Neil Harvey

Harvey received the Medal of the Order of Australia in the Queen's 2018 Birthday Honours (Australia) for service to cricket.

The innings in replacing Bradman was taken to be symbolism of the fact that Harvey had been tipped to become Australia's leading batsman. His innings laid the foundations that secured Australia another innings victory and a 4–0 series triumph. It was only his 13th match at first-class level.

Australia traditionally fielded its first-choice team in the tour opener, which was customarily against Worcestershire. Despite scoring a century in Australia's most recent Test, Harvey was made 12th man and it appeared that he was not initially in Bradman's Test plans.

In 2002, Harvey called for Mark and Steve Waugh to be dropped from the Australian team, claiming that they were a waste of space. He stated:

When Waugh was close to being dropped during the 2002–03 series against England, Harvey wrote off a half-century made by Waugh, saying "he's playing against probably one of the worst cricket teams I've ever seen."

Harvey was inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame in 2000, in the first annual induction of two players since the inaugural ten members were announced in 1996. In 2009, Harvey was one of the 55 inaugural inductees into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. He was also inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1985. Harvey vociferously called for Shane Warne and Mark Waugh to be banned from cricket after it was revealed that they accepted money from bookmakers to give pitch and weather information and the ACB privately fined them. He lamented the decline in player conduct in the modern era, also criticising the modern advent of sledging.

After scoring 43 in the first innings, the second Test in Lahore came down to a run-chase for Australia, with Harvey and Norm O'Neill seemingly on schedule to win before time ran out. However, the Pakistani fielders began to waste time in an attempt to foil an Australian victory. They swapped the cover and midwicket fielders very slowly whenever the left and right-handed combination of Harvey and O'Neill took a single and changed the batsman on strike. To counter this, Harvey deliberately backed away from a straight ball and let himself be bowled, throwing his wicket away for 37. This allowed Benaud to come in and bat with O'Neill so that the two right-handed batsmen would give the Pakistanis no opportunity to waste time by switching the field. Australia won the match with minutes to spare. Harvey scored 54 and 13 not out in the drawn third Test at Karachi. Australia took the series 2–0, but would not win another Test in Pakistan until 1998. Harvey ended the series with 273 runs at 54.60.

In later life, he was known for his blunt and critical comments towards modern players, believing the cricket in earlier times to be superior. After Steve Waugh's team set a world record of consecutive Test victories, Harvey named three Australian teams that he thought to be superiors, saying "no, far from it" in response to the suggestion that Waugh's men were the best team in history. He attributed the wins to weak opponents, stating "No I don't think they're up to the world standard they were years ago" and that the 1980s West Indies team were far superior. He also criticised the Australian team for publicly praising the skills of their opponents, believing that they did so to aggrandise their statistical performances against teams he considered to be weak. In 2000, he was named in the Australian Cricket Board's Team of the Century and criticised modern-day batsmen, noting that players in earlier eras had to play on sticky wickets, saying: "these guys who play out here are a little bit spoilt in my opinion. They play on flat wickets all the time and they grizzle if ... the ball does a little bit off the pitch, and whatever ... But we had to put up with that" and going to assert his opinion that the current players would be no match.

From 1971 onwards, Harvey was the chairman of selectors. It was a tumultuous period in Australian cricket, where captain Bill Lawry was acrimoniously sacked in the middle of the 1970–71 series against England after a dispute between players and Australian officials. Lawry was not informed of his fate and learned of his omission on the radio when he was still one of Australia's most productive batsmen. The dispute was the genesis of the pay dispute which, led to the formation of World Series Cricket in 1977 and generated a mass exodus of players. This resulted in the recall of Bob Simpson after ten years in retirement at the age of 41 to captain the Test team. Following the rapprochement between the establishment and the WSC players, Harvey left the selection panel. The WSC representatives felt that Harvey's anti-WSC comments made him prejudiced against the selection of former WSC players.

