Australian cricket team in New Zealand in 1956–57

Last updated August 17, 2023

An Australian national cricket team captained by Ian Craig toured New Zealand between February and April 1957. They played 12 matches, seven of which were first-class, including three matches against New Zealand, but these were not granted Test status.^[1] The Australians won one and drew two of the international matches, and won the other four first-class matches.

Team

It was a young team: Craig was 21; the oldest player, Harvey, was 28; and the youngest player, O'Neill, was 19.^[3]

Matches

Australia won the first game against Canterbury by five wickets. Benaud took four wickets and Burge scored a century.^[4]^[5]

The next game against Southland was drawn. Southland were dismissed for 84, Gaunt taking 6-23. Favell scored 81 and Watson 74.^[6]^[7]

Australia beat Otago by an innings and 102 runs. Harvey scored 161 and Kline took six wickets and Meckiff five.^[8]

Australia beat a combined team from Ashburton County, South Canterbury and North Otago by an innings and 18 runs, Meckiff taking 8-19 in the first innings.^[9]

First Unofficial Test

Australia played a New Zealand team, a match that ended in a draw. Craig scored 123 not out in the second innings.^[10]^[11]^[12]

Australia beat Wairarapa by an innings.^[13]

Second Unofficial Test

In the second game against New Zealand they drew, Benaud taking 6-79.^[14]

A match against Poverty Bay was a draw, despite Benaud and Harvey scoring centuries.^[15]^[16]

Australia beat Auckland by an innings and 54 runs, Meckiff taking nine wickets.^[17]^[18]

They drew with Waikato, Martin taking five wickets.^[19] Australia beat Central Districts by ten wickets, Benaud scoring a century and taking eight wickets.^[20]

Third Unofficial Test

In the third and final unofficial test, Australia beat New Zealand by ten wickets. Meckiff and Benaud took six wickets for the game, Martin took seven and Norm O'Neill scored a century.^[21]

Neil Harvey headed the batting aggregates in first class games with 448 runs at 49.77.^[22] Benaud took 32 wickets at 19.31.^[23]

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The England cricket team toured Australia and New Zealand between October 1962 and March 1963 with a one-match stopover in Colombo, en route to Australia. The tour was organised by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and, in all matches other than Tests, the team was called MCC. In Australia, the tour itinerary consisted of 15 first-class matches, including the five-match Test series against Australia in which The Ashes were at stake. It was the last England cricket tour of Australia where the team travelled by ship.

The West Indies cricket team toured Australia in the 1960–61 season under the captaincy of Frank Worrell. Both Worrell and his opposing captain, Richie Benaud, encouraged their teams to play attacking cricket. The first Test of the five match series ended in a dramatic tie, the first of only two instances in Test cricket. Though West Indies narrowly lost the series 2–1, with one draw in addition to the tie, they might easily have won both the last two matches and taken the series 3–1. They took much credit for contributing to such an exciting series and made themselves extremely popular with the Australian public. Prior to their departure from Australia, the team were paraded through Melbourne in open-top cars on 17 February 1961, and were cheered by enormous crowds.

The South Africa national cricket team toured Australia in the 1952–53 season and played five Test matches against Australia. The series was drawn 2–2, the first time a rubber between the two sides had not been won by Australia.

The 1958–59 Ashes series consisted of five cricket Test matches, each scheduled for six days with eight ball overs. It formed part of the MCC tour of Australia in 1958–59, and the matches outside the Tests were played in the name of the Marylebone Cricket Club. The England team led by Peter May was labelled the strongest ever to leave England. It had the formidable bowling attack of Fred Trueman, Frank Tyson, Brian Statham, Peter Loader, Jim Laker and Tony Lock; the all-rounder Trevor Bailey; the outstanding wicket-keeper Godfrey Evans; and the batting of Colin Cowdrey, Tom Graveney, Raman Subba Row and Ted Dexter. They had won the last three Ashes series in 1953, 1954–55 and 1956, but lost the series 4–0 to Australia. It was one of the biggest upsets in Test cricket history and the biggest margin of defeat in an Ashes series since the 5–0 "whitewashing" inflicted by Warwick Armstrong's Australians in 1920–21.

