Cricket: One ball that helped change history

It was a nothing delivery that, truth be told, deserved to be dispatched over the boundary.

Instead, the offering from New Zealand legspinner Jack Alabaster -- short, wide and inviting severe punishment -- proved the undoing of batting prince Everton Weekes as he holed out to Noel McGregor patrolling the boundary at square leg.

That broke the back of any lingering West Indies resistance and ultimately led to a monkey the size of King Kong being lifted from the back of New Zealand cricket.

The removal of Weekes for 31 and his side's surrender for just 77 in their second innings at Auckland's Eden Park on March 13, 1956, saw New Zealand win the fourth test of the series by an overwhelming margin of 190 runs.

It was this country's maiden test win after 45 matches and 26 years of toil and trouble -- of this nation's amateurs and part-timers continually having their shortcomings exposed by the professionals of England, of New Zealand cricketers developing a suffocating inferiority complex which took decades to shake.

There had certainly been little to recommend such a result.

Just 12 months earlier New Zealand suffered the ignominy of being dismissed by England for a record low score of 26 at Eden Park, which to this day remains a stain on the New Zealand game.

The West Indies had shown their entertaining qualities on tour in New Zealand, winning the preceding three tests by an innings and 71 runs, an innings and 64 runs, and nine wickets.

Weekes had been in imperious form and arrived in Auckland for the fourth test with series scores of 123, 103 and 156 while the tourists, captained by Denis Atkinson, also included two quality spinners in Sonny Ramadhin and Alf Valentine. As well, they had an impetuous, young allrounder, Garfield Sobers, who would develop into one of the most dominant figures the game has known.

The New Zealanders, by contrast, had to be carrying mental scars from their capitulation against England a year earlier.

They were also without their premier batsman, Bert Sutcliffe, the stylish left-hander, who played the first two matches of the test series but was too ill to play after returning home debilitated from a gruelling tour containing eight tests in Pakistan and India at the start of that summer.

Both of those series were lost, of course, but Sutcliffe was not alone in being physically spent from his experiences on the subcontinent.

Only five of those who trekked through Pakistan and India were on the field at Eden Park on March 13.

Invercargill spinner Alabaster, selected to tour Pakistan and India before he had even played at first-class level for Otago, remembered the toll the summer of 1955-56 had taken ahead of the West Indies' arrival on these shores.

"We'd already been on a very draining, difficult tour at the start of that season and most of the players were not just tired, many of them were ill," Alabaster, now 75, told NZPA from his Alexandra home.

"To get up to play a four-match series against anybody was a difficult business. It was a difficult series to play in because of the health situation."

The casualty ward was the farthest thought from Alabaster's mind when captain John Reid threw him the ball deep into the West Indies' second innings on the fourth and final day.

The real damage had already been inflicted on the tourists by the time Alabaster was introduced into the attack.

When Reid declared New Zealand's second innings, the West Indies were left a victory target of 268 in 240 minutes.

They were more than capable of hunting that down but seamer Harry Cave scythed through the top order to complete an outstanding match double.

Cave's nagging persistence was rewarded with test best figures of four for 21 after his previous best of four for 22 came in the first innings on a surface that remained helpful to the bowlers until the end.

With his Central Districts colleague Don Beard chipping in at the other end with three wickets of his own, the West Indies innings lay in ruins at 22 for six.

But Weekes remained and while he was at the crease nothing could be taken for granted. As if it would. New Zealand cricket had endured too much anguish over too many years for any assumptions to be made.

Weekes and Alfie Binns set about the rebuilding process and lifted the tourists' score to 68 before Reid turned to legspinner Alabaster, a tallish schoolteacher still in the formative stages of his education in the most demanding of cricket's disciplines.

Alabaster, who had only been called on for three overs in the first innings, cannot recall his first delivery but the second is readily recounted.

"It was a shortish delivery which turned a little bit. He went to whack it over the fence but got it high on the bat and mishit it to square leg," Alabaster said.

"Any ball that gets a wicket is a better ball but would you say I bowled the perfect ball that did all the right things to get a great batsman out? No."

So it was anything but a classic delivery -- indeed McGregor considered it the worst ball he'd ever seen from Alabaster -- although the outcome was priceless.

Alabaster, who ended his first-class career in 1971-72 with 500 wickets to his name and remains one of just 17 New Zealanders to reach that milestone, enjoyed playing under Reid.

Reid had an indomitable spirit and world-class allround skills, while as a captain he allowed his bowlers a big say in field settings.

That meant McGregor was precisely where Alabaster wanted him, lurking just inside the boundary rope at square leg.

Opening batsman McGregor has replayed Weekes' downfall many times over the past 50 summers.

"It was probably the worst ball Jack bowled in his entire career because it almost bounced twice," he told NZPA.

"Weekes got a big top edge and it soared out to me. I couldn't go any further back because I was standing right on the edge of the boundary."

Thankful that he barely had to move, McGregor had plenty of time to ponder his options should the unthinkable occur.

"Shit, I thought, I'd better not drop this. Shit, what will I do if I drop this? I'll climb the fence and go home ... thankfully it landed softly and I caught it.

"I hardly had to move for it -- he (Weekes) timed it perfectly."

- NZPA