He was an Australian selector from 1967 to 1979. Immediately after his appointment, he was embroiled in controversy during the First Test against India at Brisbane in 1967–68. The Queensland Cricket Association wrote to the board, complaining that Harvey, who was the selector on duty at the Test, had missed two hours of play. He had been at a race meeting at the invitation of the QCA president. The ACB gave Harvey a talking to. Despite this, he retained his position at the next annual election, with Queensland's Ken Mackay failing to gain a seat on the selection panel.

Having stated his intention to retire at the end of the summer, Harvey started his final season in 1962–63 strongly. He scored 83, 44 and 128 not in his first three interstate innings for the season, and then scored 51, 21 and 63 in warm-up matches against England.

Harvey began his final tour to England in 1961, and Benaud's regular absences due to a shoulder injury allowed him to lead Australia for a third of the tour matches. This included most of the first month of the tour; Benaud hurt his shoulder in the first match against Worcestershire, and spent most of the next three weeks either not bowling or travelling to London away from his men for specialist treatment. At one stage, Australia were left with only 10 men on the field when Benaud excused himself and his replacement succumbed to illness, requiring an Englishman to stand in. Harvey scored 474 runs at 47.40 in eight matches leading up to the Tests, including centuries against Lancashire and Glamorgan. It seemed that Harvey would captain Australia in a Test for the first time with Benaud's shoulder still problematic, but the captain declared himself fit. Harvey then made 114 in the drawn First Test at Edgbaston. This helped Australia take a 321-run first innings lead and put them in control of the match, but the hosts batted for the remainder of the match to stave off defeat; Benaud's shoulder prevented him from bowling more than nine overs.

The 1961–62 was purely domestic, and Harvey played a full season in the Sheffield Shield as New South Wales won their ninth consecutive title. However, Harvey was not prominent in the team's success and scored only 425 runs at 26.56 with two fifties for the season.

At the start of the 1960–61 season, there was little indication of this. In his first five innings for the summer, Harvey hit 135 against Queensland, 80 and 63 for an Australian XI against the touring West Indies, 229 against Queensland and 109 for New South Wales against the Caribbean team. However, his form tapered away during the thrilling 1960–61 home series against the West Indies (which included the first tie in Test history). Harvey was ineffective apart from a score of 85 in the second innings of the Third Test, which Australia lost. He then missed the Fourth Test due to injury. He struggled in the Tests, scoring only 143 runs at 17.88, but prospered against the Caribbean tourists in the tour matches, scoring 326 runs at 81.50. Overall, he totalled 849 runs at 56.60 for the season.

During the 1959–60 season, Australian undertook an arduous tour of the subcontinent, with three and five Tests against Pakistan and India, respectively. Prior to the trip, Harvey made 112 in the second innings to help Lindwall's XI defeat Benaud's XI by seven wickets.

After returning from South Africa, Harvey embarrassed the Board of Control when he frankly discussed his financial situation during a television interview. He revealed that the players earned only £85 per Test and that he was almost broke, despite being an automatic selection for Australia. Ten years of making time for cricket had disrupted his working life, so he was contemplating a move to South Africa, the homeland of his wife, Iris. Consequently, Harvey received a job offer to work as a sales supervisor for a glass manufacturer in Sydney, so he moved to New South Wales and gave up the Victorian captaincy. As a new player to NSW, he was behind vice-captain Richie Benaud in the state's pecking order, despite being the Test vice-captain, ahead of Benaud. Fatefully, Craig was unfit for the start of the 1958–59 season, due to the after-effects of hepatitis.

When not travelling overseas on cricket tours, Harvey played baseball in the winter for the Fitzroy Baseball Club. He was twice named in the Australian baseball team, but the team was named only for the distinction accorded on the players; that is, they never competed. Harvey's fielding abilities were regarded by Wisden as the "finest outfielder in the world" during his career. As a baseball infielder, Harvey developed a half round-arm throw; its speed and accuracy caused many batsmen to be run out while attempting a run. Ray Robinson said that Harvey's throw was "arrow-like" in accuracy and that "as a versatile fieldsman, this ball-hawk...takes top place". His baseball training also influenced his habit of catching the ball above head height, with which he rarely dropped catches. This was based on the theory that the fielder need never take his eyes off the ball and, if it were to bounce out of his hands, he would have time to attempt to grab the rebound. Harvey also covered ground quickly and possessed an efficient method of picking up and returning the ball. From late 1958 when Norm O'Neill made his Test debut until Harvey's retirement in 1963, the duo formed a formidable pairing in the covers, helping to restrict opposition batsmen from scoring in the region.

