New Zealand cricket team in England in 1949
Encyclopedia
The New Zealand cricket team toured England in the 1949 season
. The team was the fourth official touring side from New Zealand, following those in 1927
, 1931
and 1937
, and was by some distance the most successful to this date. The four-match Test
series with England
was shared, every game ending as a draw, and of 35 first-class
fixtures, 14 were won, 20 drawn and only one lost.
in 1945-46 and the other the following season against the touring MCC
team led by Walter Hammond. Consequently many of the New Zealand players were untested at the highest level of the game.
By contrast, England had played full series both at home and abroad in every summer and winter since the end of the war, though with mixed results. The team had been comprehensively outplayed twice by Australia, and though other results against India
, South Africa
and West Indies had been better, there had been considerable experimentation with new players, and only a handful of players could consider themselves certainties for selection were England to choose to field its strongest side.
, who was one of four players – the others were Merv Wallace, Martin Donnelly and Jack Cowie – who had toured with the 1937 team.
The side was:
Jack Phillipps, the tour manager, played in one minor match against Durham
(not then first-class). Reid, a lively fast bowler as well as a batsman, was used as the second wicketkeeper and had to deputise in the fourth Test for Mooney, who was unfit. Of the 15 players, 13 appeared in the Test matches. The exceptions were Burke, who had played his only Test match in the game against Australia in 1945-46, and Hayes, who was injured for much of this tour but became a regular player for New Zealand across much of the 1950s, touring England again in 1958. Cave, Reid and Sutcliffe also toured with the 1958 side
.
First Test, Leeds
England (372 and 267 for four declared) drew with New Zealand (341 and 195 for two). New Zealand, with only four front-line bowlers, were able to contain England's batsmen but struggled to dismiss them. Centuries by Len Hutton
and Denis Compton
ensured a large score, but England made only 307 runs on the first day, Cowie taking five wickets, and Burtt mopped up the tail on the Monday morning to claim five also. Trevor Bailey
, in his first Test, troubled the early batsmen with his pace, and the fourth wicket was down at 80. But Donnelly and Smith put on 120 and Smith went on to score 96. A last-wicket partnership between Mooney and Cowie put on 57 and went into the last morning, but Cowie was injured and could not bowl in England's second innings. Fast scoring by Bill Edrich
and George Mann, and less fast by an injured Cyril Washbrook
, who scored 103, led to a declaration. But 299 to win in 150 minutes was too much to ask and Sutcliffe, Scott and Smith got batting practice as the game petered out.
opened with a stand of 143 to almost clear the arrears, and Robertson went on to score 121.
Third Test, Manchester
New Zealand (293 and 348 for seven) drew with England (440 for nine declared). New England captain Freddie Brown put New Zealand in to bat, and Bailey took early wickets in humid conditions. There was also a debut wicket for 18-year-old Brian Close
. But Donnelly, with 75, and Reid (50) added 116, and the innings went into the second day. Bailey finished with six for 84. England found it difficult to force the pace against tight bowling and fielding. All the top seven batsmen made runs, with Hutton making 73 and Edrich 78, and Reg Simpson
took advantage of a tiring attack to score his first Test century, with 103. Bailey was 72 not out when Brown declared. At 109 for three, New Zealand were vulnerable, but 101 from Sutcliffe and 80 from Donnelly saw them save the match comfortably.
Fourth Test, The Oval
New Zealand (345 and 308 for nine declared) drew with England (482). New Zealand, without Mooney, for whom Reid deputised as wicketkeeper, and with Rabone unable to bowl, won the toss for the first time in the series and batted. Sutcliffe and Scott put on 121 for the first wicket, and Wallace passed 50 as well, but the later batsmen were more defensive. The innings lasted into the second day, and then Hutton and Simpson put on 147, and Hutton and Edrich followed up with a second wicket stand of 218 before Hutton was out for 206. Edrich went on to exactly 100, but from 365 for one the innings subsided. Cresswell took six for 168 with inswingers and leg cutters. Though Sutcliffe made 54, four New Zealand wickets went before the arrears were cleared, but Reid, who made 93, and Wallace, with his second 50 of the match, stood firm and the match was saved.
