Famous Cricketers No 40 - Neil Harvey

somewhat shakily, by the afternoon he was producing all the shots as only he could and in 380 minutes he made the highest score of his career to date, 225 with two sixes and thirty-three fours. J.W.Rutherford (93) helped him to add 282 for the second wicket - 63.28% of the Australian total. At Trent Bridge in the First Test he played an innings of 64 in 205 minutes that was technically one of the best innings he ever played. Australia were 36-4 when he and R.G.Archer (33) made the only substantial stand of the innings, 54 in eighty minutes. At his favourite English Test ground, Headingley, England scored 325, with P.B.H.May (101) and C.Washbrook (98) putting on 187 together, the best partnership at that time against Australia by England since the War. Washbrook, a member of the selection committee, was a most controversial choice that was vindicated by this innings. Australia were dismissed for 143 and were asked to follow on. On a difficult pitch Harvey played another superb innings, batting for four and a half hours of intense concentration for 69; he and K.R.Miller (26) shared a partnership of 63 in 146 minutes of heroic defence by two naturally aggressive players. In the famous, or infamous, match at Old Trafford he made the first and only pair of his first-class career. Bowled by the third ball in the first innings, he played an awful shot to the first ball in the second to be caught at short mid-off; from his first ball in the first innings to his dismissal in the second innings had taken 124 minutes, only M.E.Z.Ghazali for Pakistan against England, also at Old Trafford, in 1954 has made a quicker pair (120 minutes) in Test cricket. Nothing illustrates the difference between this tour and that of 1953 better than the next match at Swansea against Glamorgan. In 1953 he made his glorious 180 to take his tour total to 1847, this game saw him dismissed for his third duck on the trot after twelve minutes batting with his tour total at 701. Things improved at Edgbaston in the next game where he and J.W.Burke (194) added 280 in four and a half hours with Harvey scoring 145 in that time with fourteen fours. At The Oval he saved the side from following on, after England had scored 247, by batting two and a half hours for 39. In the final match of the tour at Scarborough which was played in a festival spirit he gave a dazzling display of aggression by scoring 53 out of 77 in twenty-five minutes. The tour was a big disappointment to the people who remembered his glorious displays three years earlier. Own Team O M R W Opp Ct Total Total 172. Australians v Worcestershire, Worcester, May 2, 3, 4 (Match drawn) c R.Booth b J.A.Flavell 2 438 90 231-9 173. Australians v Leicestershire, Leicester, May 5, 7, 9 (Match drawn) c J.Firth b V.E.Jackson 11 694-6d 298 174. Australians v Yorkshire, Bradford, May (9), 10, 11 (Match drawn) c J.V.Wilson b J.H.Wardle 0 94 120-9d 1 19-1 1 175. Australians v Surrey, Kennington Oval, May 16, 17, 18 (Surrey won by ten wickets) c B.Constable b J.C.Laker 13 259 347 1 c P.B.H.May b G.A.R.Lock 10 107 20-0 176. Australians v Cambridge University, Fenner’s, May 19, 21, 22 (Australians won by ten wickets) c M.E.L.Melluish b G.Goonesena 45 414-7d 155 did not bat - 23-0 281 177. Australians v M.C.C., Lord’s, May 26, 28, 29 (Match drawn) c T.W.Graveney b P.J.Loader 225 413 203-9 178. Australians v Oxford University, Christ Church Ground, Oxford, May 30, 31, June 1 (Australians won by eight wickets) c and b E.S.M.Kentish 4 234 157 c M.J.K.Smith b J.A.Bailey 31 117-2 191 179. Australians v Sussex, Hove, June 2, 4, 5 (Match drawn) b N.I.Thomson 60 231 298 2 did not bat - 8-0 180. AUSTRALIA v ENGLAND, Trent Bridge, June 7, (8), 9, 11, 12 (Match drawn) lbw b G.A.R.Lock 64 148 217-8d b G.A.R.Lock 3 120-3 188-3d 181. Australians v Kent, Canterbury, June (16), 18, 19 (Match drawn) c and b D.J.Halfyard 56 301-4d 210 did not bat - 54-0 25