On This Day: One of the horror moments in the red ball format history happened on this day in 1955. New Zealand played a Test match against England at Eden Park in Auckland on 28th March 1955 and the host of that match were bundled out for just 26 runs in the second innings of this game. This record stands even till now.
The Blackcaps side were in a comfortable position in their first innings of the Test Match. The home side of this game were at 154 for the loss of four wickets with John Reid scored a fine 73 runs. But a collapse in their 1st innings itself didn’t allow the Kiwis to progress further in this red-ball match.
From being 154/4 at one stage, New Zealand were bundled out for just 200 runs in their 1st innings. However, the second innings of the Kiwis was dented even more by the bowlers of England. The eleven players of New Zealand could amass just 26 runs in their second innings and that too in 27 overs.
Only the Kiwi opener, Ben Sutcliffe was the top scorer of the 2nd innings with 11 runs and two other batters from the Kiwi nation managed to score more than a single run in this match. Other than that, England was dominating the whole Test match.
The two pace bowlers of England, Bob Appleyard and Brian Statham took seven wickets between them to dismantle the Blackcaps side to the lowest score in the history of Test match cricket.
Appleyard took four wickets to his name while Statham picked up three scalps. The other bowlers like Frank Tyson picked up 2 wickets and Johnny Wardle took one wicket to his name as well.
The visitors of this match England were restricted to 246 runs in their 1st innings by New Zealand with a lead of 46 runs. A total of twelve thousand people attended that match to see the darkest day of New Zealand in the traditional format of this gentlemen’s game.
England won the second red ball match by an innings and 20 runs. The visitors already had won the first Test match of the series as well. England won the first match of this two-match Test series by a margin of eight wickets.
The opening encounter of this series was played at Carisbrook in Dunedin. By winning the second match, England also won the two-match red ball series by a margin of two nil.
New Zealand's Bert Sutcliffe was the highest run scorer of this series and Brian Statham was the highest wicket-taker from England.
