Ray Lindwall — recently demobilised from the Australian Army's New Guinea campaign — took the new ball in his Test debut at the Basin Reserve, Wellington, on 29 March 1946. He took 1/13 and 1/16 in a match completed in two days as New Zealand were dismissed for 42 and 54. Decades later the ICC retrospectively granted the fixture full Test status (March 1948 ratification), confirming Lindwall's first cap in the same match in which Bill O'Reilly bowled the last over of his Test career.
Lindwall had played rugby league for St George before the war and bowled fast off a long, smooth approach modelled on Harold Larwood. War service in New Guinea added stamina and toughened his shoulders.
New Zealand cricket had been moribund through the war. The brief tour by Bill Brown's Australians was envisaged as a morale-restoring exercise; the heavy two-day defeat would prevent any further Australian tour of New Zealand for almost a generation.
Lindwall, a 24-year-old fast bowler from St George in Sydney, had served in 3rd Battalion AIF in New Guinea during 1943-45 and had only resumed first-class cricket the previous summer. Bill Brown captained Australia in Hassett's absence; Bradman did not tour. The Basin Reserve pitch was rain-affected and uneven, and New Zealand were skittled for 42 in 67 minutes (O'Reilly 5/14) and 54 (O'Reilly 3/19, Toshack 4/12).
Lindwall's contribution was modest by the standards of his later career — 1/13 in seven overs and 1/16 in seven — but his pace was visibly sharper than anything New Zealand could put against him. Australia's only innings of 8/199 declared was built around Sid Barnes 54.
The match was originally scheduled as a 'goodwill' fixture and not all participants regarded it as a Test at the time. In March 1948 the Imperial Cricket Conference confirmed its Test status, retrospectively making this Lindwall's debut and O'Reilly's farewell.
29 Mar 1946 — Test begins at the Basin Reserve
Lindwall opens the bowling; takes 1/13
NZ dismissed for 42; O'Reilly 5/14
Australia 8/199 declared
30 Mar — NZ all out 54 second innings
Australia win by an innings and 103 runs
March 1948 — ICC ratifies the fixture as a Test
29 Mar 1946
Lindwall debuts at Basin Reserve
30 Mar 1946
Australia win by innings + 103 in two days
Mar 1948
ICC ratifies match as a Test
Lindwall returned home and within months was a fixture in the Australian Test side that hosted England in 1946-47. O'Reilly retired immediately. Australia did not tour New Zealand again until 1973.
An understated start for the bowler who would inherit Lindwall's mantle as Australia's spearhead. The retrospective Test classification meant Lindwall's career began in the same match Tiger O'Reilly's ended — a unique generational handover.
The match's late retrospective recognition gave Lindwall an unusual debut footnote and tied his career to O'Reilly's by a single Test. By the time Lindwall played his last Test in 1960, only one bowler in Australian history (O'Reilly himself) had a comparable record of fast-bowling longevity.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.