Kiwi first: Cricketers conquer Baggy Greens
Christchurch has been the scene of many great New Zealand test cricketing moments. From Nathan Astle’s blistering then-fastest double hundred at the old Jade Stadium in 2002, to Brendon McCullum’s record-breaking fastest century in his farewell match at Hagley Oval
14 years later, there has been no shortage of cricketing drama in the Garden City.
Throw in an innings victory against a strong English side in
1984, when the home side twice bowled the visitors out for less than 100, and Graham Dowling’s
239 against India in 1968, at the time the highest score by a New Zealand batsman, and Cantabrians have witnessed their fair share of history.
These days, talk of test cricket is punctuated by fears of its eventual demise, in the face of dwindling crowd numbers and a reduction in scheduled matches. Several leading players have said a ‘‘one-format’’ future is a distinct possibility.
But on this day 44 years ago, times were decidedly different.
Test cricket was as popular as ever, and the New Zealand side was starting to seriously compete.
While they had only recorded seven test victories before the second test against Australia at Lancaster Park starting on March
8, 1974, the team had shown some promise.
It drew a five-match series in the West Indies in 1972, in which opening batsman Glenn Turner amassed 672 runs in eight innings, including two double centuries, and nearly chased down 479 to win the first test against England at Nottingham a year later.
So when the third morning of this test against New Zealand’s trans-Tasman rivals rolled around on March 10, with the home side in a strong position and Turner unbeaten on 99, another strong crowd, reportedly about 13,000, flocked to the ground sensing history in the making.
New Zealand had played heavyweight Australia only five times previously, and the Aussies had never sent a full-strength team across the ditch.
They came and conquered in
1946, winning by an innings and plenty in Wellington as New Zealand was still finding its feet on the international stage.
The teams did not meet again until 1973-74, when the Aussies comfortably won a three-match series 2-0 on home soil (although New Zealand was robbed of a chance of victory in the second test in Sydney when rain washed out the final day).
A month later, they were in New Zealand, drawing the first test at Wellington’s Basin Reserve in a high-scoring match in which the lowest score was 460.
Both Chappell brothers, Greg and Ian, scored hundreds in each innings for Australia, while Bevan Congdon and Brian Hastings struck centuries for the Kiwis.
But this match would prove to be a far more tense affair.
As Turner, who scored twin centuries in the match, later reflected in an article for Cricinfo in 2011, ‘‘no team dominated the game for too long, which made for engrossing Test cricket’’.
Those were the sentiments also of author Lynn McConnell, who gave an account of the match in his book, The First Fifty, detailing New Zealand’s first 50 test victories.
‘‘A Test for each session of the five days of play. A Test in which neither side could claim the outright advantage. A Test in which the highest team score was 259 and the lowest 223.’’ Author Lynn McConnell
‘‘This was a game that truly was a Test,’’ he wrote. ‘‘A Test for each session of the five days of play. A Test in which neither side could claim the outright advantage. A Test in which the highest team score was 259 and the lowest 223.’’
The great Sir Richard Hadlee missed the Wellington match, and made an immediate impact on his return.
After New Zealand sent Australia in to bat, he bowled Ian Chappell for 20, after Richard Collinge had made an early breakthrough.
Hadlee would go on to pick up two more, as did Collinge, and Congdon also snared three, including the wicket of Greg Chappell, as Australia battled through to 223.
But this was to be Turner’s match. He played and missed regularly early on in New Zealand’s first innings but remained stoic and found his feet, ending day two on 99 with New Zealand 194/5.
He took 34 balls on that Sunday morning to reach his fourth test hundred, before the home side was bowled out for 255, giving them a slender lead.
Hadlee and brother Dayle were to the fore in Australia’s second innings, taking four wickets each to dismiss the visitors for 259, leaving New Zealand 228 to win.
That was enough for Turner to register another hundred, a majestic 110 not out as New Zealand won by five wickets early on day five. Hastings contributed
46. The significance of the victory was not lost on the New Zealand side, or the public.
‘‘We needed 54 with six wickets in hand [on the final morning], yet a big crowd turned up because they wanted to be witness to our first Test win against Australia,’’ Turner wrote in his Cricinfo article, Beating Big Brother.
‘‘Apparently a guy passing the ground in his car heard it on the radio, parked outside the main gate, left the motor running, and rushed into the ground to see the final runs. That is an indication of how much it meant.
‘‘We all often use the word belief.
‘‘I am not given to extravagant reaction to success or defeat, but I will concede that our win against Australia at Lancaster Park in
1974 helped our cricket come of age.
‘‘It gave us that belief. It also gave a boost to the game in New Zealand at that time.
‘‘Of all the first wins against all the teams, this one was the most special. It came in front of our mob – and what atmosphere the 15,000 Cantabrians created over those five special days.’’