Cricket Witness No 5 - Whites on Green

106 songs from supporters in the pavilion and on the outfield grew louder and louder by the minute, it became clear to any doubters that it wasn’t just Glamorgan who had beaten the Australians, it was Wales too! Four years later, Glamorgan became the first county team to beat the Australians on consecutive tours as they defeated the 1968 tourists. By this time Tony Lewis had taken over the captaincy from Wheatley, but the gifted strokemaker was taken ill before the game with the Australians, and it was his trusty lieutenant Don Shepherd who led the side into the field. The subsequent victory was a tribute to Shep’s guile and experience, as the visitors struggled again on yet another slow, Swansea wicket. The surface though had lost some of its spite from previous years, and with less spin, batting was much easier on the St Helen’s wicket. After winning the toss and batting first, Glamorgan were indebted to a magnificent 99 from Alan Jones, their fine left-handed opening batsman as they made 224, whilst Majid Khan, their newly recruited batsman from Pakistan made a typically sublime half-century, as Jones remembers: “Majid produced an innings which brought the crowd to their feet. He injected a momentum that was badly needed in a game so far characterised by plenty of good cricket but no, what would you say, zest. Majid’s fire rekindled my attacking play and soon we had the scoreboard operators working for their money. The mid-afternoon lull was enlivened by 87 runs in 47 minutes. Majid scored 55 – all but nine in boundaries before being stumped by Jarman off Mallett.” 3 As in 1964, the Australians lost cheap wickets on the Saturday evening as The Extra Test Match Roger Davis pictured batting against the 1968 Australians at Swansea.