After a draw against Yorkshire
in which both Wallace and Len Hutton scored centuries, New Zealand reeled off victories against Worcestershire
and Surrey
, and Wallace made it four centuries in five matches in the drawn match with Leicestershire
and the victory over Cambridge University
.
The MCC
match, one of the set-pieces of the cricket calendar, saw a slow draw with New Zealand rescued by a seventh wicket partnership of 176 by Mooney and Rabone. Then came the defeat by Oxford University
in a low-scoring match, but the threat of a repeat in the following fixture, against Sussex
, when New Zealand trailed by 116 on the first innings, disappeared through good bowling by Cowie and good batting by Reid, Sutcliffe and Donnelly in a successful run-chase. Drawn matches with Somerset
and Glamorgan
led up to the first Test.
Weakness in bowling showed in the two first-class matches between the first two Tests. In the first game, Hampshire
were dismissed for 129 and then centuries for Scott and Donnelly gave the New Zealanders a first innings lead of 301 before a declaration with only five wickets down. But Hampshire recovered to set the tourists 109 to win in just 35 minutes, a target that was achieved with five minutes to spare. Against Surrey, a New Zealand first innings of 465, of which Sutcliffe made 187, the county replied with 645 for nine declared, and Jack Parker
scored 255.
The second Test was followed by an easy victory over the Combined Services, and then came 11 wickets for Burtt in the victory over Gloucestershire
, a match in which the county's spin bowling pair of Tom Goddard
and Sam Cook
bowled unchanged through the 90 overs of the New Zealand first innings. Lancashire
made the touring team follow on for the first time in the season, but New Zealand salvaged a draw, and then the match with Derbyshire
followed the Hampshire pattern, with a big first-innings lead whittled down by a second-innings recovery for the county, leaving the tourists with a successful run-chase to win. Northamptonshire
eked a draw out of a high-scoring match, but New Zealand dominated the game in Glasgow against Scotland
and Cowie's six second-innings wickets were clean bowled.
After the third Test, the return match with Yorkshire was very tight, with the county left to score 169 in 100 minutes and hanging on 61 short with the last available batsmen together when time ran out. The second match with Glamorgan was badly affected by rain with the New Zealanders in a commanding position, thanks to a big century by Wallace and six wickets for Cresswell. Games with Warwickshire
, Nottinghamshire
and Essex
all ended in batsman-dominated draws. In the Essex game, Sutcliffe scored 243 in the first innings and an unbeaten 100 in the second innings, the first time a New Zealander had scored two hundreds in a match outside New Zealand.
The final Test was followed by a two-day match with Durham, and then the New Zealanders won the return match with Lancashire by scoring 153 to win in 75 minutes. Kent
scraped a draw after Hadlee did not enforce the follow-on, and joint county champions
Middlesex
batted very unevenly, and lost by nine wickets as Sutcliffe scored 110 out of 157 in 95 minutes. The end-of-season festival matches saw a South of England side beaten by an innings and at Scarborough a H. D. G. Leveson Gower's XI side composed entirely of Test players lost by six wickets, though the New Zealanders were helped by generous declarations.
. In first-class matches, Donnelly scored 2287 runs at an average of 61.81 and Sutcliffe scored 2627 runs at 59.70. Sutcliffe led by seven to five in centuries, and Scott and Wallace also scored five centuries each. Six other batsmen apart from the leading pair passed 1,000 runs for the season, and Wallace, Reid and Scott all averaged more than 40. In the Tests, Smith, who played in only two matches, headed the averages, but again the aggregates were dominated by Donnelly and Sutcliffe, each scoring more than 400 runs when no other batsman managed 200.
