At 44 for 6 in reply to Australia’s 302, New Zealand was heading for an embarrassing defeat in the second final of the Benson & Hedges World Series Cup when Lance Cairns took guard with his bat, ‘Excalibur’.
Cricket
Events In History
1 February 1981
Trans-Tasman sporting relations hit a new low at the Melbourne Cricket Ground when Australian captain Greg Chappell ordered his brother Trevor to bowl the final delivery of a 50-over cricket international against New Zealand underarm (along the ground).
15 February 1978
Chasing 137 for victory in the first test at the Basin Reserve in Wellington, England was bowled out for 64, with Richard Hadlee taking 6 for 26.
8 February 1972
New Zealand’s women cricketers achieved their first test victory at the 17th attempt. They had lost seven and drawn nine of their previous tests, all against either England or Australia.
13 March 1956
New Zealand was already 3–0 down in the series going into the fourth and final test at Eden Park in Auckland. Their West Indies opponents included household names such as Gary Sobers and Everton Weekes, who had broken batting records for a New Zealand season.
28 March 1955
Bert Sutcliffe top-scored with 11 runs as New Zealand was skittled for the lowest total in test cricket history – 26 runs.
20 December 1832
Church Missionary Society (CMS) leader Henry Williams gave the male pupils (Māori and Pākehā) of his mission school at Paihia in the Bay of Islands a rare day off.
Articles
New Zealand cricket
Relive some of the highs and lows in the history of New Zealand's most popular summer team sport, cricket. Although the game has been played here since the 1830s, international success – especially against traditional rivals England and Australia – was a long time coming. Read the full article
Page 1 - Runs on the board
Relive some of the highs and lows in the history of New Zealand's most popular summer team sport, cricket. Although the game has been played here since the 1830s, international
Page 2 - Why cricket?
Cricket is New Zealand's major organised summer sport. Like rugby, one of New Zealand's major winter sporting codes, it was developed in
Page 4 - Playing England
New Zealand has played England in 88 tests, almost twice as often as it has met any other team. The team has had many cricketing highs and lows against
Page 5 - Playing Australia
Key moments in New Zealand's cricketing rivalry with
Biographies
After debuting for the New Zealand cricket team against England in 1949 John Reid went on to play another 57 tests for his country, 34 of those as captain.
Main image: Eden Park - from swamp to sports ground
Originally a swamp, Auckland's Eden Park has been a sports ground since the late 19th century.
