Kōrero: Cricket

In March 1946 New Zealand played Australia at the Basin Reserve in the first official test between the two countries. For New Zealand it was not an auspicious start to their post-war international cricket. After making only 42 in their first innings, New Zealand did well to restrict Australia to 199 runs. But batting second, as this film clip shows, New Zealand collapsed again to be all out for 54.  Australia thus won by an innings and 103 runs. The apparent imbalance in the strengths of the two sides dissuaded the Australians from playing another full international test series against New Zealand for 27 years.