I kinda think this series is more of an abject failure than that innings for a couple of reasons. The context, and the repitition. When we got rolled for 26, we were an amazingly poor international nation by cricket standards. There was two players of serious talent in that side in John R Reid and Bert Sutcliffe, the rest were very much average amateur players. And they were up against Brian Statham, Frank Typhoon Tyson, Bob Appleyard and Johnny Wardle who all forged extremely successful careers at various levels. According to the reports, the pitch was somewhat of a dogs breakfast after rain early in the test (remembering pitches were uncovered in the day during rain intervals)with variable bounce and prodigious quick turn. Only one Pom made 50 in that match (Len Hutton), others in that batting line up included Peter May, Colin Cowdrey, Trevor Bailey and Tom Graveney. All outstanding legends of the game and all terrific batsmen in their own rights. No real head protection and Tyson's pace against amateurs on a dodgy wicket would have made things quite difficult I should imagine. We had either not won a test match by that stage or at best had won one or two. We were pitiful and expected to capitulate on a regular basis.
We went to Bangladesh with the expectation to at the very least win the series comfortably, at worst give up one game. We were beaten and outplayed in every match. Whereas it seems from the England destruction in '55 that the New Zealanders were 'got' out and hardly stood a chance, in most of what I have seen there is some deplorable batting of both poor technique and more gallingly poor aptitude in getting themselves out. It seems from a distance that the attitude was woeful. Some of the dismissals sounded disgraceful. People tonking early in their innings to throw their wicket around, soft run outs in a desperate situation, throwing it away when set... And on top of the smarty pants political power plays, it seemed people were more interesting in stroking each other than playing appropriate cricket.
Anulis horribilis.