In 1957, Harvey was passed over for the captaincy and was named as the deputy of Ian Craig, who had played just six matches, as Australia sought to rebuild the team with a youth policy following a decline in the team. Craig later offered to demote himself due to poor form, but Harvey prevented him from doing so. At any rate, Craig fell ill the following season, but Harvey had moved interstate, so Richie Benaud was promoted to the captaincy ahead of him. Harvey continued in the deputy's role until the end of his career, but he was captain for only one Test match. In the Second Test at Lord's in 1961, when Benaud was injured, Harvey led the team in the "Battle of the Ridge" on an erratic surface, grinding out a hard-fought victory. Only Bradman had scored more runs and centuries for Australia at the time of Harvey's retirement. Harvey was best known for his extravagant footwork and flamboyant stroke play, as well as his fielding. Harvey was particularly known for his innings in conditions unfavourable to batting, performing when his colleagues struggled, such as his 151 not out in Durban, his 92 not out in Sydney in 1954–55, and his 96 on the matting in Dhaka. In retirement, he became a national selector for twelve years but in recent times is best known for his strident criticism of modern cricket. In 2000, he was inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame in and selected in the Australian Cricket Board's Team of the Century. In 2009, Harvey was one of the 55 inaugural inductees into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.

Some players remained resentful of Craig's dubious elevation ahead of Harvey during the 1957–58 tour of South Africa but appreciated that he had not promoted himself and that he was fair and open to input from teammates. On the tour, Harvey broke a finger at catching practice and missed the early tour matches. After it healed, Harvey returned for a match against a South African XI, in a virtual dress rehearsal for the Tests. He scored 173 as the tourists crushed their hosts by an innings.

The 1956 Ashes tour to England was a disappointment for Harvey individually as well for the Australians collectively. It was an English summer dominated by off spinner Jim Laker and his Surrey teammate Tony Lock, who repeatedly dismantled the tourists on dusty spinning pitches specifically tailored to their cater for them.

As expected, the Australian team's leaders Ian Johnson and Keith Miller, retired from cricket after the tour. Harvey replaced Johnson as Victorian captain and was the logical choice as successor to the Test captaincy, as the most experienced member of the team (48 Tests). Queensland's captain, the veteran paceman Ray Lindwall, was no longer an automatic Test selection. However, both Harvey and Benaud had been criticised for their attitude towards Johnson in an official report to the board about the 1956 tour. Harvey was surprisingly overlooked for the captaincy, which went to Ian Craig, who had replaced Miller as New South Wales skipper. Craig was only 22 and had played six Tests; he had yet to establish himself in the team. After several disappointing results against England, the selectors chose a youthful team. Harvey was named vice-captain to Craig for both the 1956–57 non-Test tour of New Zealand and the 1957–58 Test tour to South Africa.

This was followed by a tour in early 1955 to the West Indies, the first by an Australian team. Harvey began with two consecutive centuries, scoring exactly 133 in both the First and Second Tests at Kingston and Port-of-Spain respectively. The matches ended in an innings victory and draw to Australia respectively. In a low scoring match in Georgetown, Harvey scored 38 and 41* as Australia took a 2–0 lead. Another half century in the drawn Fourth Test followed, before Harvey scored the second double century of his career, 204 in the Fifth Test in Kingston in just over seven hours of batting. His 295 run partnership with Colin McDonald was the foundation of a Test total of 8/758, setting up an innings victory for Australia. He totalled 650 runs at 108.33 for the series. For the entire tour, he scored 789 runs at 71.73. After the tour Arthur Morris retired, leaving Harvey as the most experienced batsman of the team. Harvey had also expunged his demons that he experienced against Ramadhin and Valentine in the previous series. Of the spin duo, only Ramadhin was able to dismiss Harvey on one occasion.

