1946
Forty-two and fifty-four
New Zealand were bowled out for 42 and 54 at Wellington in March 1946, in a match that lasted two days and was not a Test when it was played. It became one two years later, and it is on the card as New Zealand’s first against Australia.
New Zealand won the toss at the Basin Reserve on 29 March 1946 and batted. They were all out for 42 in 39 overs. The next day they were all out for 54. Australia won by an innings and 103 runs, and the card carries a note that it was New Zealand’s first Test match against Australia, which is true now and was not true then.
Forty-two
The ledger. Walter Hadlee, the captain, 6. Mac Anderson 4. Verdun Scott 14, the top score. Merv Wallace 10. Eric Tindill 1. Gordon Rowe 0, Len Butterfield 0, Don McRae 0. Ces Burke 1, Jack Cowie 2, Don Cleverley 1 not out. Three byes.
The fall of wickets is the line to read. 7, 15, 37, 37, 37, 37, 37, 39, 40, 42. Five wickets fell at 37, from three for 37 to seven for 37, and the last three added five. Bill O’Reilly took five for 14 in 12 overs and Ernie Toshack four for 12 in 19, thirteen of them maidens. Ray Lindwall took the other.
Full scorecard: New Zealand v Australia, Only Test, Wellington, 29–30 March 1946 →
One hundred and ninety-nine for eight
Australia were 149 for three at the close of the first day and declared at 199 for eight on the second. Bill Brown, the captain, made 67 and Sid Barnes 54. Cowie took six for 40 in 21 overs, which on any other card would be the figures of the match. O’Reilly and Toshack did not bat.
Fifty-four
Hadlee bowled Miller for 3. Anderson bowled Lindwall for 1. Scott caught behind for 4. Tindill 13, Wallace run out for 14, the top score again, and the fall of wickets reads 3, 5, 12, 36, 37, 37, 39, 41, 42, 54. Rowe and Butterfield made a pair each. McRae made 8, and was the last man out, caught off Colin McCool, whose figures for the innings read 0.2 overs, no runs, one wicket.
O’Reilly took three for 19. Toshack two for 6, Keith Miller two for 6, Lindwall one for 16. Five bowlers, ten wickets, 54 runs, and the match over on the second afternoon of three.
Thirteen debuts, one status
The card lists thirteen Test debutants. Seven are Australian, and among them are Miller, Lindwall, Don Tallon, Ian Johnson and McCool. Six are New Zealanders. It was also a last match: O’Reilly, who took eight of the twenty wickets, never played a Test or a first-class game again, and finished with 144 Test wickets. The umpires were Henry Gourlay and Melville Pengelly. It is Test number 275.
It was not Test number 275 when it was played. Its status was uncertain at the time, and it was not recognised as an official Test until March 1948. The thirteen debuts, the note about New Zealand’s first Test against Australia, and O’Reilly’s eight wickets were all added to the record two years after the event.
Two totals on one list
Forty-two is the total India made at Lord’s in 1974. Fifty-four is nearer the run of things. Neither is the lowest New Zealand have made: that is 26, nine years later, on a card that was a Test from the first ball. Wellington’s two totals were made in a match that had to wait to count.
What the card holds
Ninety-six runs in two innings, in 71.2 overs. Five wickets at one score. A captain who declared at 199 for eight and won by an innings and 103. A last wicket taken with the second ball of a bowler’s spell. And a match number and a first-Test note that were both given retrospectively, so that the card describes a Test that the players did not know they were playing.
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