The bowling was less successful. In a hot and dry summer, Burtt bowled almost twice as many overs as anyone else on the touring side, and took 128 wickets at an average of 22.88. No other bowler managed more than the 62 of Cresswell, though Wisden
reckoned Cowie, whose 59 wickets cost 27 runs each, was the only really menacing bowler in the side. Burtt and Cowie were the only successes at Test level, and in both cases their average runs per wicket was over 30.
's 1948 Australian tourists, the so-called Invincibles. The power of the batting left the England cricket team no nearer finding a settled line-up for its bowlers, and the big bonus from England's perspective was the emergence of Trevor Bailey as a genuine Test-class all-rounder.
New Zealand's lack of international fixtures before the 1949 series was not repeated and the nucleus of the side remained in place for matches through to 1952 against West Indies
and South Africa
, as well as for the MCC visit in 1950-51. But Cowie retired after the 1949 series and a thin bowling attack was rendered even thinner by his departure.
One consequence of the domination of bat over ball in the 1949 series was that, from 1950 onwards, Test matches in England were lengthened to five days against all opponents.
1949 English cricket season
The 1949 English cricket season saw the County Championship being shared for the first time since the official competition began in 1890.-Honours:*County Championship - Middlesex, Yorkshire...
. The team was the fourth official touring side from New Zealand, following those in 1927
New Zealand cricket team in England in 1927
The New Zealand cricket team toured England in the 1927 season. The team contained many of the players who would later play Test cricket for New Zealand, but the tour did not include any Test matches and the 1927 English cricket season was the last, apart from the Second World War years and the...
, 1931
New Zealand cricket team in England in 1931
The New Zealand cricket team toured England in the 1931 season. The tour was the first tour by a New Zealand team in which Test matches were arranged. Originally, only one Test was planned, but New Zealand acquitted themselves so well in the first match and in the game against MCC that matches...
and 1937
New Zealand cricket team in England in 1937
The New Zealand cricket team toured England in the 1937 season. The team was the third from New Zealand to tour England, following those of 1927 and 1931 and the second to play Test matches. Three Tests were arranged: England won the second match at Manchester, and the games at Lord's and The Oval...
, and was by some distance the most successful to this date. The four-match Test
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
series with England
English cricket team
The England and Wales cricket team is a cricket team which represents England and Wales. Until 1992 it also represented Scotland. Since 1 January 1997 it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board , having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club from 1903 until the end...
was shared, every game ending as a draw, and of 35 first-class
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
fixtures, 14 were won, 20 drawn and only one lost.
Background
New Zealand had had very limited Test cricket in recent years. The last full tour of England had been in 1937, and since the Second World War there had been only two single matches, one against AustraliaAustralian cricket team
The Australian cricket team is the national cricket team of Australia. It is the joint oldest team in Test cricket, having played in the first Test match in 1877...
in 1945-46 and the other the following season against the touring MCC
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...
team led by Walter Hammond. Consequently many of the New Zealand players were untested at the highest level of the game.
By contrast, England had played full series both at home and abroad in every summer and winter since the end of the war, though with mixed results. The team had been comprehensively outplayed twice by Australia, and though other results against India
Indian cricket team
The Indian cricket team is the national cricket team of India. Governed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India , it is a full member of the International Cricket Council with Test and One Day International status....
, South Africa
South African cricket team
The South African national cricket team represent South Africa in international cricket. They are administrated by Cricket South Africa.South Africa is a full member of the International Cricket Council, also known as ICC, with Test and One Day International, or ODI, status...
and West Indies had been better, there had been considerable experimentation with new players, and only a handful of players could consider themselves certainties for selection were England to choose to field its strongest side.
The New Zealand team
The side consisted of 15 players and was led by Walter HadleeWalter Hadlee
Walter Arnold Hadlee, CBE 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 cricket for New Zealand...
, who was one of four players – the others were Merv Wallace, Martin Donnelly and Jack Cowie – who had toured with the 1937 team.
