over arch-rivals Pakistan in February 1952 when Lala Amarnath led his side to a victory by 10 wickets over an opponent that had the venerable Hanif Mohammad in their ranks. The Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai (then Bombay) was the host for this historic occasion.
Pakistan got their back in the same year when they returned for a tour in October and beat their subcontinental rivals in the second Test in Lucknow by an innings and 43 runs.
As for South Africa, who, along with England and Australia formed the first-ever Imperial Cricket Conference (the predecessor to today's International Cricket Council), their first win in Test cricket came in January 1906 when they picked up a nail-biting one-wicket win over the Three Lions in Johannesburg.
New Zealand's first Test win came much later, in March 1956 in Auckland when they humbled the mighty West Indies by 90 runs. John Reid's side overcame a team from the Caribbean that consisted, among others, of Garry Sobers, Everton Weekes and Alf Valentine.
The Windies themselves had been early entrants into the Test-winners club, and they achieved this historic feat in February 1930, when England were touring them. This occasion came in the third Test in Georgetown, Guyana when Clifford Roach's double century in the first innings gave them a massive victory of 289 runs.
Sri Lanka, late entrants into the Test arena, achieved their first win in 1985 when they beat 'big brother' India at the P Sara Oval in Colombo by 149 runs.
Bangladesh, even later entrants, won their first Test against Zimbabwe in Chattogram in 2005. The latter, however, had achieved the feat ten years earlier, when they humbled Salim Malik's Pakistan by an innings and 64 runs in Harare.