and 24 wickets at 17.66. It was the first of his successes against India, against whom he took his wickets at an average of 18. This put him in a small group of spinners whose career averages were inferior to their performances against India, generally regarded as the best players of spin in the world. At this stage of his career, he had yet to perform consistently with bat and ball simultaneously, apart from his breakthrough series in the Caribbean. He had managed, in the 14 Tests since then, 559 runs at 27.95 and 67 wickets at 24.98. Benaud took part in Australia's tour of New Zealand from February to March 1957. The tour included seven first-class matches, three of which were unofficial Tests. Benaud was the top wicket-taker on the tour, with 32 wickets at 19.31, and Australia's top wicket-taker in the three matches against New Zealand, with 15 wickets at 21.73. Early in the tour, when the team visited Timaru to pay a minor match, Benaud went to a pharmacy to see if he could get something to soothe his spinning-fingers, which had been torn by his spinning action for many years. The pharmacist, Ivan James, suggested a treatment with calamine lotion and boracic acid. It worked at once, and Benaud used it thereafter. "Meeting Ivan James was a remarkable piece of luck," he wrote later; "walking into that chemist's shop in Timaru saved my bowling career." Peak years and captaincy After a break in the international calendar of a year, the 1957–58 tour to South Africa heralded the start of a phase of three international seasons when Benaud was at his peak. The tour saw his bowling talents come to the fore when he took 106 wickets, surpassing the previous record of 104 by England's Sydney Barnes. He scored 817 runs including four centuries, two of them in Test matches. The first of these came in the First Test at Johannesburg, where after conceding 1/115, Benaud struck 122, his highest Test score, to see Australia reach a draw. In the Second Test at Cape Town, Benaud took 4/95 and then 5/49 in the second innings to secure an innings victory after the home team were forced to follow on. He followed this with 5/114 in a drawn Third Test, before a match-winning all round performance in the Fourth Test in Johannesburg. Benaud struck exactly 100 in the