1958 saw England leave for Australia in what was to become a dissapointing tour. Having retained the Ashes at home in 1956, they sent what was regarded by many as a very strong side to the Southern Hemisphere. Unfortunately for the tourists, Benaud and Davidson the all rounders were to play to their full potential in the Series and the tourists would have no answer to the green and gold.

Unfortunately for the sport, the main talking point of the series was the allegations aimed at the four fast Australian bowlers for chucking. The bowlers in question were Meckiff, Slater, Rorke and Burke. To make matters worse, they also claimed that Rorke was well past the bowling crease when he let his delivery go due to a lengthy drag in his action. This did not bode well for English - Australian relations for the rest of the tour.

The first Test at Brisbane was an historic occassion for Australian's because it was the first Test match to be televised live to the home audience. Two low first innings left the game wide open as Australia took a small but important lead. England in their second innings only managed 196 runs, with Benaud taking 4 for 66. Left with only 147 runs to win, Norman O'Neill on debut scored 71 runs as Australia won by 8 wickets, scoring 147 for the loss of two wickets.

Once again England struggled at Melbourne as Davidson took 3 wickets in only his second over. After finding themselves at 3 for 7 England managed to fight back and end their innings on 259, Peter May clearly top scoring with a fine century and Davidson took 6 wickets for only 64 runs. Once again the hme side gained the upper hand by taking a small lead (49 runs) after completing their innings on 306, Harvey scoring 167. It was a decisive innings as England collapsed for 87 runs in their second innings, Meckiff who's action had been called into question took 6 wickets for 38 runs. Australia scored the required runs with the loss of only two wickets and won the second Test by 8 wickets.

Benaud taking 5 wickets for 83 and 4 wickets for 94 was the star of the show for Australia at Sydney. Unfortunately for the home side they were foiled by a stand of 182 between May (92) and Cowdrey (100 not out) and the match ended in a draw.

May made what was generally regarded as the biggest mistake of the series in Adelaide when he put the home side in to bat. McDonald scored 170 out of a total of 476 as Australia once again piled the pressure on the tourists. Benaud for the second time in the series took 9 wickets in the match and Australia never looked like loosing the rubber, they actually won the match by 10 wickets after scoring the 32 runs required for victory with ease.

With the Ashes re-captured Benaud put England in to bat in Melbourne and soon bowled the tourists out for 205. In reply they scored 351, McDonald again scoring a century (133) and led by 146 runs at the half way stage. In their second innings, England only just managed to improve on their first innings performance with a score of 214 all out. Australia required 69 runs to win and achieved the desired result with McDonald scoring 51 runs, loosing only 1 wicket on the way. Lindwall passed Clarrie grimmetts record haul of 216 wickets in the Test match. The series over, Australia had won the Ashes by 4 rubbers to 0, and at no stage did England look like winning a game even though they were hotly fancied.