While the Australian Test team was touring

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

in the 1949–50 season, another Australian team captained by Bill Brown played 14 matches in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

between February and April 1950, five of which were first-class. These included one match against the New Zealand national cricket team, but this was not granted

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

status.

The team

* Bill Brown (captain) * Jim Burke * Alan Davidson * Wally Driver * Lance Duldig * Roy Howard *

Jack Iverson John Brian Iverson (27 July 1915 – 23 October 1973), was an Australian cricketer who played in five Test cricket, Test matches from 1950 to 1951. He was known for his unique "bent finger" grip, with which he briefly perplexed batsmen across ...

* Len Johnson *

Ken Meuleman Kenneth Douglas Meuleman (5 September 1923 – 10 September 2004) was an Australian cricketer who played in one Test match in 1946. His cricket career started in Victoria, but after moving to Perth, Western Australia, he established himself as ...

* Charlie Puckett *

Phil Ridings Philip Lovett Ridings (2 October 1917 – 13 September 1998) was an Australian cricketer. Nicknamed "Pancho", Ridings played first-class cricket for South Australia from 1937 to 1957, scoring nine hundreds. Primarily a batsman, he also took 61 ...

Doug Ring Douglas Thomas Ring (14 October 1918 – 23 June 2003) was an Australian cricketer who played for Victoria and for Australia in 13 Test matches between 1948 and 1953. In 129 first-class cricket matches, he took 426 wickets bowling leg spin, a ...

* Stan Sismey *

Don Tallon Donald Tallon (17 February 1916 – 7 September 1984) was an Australian cricketer who played 21 Test matches as a wicket-keeper between 1946 and 1953. He was widely regarded by his contemporaries as Australia's finest ever wicket-keeper and ...

The manager was George Davies. 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. 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

The Australians beat

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of ...

by 10 wickets, Otago by an innings and

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...

also by an innings, and drew against

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...

. The match against New Zealand in

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

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 Anthony Roy MacGibbon (28 August 1924 – 6 April 2010) was a cricketer who played 26 Tests for New Zealand in the 1950s. MacGibbon was a useful lower-order right-hand batsman and a right-arm fast-medium bowler who led the attack for his count ...

, 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 George Fenwick Cresswell (22 March 1915 – 10 January 1966) was a cricketer who played three Tests for New Zealand. Born in Wanganui, he was the older brother of Arthur Cresswell. He was the 50th Test cap for New Zealand. Cricket career Cres ...

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 Walter Arnold Hadlee (4 June 1915 – 29 September 2006) was a New Zealand cricketer and Test match captain. He played domestic first-class cricket for Canterbury and Otago. Three of his five sons, Sir Richard, Dayle and Barry played crick ...

. They stayed together till time expired with the score at 76 for 9. 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 Noel Albert McMahon QSM (24 May 1916 – 9 June 2013) was a cricketer who played one match for New Zealand in the 1949–50 season. McMahon played two matches for Auckland in the Plunket Shield in 1936–37 and 1937–38 as a leg-spinner withou ...

for Waikato. In the first-class matches the Australian spin bowler Jack Iverson took 25 wickets at an average of 12.88, but in all matches he took 75 wickets at only 7.7.

The team

The tour

References

Further reading