The side was:
- Walter HadleeWalter HadleeWalter Arnold Hadlee, CBE 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 cricket for New Zealand...
(captain) - Merv WallaceMerv WallaceWalter Mervyn Wallace was a New Zealand cricketer and Test match captain. Former New Zealand captain John Reid called him "The most under-rated cricketer to have worn the silver fern." He was nicknamed "Flip" by his teammates, because that was the strongest expletive they heard him say.Wallace...
(vice-captain) - Cecil Burke
- Tom BurttTom BurttThomas Browning Burtt was a New Zealand cricketer who played in ten Tests from 1947 to 1953. His 128 wickets taken on tour remains a record for New Zealand. In first class cricket, he played 84 games for Canterburybetween 1943 and 1955, taking 40 wickets at 22.19...
- Harry CaveHarry CaveHenry "Harry" Butler Cave was a New Zealand cricketer who captained New Zealand in nine of his nineteen Tests....
- Jack CowieJack CowieJohn Cowie OBE was a New Zealand cricketer who played in nine Tests from 1937 to 1949. His Test opportunities were restricted by New Zealand's limited programme, and his cricket career was interrupted by World War II from 1939 to 1945...
- George CresswellFen CresswellGeorge Fenwick Cresswell played three Tests for New Zealand. Born in Wanganui he was the older brother of Arthur Cresswell. He was found dead in Blenheim in 1966....
- Martin DonnellyMartin Donnelly (cricketer)Martin Paterson Donnelly was a New Zealand Test cricketer and England Rugby Union player.Born in Ngaruawahia, New Zealand, Donnelly's twin brother Maurice died in the Spanish flu epidemic in 1918. His sporting talent emerged quickly and Donnelly became known for his batting and fielding skills, as...
- Johnny HayesJohn Hayes (cricketer)John Arthur "Johnny" Hayes was a cricketer who played 15 Tests for New Zealand. Primarily a fast bowler bowling late away-swingers with a high action, he took 30 wickets in Tests. Perhaps his finest moment was taking 11 wickets for the New Zealanders against MCC at Lord's in 1958.Hayes was born...
- Frank MooneyFrank MooneyFrancis Leonard Hugh Mooney was a New Zealand cricketer who played in 14 Tests from 1949 to 1954....
(wicketkeeper) - Geoff RaboneGeoff RaboneGeoffrey Osborne Rabone was a cricketer who captained New Zealand in five Test matches in 1953-54 and 1954-55....
- John ReidJohn Richard ReidJohn Richard Reid was a New Zealand cricketer who captained New Zealand in 34 Tests. He was the country's first cricketing leader to achieve victory, both at home against the West Indies in 1956 and the first away win, against South Africa in 1962...
- Verdun ScottVerdun ScottVerdun John Scott, born 31 July 1916 and died at Devonport, New Zealand on 2 August 1980, was a sportsman who represented New Zealand in both Test cricket and rugby league. As of 2011 he is the only player to have done so.-Rugby league career:...
- Brun SmithBrun SmithFrank Brunton Smith was a New Zealand cricketer who played in four Tests from 1947 to 1952. He was the son of Canterbury Wizards cricketer Frank Smith....
- Bert SutcliffeBert SutcliffeBert Sutcliffe MBE was a New Zealand Test cricketer. Sutcliffe was a successful left-hand batsman. His batting achievements on tour in England in 1949, which included four fifties and a century in the Tests, earned him the accolade of being one of Wisden's Five Cricketers of the Year...
Jack Phillipps, the tour manager, played in one minor match against Durham
Durham County Cricket Club
Durham County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the historic county of Durham. Its limited overs team is called the Durham Dynamos. Their kit colours are blue with yellow trim and the shirt sponsor was...
