On the third day of the fourth Test in Nottingham, England brought an end to Australia's long-lasting streak of not facing a follow-on.
The last team to enforce follow-on on Australia was Pakistan under Javed Miandad at Karachi in September 1988. Australia went on to lose that Test by an innings margin.
Since then, Australia have played a record 190 Tests in almost 17 years without suffering the ignominy of following-on even once.
The following table gives details of longest streaks of Tests a side has gone between following-on:
Tests | Country | Sequence | Period |
190 | Australia | v Pak,Faisalabad,Sep 1988 to | 16 yrs 11 months |
v Eng,Manchester,Aug 2005 | |||
75 | India | v NZ,Dunedin,Feb 1990 to | 11 yrs 1 month |
v Aus,Mumbai WS,March 2001 | |||
72 | South Africa | v Aus,Durban,Jan 1967 to | 32 yrs 11 months |
v Eng,Port Elizabeth, Dec 1999 | |||
69 | Pakistan | v Aus,Brisbane,Nov 1983 to | 9 yrs 5 months |
v WI,Port-of-Spain,Apr 1993 | |||
68 | England | v Aus,Sydney,Feb 1898 to | 22 yrs 10 months |
v Aus,Sydney,Dec 1920 | |||
63 | West Indies | v Eng, Bridgetown, Apr 1992 to | 7 yrs 8 months |
v NZ, Hamilton,Dec 1999 |
Note: South Africa's instance is inclusive of the 22 years between 1970 and 1992 when they played no Test cricket.