Australia Bowls the Last Ball Along the Ground. New Zealand Needed Six.

New Zealand needed six. One ball remained.

New Zealand needed six.

One ball remained.

At the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday, 1 February 1981, Australia was one delivery away from winning a one-day international.

New Zealand’s Brian McKechnie was facing. Hitting a six from the final ball would tie the match.

It was already an unlikely task.

Australian captain Greg Chappell decided to make it impossible.

He instructed the bowler—his younger brother Trevor—to deliver the final ball underarm.

Along the ground.

Underarm bowling had once been normal in cricket’s early history. By 1981 it was extraordinarily unusual, but the delivery remained legal under the rules governing the match.

Legal did not mean admired.

Trevor Chappell rolled the ball toward McKechnie. McKechnie blocked it and then threw his bat away in disgust.

Australia won.

The reaction crossed the Tasman Sea almost immediately.

New Zealand Prime Minister Robert Muldoon called the tactic an act of cowardice. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser also criticized it as contrary to cricket’s traditions. Even Australian wicketkeeper Rod Marsh had objected before the delivery was bowled.

There was an additional technical absurdity. New Zealand’s official history notes that Australia’s field placement meant the delivery should itself have been called a no-ball.

None of this changed the result.

But the incident changed cricket. The rules were subsequently amended to prevent a captain from repeating this particular solution to a final-ball problem.

The episode has remained part of Australian and New Zealand sporting memory ever since.

Cricket contains an enormous rulebook. On 1 February 1981, Australia demonstrated why sports also contain something less easily written down:

the expectation that victory should still resemble cricket when it happens.