(not then first-class). Reid, a lively fast bowler as well as a batsman, was used as the second wicketkeeper and had to deputise in the fourth Test for Mooney, who was unfit. Of the 15 players, 13 appeared in the Test matches. The exceptions were Burke, who had played his only Test match in the game against Australia in 1945-46, and Hayes, who was injured for much of this tour but became a regular player for New Zealand across much of the 1950s, touring England again in 1958. Cave, Reid and Sutcliffe also toured with the 1958 side
New Zealand cricket team in England in 1958
The New Zealand cricket team toured England in the 1958 season. In a notably wet summer when the touring side lost the equivalent of 29 full days of cricket, the side lost four of the five Test matches...
.
The Test matches
The four Test matches were allocated only three days each. After the first two matches ended in draws, the New Zealanders were asked if they would add an extra day to each of the last two matches. After consulting with their domestic cricket board, the tourists turned the idea down, arguing that this would have disrupted their commitments to county matches.First Test, LeedsHeadingley StadiumHeadingley Stadium is a sporting complex in the Leeds suburb of Headingley in West Yorkshire, England. It is the home of Yorkshire County Cricket Club, rugby league team Leeds Rhinos and rugby union team Leeds Carnegie ....
, 11–14 June 1949
England (372 and 267 for four declared) drew with New Zealand (341 and 195 for two). New Zealand, with only four front-line bowlers, were able to contain England's batsmen but struggled to dismiss them. Centuries by Len HuttonLen Hutton
Sir Leonard "Len" Hutton was an English Test cricketer, who played for Yorkshire County Cricket Club and England in the years around the Second World War as an opening batsman. He was described by Wisden Cricketer's Almanack as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket...
and Denis Compton
Denis Compton
Denis Charles Scott Compton CBE was an English cricketer who played in 78 Test matches, and a footballer...
ensured a large score, but England made only 307 runs on the first day, Cowie taking five wickets, and Burtt mopped up the tail on the Monday morning to claim five also. Trevor Bailey
Trevor Bailey
Trevor Edward Bailey CBE was an England Test cricketer, cricket writer and broadcaster.An all-rounder, Bailey was known for his skilful but unspectacular batting...
, in his first Test, troubled the early batsmen with his pace, and the fourth wicket was down at 80. But Donnelly and Smith put on 120 and Smith went on to score 96. A last-wicket partnership between Mooney and Cowie put on 57 and went into the last morning, but Cowie was injured and could not bowl in England's second innings. Fast scoring by Bill Edrich
Bill Edrich
William John "Bill" Edrich DFC was a distinguished cricketer who played for Middlesex, MCC, Norfolk and England.Edrich's three brothers, Brian, Eric and Geoff, and also his cousin, John, all played first-class cricket...
and George Mann, and less fast by an injured Cyril Washbrook
Cyril Washbrook
Cyril Washbrook was an English cricketer, who played for Lancashire and England. He had a long career, split by World War II, and ending when he was aged 44. Washbrook, who is most famous for opening the batting for England with Len Hutton, which he did fifty one times, played a total of 592...
, who scored 103, led to a declaration. But 299 to win in 150 minutes was too much to ask and Sutcliffe, Scott and Smith got batting practice as the game petered out.
Second Test, Lord's, 25–28 June 1949
England (313 for nine declared and 306 for five) drew with New Zealand (484). England lost five wickets for 112, but the pitch got easier and Compton (116) and Bailey (93) put on 189 for the sixth wicket. England's declaration, with 20 minutes of the first day's play still to go, was technically incorrect, but New Zealand did not object. New Zealand opened with 89 from Sutcliffe and Scott, and then Donnelly, making 206 out of 347, the highest score for New Zealand at this point, took the game out of England's reach. Hutton and Jack RobertsonJack Robertson
Jack Robertson was an English cricketer, who played county cricket for Middlesex, and in eleven Tests for England....
opened with a stand of 143 to almost clear the arrears, and Robertson went on to score 121.
Third Test, ManchesterOld Trafford (cricket)Old Trafford is a cricket ground situated on Talbot Road in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester. It has been the home of Lancashire County Cricket Club since its foundation in 1864, having been the ground of Manchester Cricket Club from 1857...
