On 28 March 1955 at Eden Park, New Zealand were dismissed for 26 in their second innings against England — the lowest team total in the history of Test cricket. Bob Appleyard took 4 for 7 and Brian Statham 3 for 9 in 27 overs of disciplined seam and off-spin. The score eclipsed South Africa's 30 from 1924 and remains the record more than seventy years on.
New Zealand had played Test cricket since 1930 but had never won, and their batting was historically thin. The Auckland match was a chance to round out a tour that had already produced a Wellington draw. England were experimenting after Tyson's heroics in the Ashes.
Appleyard, returning from tuberculosis, had taken four wickets in the first innings. The pitch had cracked overnight, and Hutton brought Appleyard on inside the first hour of the second innings.
England, captained by Len Hutton, had arrived in New Zealand after retaining the Ashes in Australia. The Auckland Test was the second of a two-match series. England, batting first, were dismissed for 246 with Tom Graveney scoring 41. New Zealand replied with 200 — Bert Sutcliffe 49, John Reid 73 — to trail by 46.
On the fourth morning, on a wearing pitch with overhead cloud, New Zealand began their second innings needing to bat out the day for a draw or set up an unlikely chase. Statham, Frank Tyson, Appleyard and Johnny Wardle attacked. Sutcliffe top-scored with 11. Eight batsmen made ducks. The innings folded in 27 overs. Appleyard's 4 for 7 included a wicket maiden in his first over and a five-ball burst that took three wickets. Statham hit the stumps three times.
New Zealand's score was the third sub-30 total in Tests, after South Africa's 30 at Port Elizabeth in 1896 and the same opponent's 30 at Birmingham in 1924. Twenty-eight runs short of the previous record was a margin no later side has come close to bridging.
Day 1-3: England 246, New Zealand 200; trail by 46.
Day 4 morning: New Zealand begin second innings.
Statham removes Sinclair and MacGibbon early.
Appleyard 4 for 7 in 6 overs.
Sutcliffe top-scores with 11.
Eight batsmen make ducks.
New Zealand 26 all out — lowest Test total in history.
25 March 1955
Auckland Test begins; England 246.
26 March
New Zealand 200; trail by 46.
28 March morning
New Zealand begin second innings.
Inside two hours
New Zealand 26 all out; lowest Test total in history.
Same day
England win by an innings and 20 runs.
“Once they lost two wickets they had nowhere to hide on that pitch.”
“We never recovered as a Test side from that hour at Eden Park.”
England won by an innings and 20 runs. The series ended 2-0. New Zealand's struggle with batting depth continued for another decade; they did not win their first Test until the following year.
Appleyard's career was brief but bright; he played only 9 Tests due to recurring health problems. The 26 still appears in every record book and is the standard answer to the trivia question of cricket's lowest Test total.
A complete batting collapse on a deteriorating pitch under high-class English seam. The 26 was less a mystery than a perfect storm of conditions, attack and a young New Zealand line-up's inexperience. The record's longevity confirms how rarely all those factors align in modern Test cricket.
The 26 is one of the longest-standing records in Test cricket. New Zealand's gradual rise to a competitive Test nation through the 1980s and 1990s under Hadlee, Crowe and others has gradually placed the 1955 collapse in historical context — but it remains a reminder of how far the side travelled.
In 2014 Eden Park unveiled a small plaque marking the spot where Appleyard ended the innings. The bowling figures remain part of Yorkshire and England seam-bowling lore.
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.