Famous Cricketers No 70 - Keith Miller

15 6 22 2 L.Hutton c D.Tallon 188 1 J.F.Crapp b 85. Australians v Gentlemen, Lord’s, August 25, 26, 27 (Australians won by an innings and 81 runs) c R.T.Simpson b W.Wooller 69 610-5d 7 3 18 1 N.W.D.Yardley b 245 19 6 58 2 C.H.Palmer b 284 M.P.Donnelly c S.G.Barnes 86. Australians v Somerset, Taunton, August 28, 30 (Australians won by an innings and 374 runs) not out 37 560-5d 5 1 20 0 115 3 1 5 1 H.E.Watts c A.L.Hassett 71 1 87. Australians v H.D.G.Leveson-Gower’s XI, Scarborough, September 8, 9, 10 (Match drawn) c T.G.Evans b A.V.Bedser 1 489-8d 8 0 28 0 177 1 - - - - 75-2 SEASON’S AVERAGES Batting and Fielding M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct Test matches 5 7 0 184 74 26.28 - 2 8 Other matches 17 19 3 904 202* 56.50 2 6 12 Tour 22 26 3 1088 202* 47.30 2 8 20 Career 87 126 14 5740 206* 51.25 16 25 60 Bowling O M R W BB Ave 5i 10m Strike RunR Test matches 138.1 43 301 13 4-125 23.15 - - 63.76 36.30 Other matches 291.3 74 684 43 6-42 15.90 3 - 40.67 39.10 Tour (6-ball) 429.4 117 985 56 6-42 17.58 3 - 46.03 38.20 Career (8-ball) 570.4 69 } 3574 156 7-60 22.91 4 - 57.41 39.90 (6-ball) 732.1 186 1948/49 This was a purely domestic season in Australia with no touring team visiting the country. There were two representative matches, Bradman’s XI v Hassett’s XI at Melbourne in December and Hassett’s XI v Morris’s XI at Sydney in late February/early March. It was during the latter game that the “bouncer incident” with Bradman occurred which it was suggested led to Miller not being selected for the South African tour in 1949/50. It must be said though that there might have been some cricketing considerations. Miller had not performed to the best of his ability in England nor did he have a particularly good season in 1948/49 taking only eleven wickets - Noblet and Johnston who were selected for South Africa took 40 and 32 wickets respectively. Miller made a hundred in his opening Shield game against Queensland in which he “treated the crowd to a magnificent display of aggressive batting” ( Sydney Morning Herald ). Further proof of his ability to play at his best when most needed came in the return match against Queensland at Sydney. Batting at number nine because of an attack of conjunctivitis he came in to bat at 83-7 and rescued the innings with a knock of 52 not out which helped set up an eventual victory. In a low-scoring match against Victoria at Sydney he made 99 out of an all out total of 229 with one six and ten fours. It was the highest innings of the match by some way. Own Team O M R W Opp Ct Total Total 88. New South Wales v Queensland, Brisbane, November 26, 27, 29, 30 (Match drawn) st D.Tallon b C.L.McCool 109 499 384 1 did not bat - 93-3 89. D.G.Bradman’s XI v A.L.Hassett’s XI, Melbourne, December 3, 4, 6, 7 (Match drawn) b L.J.Johnson 2 434 406 c C.W.Langdon b C.L.McCool 14 402-9 430 17