While the Australian Test team was touring South Africa in the 1949–50 season, another Australian team captained by Bill Brown played 14 matches in New Zealand between February and April 1950, five of which were first-class.[1] These included one match against the New Zealand national cricket team, but this was not granted Test status.
The team
editThe manager was George Davies.[2] The average age of the team was 29; some Australian critics thought the selectors should have looked to the future and chosen more young players.[3] Of the nine players in the team who had not played Test cricket, only Burke, Davidson and Iverson later played Tests for Australia.
The tour
editThe Australians beat Canterbury by 10 wickets, Otago by an innings and Wellington also by an innings, and drew against Auckland.
The match against New Zealand in Dunedin was affected by rain on the second day and ended in a draw. New Zealand batted first and made 231, Doug Ring taking 7 for 88 and Tony MacGibbon, playing his first match for New Zealand, top-scoring with 65 at number seven. Australia were 105 for 5 in reply when Don Tallon came to the crease; he scored 116 in three hours with eight fours and seven sixes, and Australia made 299. Fen Cresswell took 8 for 100 off 48.3 overs. New Zealand then lost wickets quickly and were 67 for 9, still one run in arrears with 15 minutes to play, when Cresswell joined the New Zealand captain, Walter Hadlee. They stayed together till time expired with the score at 76 for 9.[4]
The Australians won all nine minor matches, seven of them by an innings. Only one century was scored against them during the whole tour, by Noel McMahon for Waikato. In the first-class matches the Australian spin bowler Jack Iverson took 25 wickets at an average of 12.88,[5] but in all matches he took 75 wickets at only 7.7.[6]
References
edit- ^ CricketArchive – tour itinerary. Cricketarchive.co.uk. Retrieved on 2018-07-08.
- ^ "Surprises in team for tour of NZ". Newcastle Sun: 12. 4 January 1950. Retrieved 27 June 2016.
- ^ Taylor, Percy (5 January 1950). "Four Victorians picked themselves". The Argus: 20. Retrieved 27 June 2016.
- ^ "New Zealand v Australia 1949-50". CricketArchive. Retrieved 18 June 2016.
- ^ "First-class Bowling for Australians". CricketArchive. Retrieved 18 June 2016.
- ^ Gideon Haigh (1999). Mystery Spinner. Melbourne: Text. p. 154.
Further reading
edit- Gideon Haigh, Mystery Spinner, Text, Melbourne, 1999, pp. 149–57.
- Don Neely & Richard Payne, Men in White: The History of New Zealand International Cricket, 1894–1985, Moa, Auckland, 1986, p. 207.
- Wisden 1951, pp. 828–35.
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