English cricket team in South Africa in 1956-57

The England cricket team toured South Africa in the 1956–57 season. The tour was organised by the Marylebone Cricket Club and the side played five Test matches as "England" and 15 other first-class matches as "MCC". Two of the first-class matches took place in Rhodesia in what is now Zimbabwe.

England won the first two Test matches; the third was drawn; and South Africa won the final two games. The Test series was noted at the time for slow scoring, and England averaged 32.69 runs an hour in the series, while South Africa managed only 29.04.

The MCC team was captained by Peter May, with Doug Insole as vice-captain. The former England Test captain Freddie Brown was the tour manager.

The full team was:

All of the players except Taylor had played in Test cricket before the tour. Oakman, Parks and Taylor did not play in any of Tests on the tour, and Taylor never appeared in Test cricket. Parks was injured soon after the tour began and flew back to the UK for treatment; he did not rejoin the tour and no replacement was sent for. The manager, Brown, appeared in one first-class match.

The match was noted for slow scoring, with Peter Richardson's 117 in England's first innings being at the time the slowest Test match century, taking eight hours and eight minutes to reach the 100. Richardson's 121-run fourth-wicket partnership with Colin Cowdrey was the highest of the match, Cowdrey making 59. No South African batsman reached 50, and Statham, Wardle and Bailey each took three wickets. England's second innings was also a struggle on a difficult pitch and South Africa were set 204 to win. With Tyson ill, Bailey opened the bowling with Statham and took five for 20 as South Africa were out for their lowest score in a home Test since 1898–99.

On a slow pitch, England's opening pair of Richardson (45) and Bailey (34) started with 76, and then Compton made 58. But the major contribution to a big total was a sixth-wicket partnership of 93 between Cowdrey, who made 101 and Evans (62). As in the first Test, no South African batsman made 50. Wardle took five wickets for 53. Injuries to Neil Adcock and Clive van Ryneveld restricted South Africa to defensive bowling and fielding, but Compton (64) and Cowdrey (61) scored fast enough to allow May to declare, setting South Africa 385 to win in eight hours. They had little answer to Wardle, who took seven for 36 to finish with match figures of 12 for 89. In the South African second innings, Russell Endean was out handled the ball when he touched a ball that had flown upwards from his bat and threatened to fall on his stumps. It was the first time any batsman had been out in this manner in Test cricket.

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