Lives in Cricket No 32 - Eric Rowan

30 Australian Summer Since the visitors were faced with scoring a difficult total for victory or batting for over a day to draw the match, the South Africans must have felt they had an excellent opportunity to gain their first home win over the Australians. This feeling was strengthened when Crisp removed Bill Brown for six, courtesy of a catch by the keeper Nicholson. They reckoned without the dazzling skills of Stan McCabe. He used the occasion to play the second of his three immortal innings. In 1932/33 he tore into the Bodyline bowling at Sydney to score 187 and at Trent Bridge, Nottingham in 1938 he would score 232, an innings Don Bradman said was the best he had ever seen. At Johannesburg McCabe added 177 with Jack Fingleton for the second wicket before the latter was bowled by Mitchell for 40. McCabe had complained of not being well at the start of the innings, telling Richardson he would not be able to run. The captain’s reply was blunt: ‘Well, just hit fours then’. He followed his skipper’s advice by striking twenty of them in his first hundred. Duffus noted that the crowd watched in ‘glum silence’ and that applause was ‘conspicuous for politeness rather than its enthusiasm’. He made the following comment about the Australian’s innings. ‘McCabe does not flourish his bat or score his boundaries from out of a whirl of dust. He shows shrewd judgment in deciding when a ball is off the danger mark and uncanny accuracy in playing it out of the range of fielders.’ Joined by Len Darling, McCabe continued to complain that he was exhausted and couldn’t run. ‘Well, keep hitting fours’ was the reply. The pair kept attacking the bowling as storm clouds gathered around the ground. With his own total on 189 and the score standing at 274 for two McCabe was taking the Australians to a spectacular victory with just 125 runs required. However, the sky became darker and it was unlikely the match would be played to a finish. It was at this point that Herby Wade appealed against the light on the basis that McCabe’s strokes were endangering his fieldsmen. In a later interview Eric said that it was his idea to make the appeal. Wade’s response was ‘Christ, Eric. You’ll get me into all sorts of trouble’, but he did it and the umpires agreed. The players left the field, much to the disgust of McCabe, who was having no trouble seeing the ball, no matter how dark it was getting. It mattered little, as a few minutes after they left the field the storm broke and washed out the remainder of the day’s play. Eric had a great fondness and respect for his captain, and when asked about Herby Wade, he had this to say: ‘He was the greatest