The 1958-59 Australians defeated the touring England team 4-0 in the 1958–59 Ashes series. They were seen by the English press as having little chance of winning the series against the powerful England touring team. They had only one recognised great player, Neil Harvey and had lost the fast bowling combination of Ray Lindwall and Keith Miller and the other veterans of Don Bradman's Invincible 1948 team. There were, however, signs of recovery to those who would see them and E.W. Swanton believed that on their home ground Australia would be a shade better than England. The best indication of the forthcoming series was the M.C.C. and Australian tours of South Africa in 1956-57 and 1957-58. South Africa had a strong team in the 1950s, stunning the cricketing world by drawing 2-2 in Australia in 1953-54, losing 3-2 in the closely fought 1955 series in England and fighting back from a 2-0 deficit to draw 2-2 with Peter May's England in 1956-57. In 1957-58 Ian Craig led a team labelled as the weakest to leave Australia to a 3-0 victory over the Springboks with Richie Benaud, Alan Davidson, Wally Grout, Ken Mackay, Colin McDonald, Jim Burke and Lindsay Kline all in fine form. Norm O'Neill was not taken on tour, but struck innings of 175 in three hours and 233 in four hours in successive games against Victoria and was regarded as the "New Bradman".

The Marylebone Cricket Club tour of Australia in 1958-59 under the captaincy of Peter May was its twelfth since it took official control of overseas tours in 1903-1904. The touring team played as England in the 1958–59 Ashes series against Australia, but as the MCC in all other games. In all there were 20 matches; 5 Test matches, 12 other First Class matches and 3 minor matches. It was billed as the strongest MCC team ever to tour Australia and dominated the early matches, and its heavy defeat in the Test series was seen as one of the great upsets in cricket.

References

↑ CricketArchive – tour itinerary
↑ Wisden 1958, p. 847.
↑ Wisden 1958, p. 846.
↑ "The Home of CricketArchive".
↑ "Rapid Scoring Brings Win To Australia". The Canberra Times . Vol. 31, no. 9, 097. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 19 February 1957. p. 10. Retrieved 30 November 2017– via National Library of Australia.
↑ "The Home of CricketArchive".
↑ "Australia Leads Southland On First Innings". The Canberra Times . Vol. 31, no. 9, 099. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 21 February 1957. p. 10. Retrieved 30 November 2017– via National Library of Australia.
↑ "The Home of CricketArchive".
↑ "The Home of CricketArchive".
↑ "The Home of CricketArchive".
↑ "Australians Fare Badly In N.Z." The Canberra Times . Vol. 31, no. 9, 107. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 2 March 1957. p. 16. Retrieved 30 November 2017– via National Library of Australia.
↑ "New Zealand Refuses Run Chances". The Canberra Times . Vol. 31, no. 9, 109. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 5 March 1957. p. 3. Retrieved 30 November 2017– via National Library of Australia.
↑ "The Home of CricketArchive".
↑ http:// ten wcricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/22/22361.html
↑ "The Home of CricketArchive".
↑ ""Fantastic" Effort Gets N.Z. Wicket Ready For Play". The Canberra Times . Vol. 31, no. 9, 118. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 15 March 1957. p. 4. Retrieved 30 November 2017– via National Library of Australia.
↑ "The Home of CricketArchive".
↑ "Auckland Loses To Australia". The Canberra Times . Vol. 31, no. 9, 121. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 19 March 1957. p. 10. Retrieved 30 November 2017– via National Library of Australia.
↑ "The Home of CricketArchive".
↑ "The Home of CricketArchive".
↑ "The Home of CricketArchive".
↑ "The Home of CricketArchive".
↑ "The Home of CricketArchive".

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Australia in New Zealand 1956-57 at CricketArchive

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