Lives in Cricket No 30 - MJK Smith

52 by 171 runs. There was to be another fine innings of 98 for Mike in the final Test at The Oval, when he and Raman Subba Row, drafted in as an opener, added 169 for the third wicket as they set about overhauling India’s modest 140, preparing the way for England’s fifth win of the series, this time by an innings and 27 runs. Thunder and lightning interrupted a partnership in which Mike was always the more dominant, and when he reached 50 with an off drive he also passed 3,000 runs for the season, the youngest man ever to do so and the first to achieve the feat since Hutton in 1949. By the end of the season his tally had risen to 3,245, a figure exceeded by only nine batsmen in cricket history. Only Somerset’s Australian Bill Alley, in his golden year of 1961, has since added his name to the 3,000 Club. There had been heady talk of passing Denis Compton’s record of 3,816 runs in a season, but after The Oval there was a quiet end to Mike’s season with only 197 runs from his last eight innings, 77 against Yorkshire, the newly crowned champions, being the only half-century. If there was an air of anticlimax to a long, draining summer, disappointment also spread to Warwickshire. The county had briefly challenged for the Championship, but the loss of their A golden summer The England side which defeated India at Old Trafford in July 1959, when Mike scored his first Test century during his purple patch. Standing (l to r): R. Swetman (wk), H.J. Rhodes, G. Pullar, E.R. Dexter, R. Illingworth, J.B. Mortimore. Seated: M.J.K. Smith, F.S. Trueman, M.C. Cowdrey (capt), W.G.A. Parkhouse, K.F. Barrington.