First-class record

• Matches: 16
• Runs: 653
• Top score: 88
• Batting average: 24.18
• Wickets: 79
• Best bowling: 6/10
• Bowling average: 16.43

Argentina's recent appearance in Division Two of the World Cricket League is not the first time they have been amongst the upper echelons of non-Test cricket. Like the USA before the First World War, between the wars, Argentina were the top non-Test nation, reaching first-class status.

Also like the USA, a more open ICC not restricted to what is now the Commonwealth would probably have seen Argentina given Test status and Dennet Ayling would have more than a brief (but impressive) first-class career to his name.

An off-spinner by trade, Ayling was also a more than capable batsman, and still holds the record for the highest individual score by an Argentinian. He first came to the attention of the Argentinian selectors in the 1926 North v South match in which he was the pick of the bowlers, taking 4/70 in the North's second innings.

Later in the year, he made his first-class debut in a match against the MCC that started on New Years Eve. The match was affected by the weather and finished in a draw. Ayling scored 47 in the first innings and only bowled four overs before rain ended the game. He took his first first-class wicket in the second match of the series when he bowled Gerry Weigall. Weigall was a former Kent player coming towards the end of his career (he was 56 at the time) but his second victim was a much more notable name, that of Gubby Allen, who was playing Test cricket for England three years later.

Ayling took his first five-wicket haul in first-class cricket in the third match of the series, taking 6/29 to lead Argentina to a 29 run win. He took three wickets in the final match of the series, and showed his batting ability for the South v the North in February when he scored 84 in the first innings. He scored his first century for Argentina in a series against Brazil in the new year, scoring 191 in a four wicket win in the second match of the series. He scored centuries in each of his next two North v South matches in 1928 and 1929.

The 1930s saw Ayling return to first-class cricket, but first came an innings win over Chile in January 1930 in which Ayling scored 234, which remains the highest individual score in an international for Argentina. In March of that year he played three first-class matches for Argentina against Julien Cahn's XI, taking 5/62 in the second innings of the final match.

In 1932, he toured the UK with a combined South American side. In the six first-class matches, which included one against Scotland, Ayling was the top run scorer, with 342 runs at 42.75 and the top wicket-taker, with 33 wickets at 16.06. His best bowling performance was the 4/38 and 6/49 he took against Oxford University, his first ten wicket match haul in first-class cricket.

His final first-class matches came in a three match series for Argentina against Theodore Brinkman's XI in 1937/38, during which he took 20 wickets at 12.60, his best performance being the 5/67 and 6/10 he took in the second match, his best innings and match performance in first-class cricket. He also made his highest first-class score of 88 in the final match of the series.

He continued playing in the North v South match, moving to play for the North in 1936, and began to captain them in 1937. He scored the highest score in the fixtures history in 1939 when he scored 256 not out for the North in a match that was drawn after a 158 run partnership in the second innings saved the match for the South. His best bowling performance in the fixture came in his final match in 1946, when he took 7/57 in the first innings, though that was not enough to win the match for the North.

In 26 international matches for Argentina and the South Americans, he scored 1538 runs at an average of 35.76 and took 113 wickets at an average of 20.38.