, 23–26 July 1949
New Zealand (293 and 348 for seven) drew with England (440 for nine declared). New England captain Freddie Brown put New Zealand in to bat, and Bailey took early wickets in humid conditions. There was also a debut wicket for 18-year-old Brian CloseBrian Close
Dennis Brian Close , usually known as Brian Close, is a former cricketer who is the youngest man ever to play Test cricket for England. He was picked for the Test team to play against New Zealand, in July 1949, when he was 18 years old. Close went on to play 22 Test matches for England,...
. But Donnelly, with 75, and Reid (50) added 116, and the innings went into the second day. Bailey finished with six for 84. England found it difficult to force the pace against tight bowling and fielding. All the top seven batsmen made runs, with Hutton making 73 and Edrich 78, and Reg Simpson
Reg Simpson
Reginald Thomas Simpson is an English former cricketer, who played in twentry seven Tests from 1948 to 1955.-Life and career:...
took advantage of a tiring attack to score his first Test century, with 103. Bailey was 72 not out when Brown declared. At 109 for three, New Zealand were vulnerable, but 101 from Sutcliffe and 80 from Donnelly saw them save the match comfortably.
Fourth Test, The OvalThe OvalThe Kia Oval, still commonly referred to by its original name of The Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, in the London Borough of Lambeth. In the past it was also sometimes called the Kennington Oval...
, 13–16 August 1949
New Zealand (345 and 308 for nine declared) drew with England (482). New Zealand, without Mooney, for whom Reid deputised as wicketkeeper, and with Rabone unable to bowl, won the toss for the first time in the series and batted. Sutcliffe and Scott put on 121 for the first wicket, and Wallace passed 50 as well, but the later batsmen were more defensive. The innings lasted into the second day, and then Hutton and Simpson put on 147, and Hutton and Edrich followed up with a second wicket stand of 218 before Hutton was out for 206. Edrich went on to exactly 100, but from 365 for one the innings subsided. Cresswell took six for 168 with inswingers and leg cutters. Though Sutcliffe made 54, four New Zealand wickets went before the arrears were cleared, but Reid, who made 93, and Wallace, with his second 50 of the match, stood firm and the match was saved.First-class Matches
In 32 first-class matches, the New Zealand tourists won 13 times and lost only once, when they were caught on a drying pitch at Oxford without Cowie, their player best able to exploit such conditions. The team's success was built on the weight of runs that its batsmen provided, and the bowling figures, Burtt apart, were modest.After a draw against Yorkshire
Yorkshire County Cricket Club
Yorkshire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Yorkshire as one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure....
in which both Wallace and Len Hutton scored centuries, New Zealand reeled off victories against Worcestershire
Worcestershire County Cricket Club
Worcestershire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Worcestershire...
and Surrey
Surrey County Cricket Club
Surrey County Cricket Club is one of the 18 professional county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Surrey. Its limited overs team is called the Surrey Lions...
, and Wallace made it four centuries in five matches in the drawn match with Leicestershire
Leicestershire County Cricket Club
Leicestershire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the historic county of Leicestershire. It has also been representative of the county of Rutland....
and the victory over Cambridge University
Cambridge University Cricket Club
Cambridge University Cricket Club is a first-class cricket team. It now plays all but one of its first-class cricket matches as part of the Cambridge University Centre of Cricketing Excellence , which includes Anglia Ruskin University...
.
The MCC
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...
match, one of the set-pieces of the cricket calendar, saw a slow draw with New Zealand rescued by a seventh wicket partnership of 176 by Mooney and Rabone. Then came the defeat by Oxford University
Oxford University Cricket Club
Oxford University Cricket Club is a first-class cricket team, representing the University of Oxford. It plays its home games at the University Parks in Oxford, England...
in a low-scoring match, but the threat of a repeat in the following fixture, against Sussex
Sussex County Cricket Club
Sussex County Cricket Club is the oldest of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Sussex. The club was founded as a successor to Brighton Cricket Club which was a representative of the county of Sussex as a...
