Cricket: Great New Zealand-England encounters

Nathan Astle celebrates bringing up his quickfire double ton against England. Photo / Getty Images

With the England cricket team set to line up against New Zealand in the first ANZ Twenty20 match tomorrow night, APNZ looks back on some standout moments of previous trips to New Zealand.

Allom's dream debut
It's hard to think of a better start to a test career for an opening bowler than taking a hat-trick on day one. Surrey right-armer Maurice Allom, who was on test debut, dismissed New Zealand captain Tom Lowry, Ken James and Ted Badcock in successive balls on the opening day of the first test between the two nations in 1930. He also took the wicket of Stewart Dempster earlier in the over to become the first player in test history to take four wickets in five balls.

Played at Lancaster Park, New Zealand made just 112 in their first innings and 131 in their second as England won by eight wickets. The rest of the four-test series (all three-day matches) ended in draws. New Zealand's Peter Petherick and Australian Damien Fleming followed Allom's feat of taking hat-tricks on debut.

A win at last
It took 48 years and 48 tests but New Zealand finally beat England for the first time after winning the opening test in the 1977-78 series. After New Zealand held a 13-run first-innings lead, the match turned on day four at the Basin Reserve when the hosts lost nine wickets for 41 runs leaving England just 137 to win. Richard Hadlee and Richard Collinge, however, ripped through the English batting order leaving them 53-8 at stumps. New Zealand returned on the final day to wrap up the English innings for 64 and record an historic victory. Since that win, the two nations have met 46 times in tests with New Zealand claiming just seven more victories to go with 22 defeats and 17 draws.

A series victory
Hadlee also played a major part in New Zealand's first series win over England in 1984. After drawing the first test, Hadlee made 99 in New Zealand's first innings of 307 in the second test at Lancaster Park before the English were dismissed for just 82 and 93 to ensure the test ended on the third day. Hadlee made up for missing a century with match figures of 8-44. After the innings victory, New Zealand needed just a draw to claim the series and made sure of that by batting into day three in their first innings at Eden Park. John Wright, Jeff Crowe and Ian Smith all made centuries as New Zealand reached 496, setting up the draw and historic series win.

Tufnell turns game on its head
It's not often a match in which one side is forced to follow on becomes such a nail-biter. The opening test of England's 1992 tour, in Christchurch, was controlled throughout by the tourists as they searched for their first test win on these shores since 1978.

Alec Stewart's 148 helped England to a total of 580-9 declared, before the Kiwis were dismissed for 312 as Dipak Patel was agonisingly run out for 99 - his highest test score. Following on, opener John Wright also went for 99 and the tourists were left needing seven wickets after tea. Enter Phil Tufnell, who triggered a collapse which saw New Zealand fall from 210-3 to 250-9. At 264-9 late in the day, with Martin Crowe and Chris Pringle at the crease, New Zealand needed only four runs to save the match as there was insufficient time for an England run chase.

Crowe gambled, attempted to hit Tufnell down the ground, but miscued as was caught at extra cover to give the bowler figures of 7-47. England won by an innings and four runs, before New Zealand turned the tide to defeat the English at the World Cup later that year.

Tied up
Four times England and New Zealand have met in one-day internationals at McLean Park and twice they've finished in ties. The 1997 encounter was a day-night game at a ground which didn't have the most reliable lights in world cricket. New Zealand batted first and were bowled out for 237. England needed eight off the final over, bowled by ODI debutant Geoff Allott. With Darren Gough on strike, England needed two to win off the final ball - he missed but scampered through for a bye to tie the match. It was New Zealand's third tied ODI, but would be oneof three in the space of 12 months.

Tied up again
Back at McLean Park for the fourth ODI in 2008, and again the two sides couldn't be separated. England batted first, making 340-6 with four players scoring half centuries. New Zealand needed just seven runs off the final over, largely thanks to Jamie How's 139 from 116 balls.

But How and Daniel Vettori couldn't get on top of some fine death bowling by Luke Wright. Needing two to win off the final ball, Vettori managed only a single as Kyle Mills made a desperate dive for the tie. New Zealand still won the series 3-1.

Astle's 222
Nathan Astle's remarkable 222 is still a statistical marvel in the world of test cricket. With New Zealand needing a seemingly impossible 550 for victory against England in 2002 at Jade Stadium - as it was known then - Astle joined the fray with the Black Caps on 119-3. He watched a handful of partners fall around him before deciding to take matters in to his own hands. After he brought up his century, his next 100 runs took only 39 balls and came in 69 minutes as he took apart every English bowler who dared run in to the crease. A hobbled Chris Cairns,who had come out to bat at No 11 despite an injury, watched on from the other end and even added 23 as the pair put on 118 for the 10th wicket before Astle was eventually dismissed.

His double century included 11 sixes and 28 fours and is still the fastest in test history and took only 153 balls. It was also the second-quickest - 214 minutes - only three minutes slower than Sir Donald Bradman in 1930.

Sidebottom strikes
Seventy-eight years after Allom's haul, Ryan Sidebottom became the 11th Englishman to take a test hat-trick and just the second to do it against New Zealand when he ran through the Black Caps' middle order in the first test in 2008. On day four at Hamilton's Seddon Park, Sidebottom dismissed Stephen Fleming at the end of the 30th over before picking up the wickets of Mathew Sinclair and Jacob Oram in his following over as New Zealand lost four wickets in nine balls. Despite the hat-trick, New Zealand won the test by 189 runs. Sidebottom finished with 6-49 in the innings and followed that up with a new career best 7-47 in the third test in Napier as England claimed the series win 2-1.