Cricket: An innings too awful to forget

The story goes that 50 years ago an unidentified Christchurch man made a decision to board an Auckland-bound DC3 in the hope of witnessing New Zealand cricket's greatest hour.

His excitement stemmed from the fact that New Zealand had restricted England's famous batting line-up to a lead of a mere 46 on the first innings at Eden Park, and were thought to be in with a chance, however slight, of securing a maiden victory.

So you can imagine the punter's surprise when he emerged from Auckland Airport to discover that not only was the test already over, but that New Zealand had succumbed for a world record innings low of 26.

As numbers go, it's doubtful that any other in New Zealand sporting history can evoke such hand-wringing and wincing as 26.

People talk about the frailties of Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, but neither team has come close to breaking the record that Geoff Rabone's New Zealand side set on March 28, 1955.

The potted story is that New Zealand had been crushed in the first test at Dunedin and had made a couple of changes to better counter the challenges presented by Frank (Typhoon) Tyson, Brian Statham, Bob Appleyard and Johnny Wardle.

The move seemed to have been justified when New Zealand, having mustered 200 batting first at Eden Park, bowled out the tourists for 246 on the third day, raising hopes of an exciting and unexpected finish.

Instead, in what was undoubtedly New Zealand cricket's lowest moment, they were dismissed in 105 minutes, or 27 overs.

On a pitch that was uncovered by vandals the night before, the savvy English attack found conditions to their liking and quickly ran through the home side, reducing them to nine for three before tea, 14 for five shortly after the resumption, and 22 for eight about 15 minutes later.

Three New Zealanders, Matt Poore, Ian Colquhoun and Johnny Hayes, completed pairs; Alec Moir successfully avoided a hat-trick ball in each innings, and Bert Sutcliffe, who top-scored in the second with 11, fell to an injudicious heave after tea.

To be fair to Rabone's side, the McC were an all-conquering outfit, having just knocked over Australia 3-1 in the Ashes series before arriving in New Zealand in good form.

The batting included the romantic names of yesteryear - Tom Graveney, Colin Cowdrey, Peter May and Len Hutton - and the bowling was even more impressive, particularly when you consider Fred Trueman had been dropped for disciplinary reasons, and spin twins Jim Laker and Tony Lock had been unavailable.

Tyson, still regarded as one of the fastest bowlers of all time, had caused all sorts of problems for the Australian batsmen, taking 28 wickets in the five-test series at 20.82, and causing problems particularly for Ron Archer, Neil Harvey, Arthur Morris and Richie Benaud.

Statham was a lively seamer with a surprisingly useful bouncer, and had a reputation for working over right-handers with a nasty little off-cutter.

Add to that Appleyard's flat, almost medium-pace off-spin, Wardle's slower, left-arm orthodox and Trevor Bailey's miserly mediums, and England were well equipped to exploit any pitch conditions.

It was a tough time for New Zealand cricket followers, who had already seen their national team skittled for 42 and 54 against Australia in 1945-46.

It surely couldn't get worse, they cried, and they were right.

In their next test New Zealand posted their maiden win, against the West Indies at the same ground, breaking the longest winless sequence in test history, and raising hopes of a brave new dawn.

And the number of years that it took to break the drought?

Yes, we're afraid so ... 26.