, when New Zealand trailed by 116 on the first innings, disappeared through good bowling by Cowie and good batting by Reid, Sutcliffe and Donnelly in a successful run-chase. Drawn matches with Somerset
Somerset County Cricket Club
Somerset County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Somerset...
and Glamorgan
Glamorgan County Cricket Club
Glamorgan County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the historic county of Glamorgan aka Glamorganshire . Glamorgan CCC is the only Welsh first-class cricket club. Glamorgan CCC have won the English County...
led up to the first Test.
Weakness in bowling showed in the two first-class matches between the first two Tests. In the first game, Hampshire
Hampshire County Cricket Club
Hampshire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Hampshire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1863 as a successor to the Hampshire county cricket teams and has played at the Antelope Ground from then until 1885, before moving to the County Ground where it...
were dismissed for 129 and then centuries for Scott and Donnelly gave the New Zealanders a first innings lead of 301 before a declaration with only five wickets down. But Hampshire recovered to set the tourists 109 to win in just 35 minutes, a target that was achieved with five minutes to spare. Against Surrey, a New Zealand first innings of 465, of which Sutcliffe made 187, the county replied with 645 for nine declared, and Jack Parker
Jack Parker (cricketer)
John Frederick 'Jack' Parker was an English cricketer. He was an all-rounder and a good slip fielder, whose long first-class career with Surrey linked the days of Jack Hobbs with those of Peter May.A tall man, he might have achieved even more than he did but for back trouble...
scored 255.
The second Test was followed by an easy victory over the Combined Services, and then came 11 wickets for Burtt in the victory over Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire County Cricket Club
Gloucestershire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the historic county of Gloucestershire. Its limited overs team is called the Gloucestershire Gladiators....
, a match in which the county's spin bowling pair of Tom Goddard
Tom Goddard
Tom Goddard was the fifth highest wicket taker in first-class cricket....
and Sam Cook
Sam Cook
Cecil "Sam" Cook , was an English cricketer, who played for Gloucestershire and in one Test match for England.-Life and career:...
bowled unchanged through the 90 overs of the New Zealand first innings. Lancashire
Lancashire County Cricket Club
Lancashire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Lancashire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1864 as a successor to Manchester Cricket Club and has played at Old Trafford since then...
made the touring team follow on for the first time in the season, but New Zealand salvaged a draw, and then the match with Derbyshire
Derbyshire County Cricket Club
Derbyshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the England and Wales domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Derbyshire...
followed the Hampshire pattern, with a big first-innings lead whittled down by a second-innings recovery for the county, leaving the tourists with a successful run-chase to win. Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire County Cricket Club
Northamptonshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Northamptonshire. Its limited overs team is called the Northants Steelbacks. The traditional club colour is Maroon. During the...
eked a draw out of a high-scoring match, but New Zealand dominated the game in Glasgow against Scotland
Scottish cricket team
The Scotland national cricket team represents Scotland in the game of cricket. They compete in the Clydesdale Bank 40 as the Scottish Saltires...
and Cowie's six second-innings wickets were clean bowled.
After the third Test, the return match with Yorkshire was very tight, with the county left to score 169 in 100 minutes and hanging on 61 short with the last available batsmen together when time ran out. The second match with Glamorgan was badly affected by rain with the New Zealanders in a commanding position, thanks to a big century by Wallace and six wickets for Cresswell. Games with Warwickshire
Warwickshire County Cricket Club
Warwickshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Warwickshire. Its limited overs team is called the Warwickshire Bears. Their kit colours are black and gold and the shirt sponsor...
, Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club
Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Nottinghamshire, and the current county champions. Its limited overs team is called the Nottinghamshire Outlaws...
and Essex
Essex County Cricket Club
Essex County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the historic county of Essex. Its limited overs team is called the Essex Eagles, their team colours this season are blue.The club plays most of its home games...
all ended in batsman-dominated draws. In the Essex game, Sutcliffe scored 243 in the first innings and an unbeaten 100 in the second innings, the first time a New Zealander had scored two hundreds in a match outside New Zealand.
The final Test was followed by a two-day match with Durham, and then the New Zealanders won the return match with Lancashire by scoring 153 to win in 75 minutes. Kent
Kent County Cricket Club
Kent County Cricket Club is one of the 18 first class county county cricket clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the county of Kent...
scraped a draw after Hadlee did not enforce the follow-on, and joint county champions
County Championship
The County Championship is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales...
Middlesex
Middlesex County Cricket Club
Middlesex County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Middlesex. It was announced in February 2009 that Middlesex changed their limited overs name from the Middlesex Crusaders, to the...
batted very unevenly, and lost by nine wickets as Sutcliffe scored 110 out of 157 in 95 minutes. The end-of-season festival matches saw a South of England side beaten by an innings and at Scarborough a H. D. G. Leveson Gower's XI side composed entirely of Test players lost by six wickets, though the New Zealanders were helped by generous declarations.
Leading players
The batsmen were the big successes of the New Zealand side and Donnelly and Sutcliffe finished fifth and eighth in the English first-class averages for the season1949 English cricket season
The 1949 English cricket season saw the County Championship being shared for the first time since the official competition began in 1890.-Honours:*County Championship - Middlesex, Yorkshire...
. In first-class matches, Donnelly scored 2287 runs at an average of 61.81 and Sutcliffe scored 2627 runs at 59.70. Sutcliffe led by seven to five in centuries, and Scott and Wallace also scored five centuries each. Six other batsmen apart from the leading pair passed 1,000 runs for the season, and Wallace, Reid and Scott all averaged more than 40. In the Tests, Smith, who played in only two matches, headed the averages, but again the aggregates were dominated by Donnelly and Sutcliffe, each scoring more than 400 runs when no other batsman managed 200.
The bowling was less successful. In a hot and dry summer, Burtt bowled almost twice as many overs as anyone else on the touring side, and took 128 wickets at an average of 22.88. No other bowler managed more than the 62 of Cresswell, though Wisden
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom...
reckoned Cowie, whose 59 wickets cost 27 runs each, was the only really menacing bowler in the side. Burtt and Cowie were the only successes at Test level, and in both cases their average runs per wicket was over 30.
Verdict and aftermath
The tour was counted as a success, and the New Zealanders won praise for their batting. The side scored more runs in first-class matches than Donald BradmanDonald Bradman
Sir Donald George Bradman, AC , often referred to as "The Don", was an Australian cricketer, widely acknowledged as the greatest batsman of all time...
's 1948 Australian tourists, the so-called Invincibles. The power of the batting left the England cricket team no nearer finding a settled line-up for its bowlers, and the big bonus from England's perspective was the emergence of Trevor Bailey as a genuine Test-class all-rounder.
New Zealand's lack of international fixtures before the 1949 series was not repeated and the nucleus of the side remained in place for matches through to 1952 against West Indies
West Indian cricket team
The West Indian cricket team, also known colloquially as the West Indies or the Windies, is a multi-national cricket team representing a sporting confederation of 15 mainly English-speaking Caribbean countries, British dependencies and non-British dependencies.From the mid 1970s to the early 1990s,...
and South Africa
South African cricket team
The South African national cricket team represent South Africa in international cricket. They are administrated by Cricket South Africa.South Africa is a full member of the International Cricket Council, also known as ICC, with Test and One Day International, or ODI, status...
, as well as for the MCC visit in 1950-51. But Cowie retired after the 1949 series and a thin bowling attack was rendered even thinner by his departure.
One consequence of the domination of bat over ball in the 1949 series was that, from 1950 onwards, Test matches in England were lengthened to five days against all opponents.