The 1955–56 Australian summer was another purely domestic season. Harvey had a successful campaign with 772 runs 55.14. He struck 128 and 76 against a New South Wales team composed mainly of Test players, but Victoria's arch-rivals hung on for a draw with three wickets in hand. He added two further centuries and a 96, and all of these innings came in the span of a month in which he amassed 612 runs.

The 1954–55 season saw England tour Australia, and Harvey scored 98 in three innings in warm-up matches against the visitors. He struck 162 in the First Test in Brisbane after Australia were sent in, helping to compile 8/601 to set up an innings victory. Between Tests, he scored 59 and 34 not out for Victoria against the Englishmen.

From there on, Harvey's series was unproductive, failing to pass 31 in the six innings of the final three Tests. Australia's form slumped along with that of Harvey, losing the next two Tests and the series 3–1. Harvey ended with 354 runs at 44.25 for the series. Despite this, he continued to productive in the other first-class matches and was by far the most productive batsman in the 1954–55 Australian season, accumulating 1100 at 47.83 runs ahead of Les Favell's 663. He scored a pair of 62s in a 36-run win over New South Wales, 95 and 66 against Queensland and 82 and 47 in a match for a Tasmania Combined XI against England.

In 1953 he became only the third Australian in a quarter of a century to score 2,000 runs on an Ashes tour. Bradman (three times) and Stan McCabe were the others. He made 2,040 at 65.80 and his ten centuries were twice that of the next best in the side.

Harvey returned to Australia and played in the 1953–54 season, which was purely domestic. He scored 639 runs at 42.60, including a century against New South Wales and four fifties. He had a few near-misses during the season; he scored 97 against Queensland in two matches and made 88 against South Australia.

Harvey started the 1952–53 season without a first-class century in more than 18 months and in three matches ahead of the Tests, suffered two defeats and was yet to break his drought.

The 1951–52 season was less productive, with the West Indies touring Australia. Playing in all five Tests, Harvey scored 261 runs at 26.10 with one half century as Australia won 4–1. Harvey had difficulties in dealing with the dual spin bowling combination of Alf Valentine and Sonny Ramadhin, who bowled left arm orthodox and leg spin respectively and accounted for him six times in the Tests. His only fifty was an 83 in the first innings of the Fourth Test in Melbourne. Australia went on to complete a dramatic one-wicket victory. Harvey had a poor season overall, scoring only 551 first-class runs at 32.41 without managing a single century.

Harvey's triple figure average from his first two Test seasons could not be maintained when Australia hosted the 1950–51 Ashes series. Following his success in South Africa, Harvey played regularly at either the No. 3 or No. 4 from that point onwards. He managed 362 runs at 40.22 with three half centuries as Australia took the series 4–1. Harvey had trouble with Alec Bedser's in-swingers in the early part of the series and Bedser was the only Englishman to dismiss Harvey in the first three Tests. On the first day of the series, Harvey top-scored with 74 out of Australia's 228. It turned out to be crucial as rain created a sticky wicket; England made 7/68 and Australia 7/32, both declared. Australia went on to win by 70 runs. The Second Test in Melbourne was also low scoring; Harvey made 42 and 31 as Australia won after neither team passed 200. He performed steadily through the series, with 39, 43 and 68 in the next two Tests, which were both won. He then made one and 52 in the Fifth Test defeat; it was the first in his 14 Tests and Australia's first since World War II and came on his home ground in Melbourne. Outside the Tests, Harvey scored 141 in a win over South Australia and then added 146 in the second innings of a match against New South Wales to stave off defeat. He ended the season with 1099 runs at 45.79.

After returning from South Africa in 1950, Harvey was offered a job in captain Lindsay Hassett's sports store. Harvey accepted immediately because sports stores gave more flexible arrangements for leave to play cricket. Harvey was sponsored by Stuart Surridge to use their cricket equipment. He was paid £300 a year, but nevertheless lived at home and shared a bedroom with his brothers Brian and Ray until he married, due to poverty. He used the same cricket uniforms for more than five years.

During the 1949–50 tour of South Africa, Harvey met his first wife Iris Greenish. At the time, Greenish was only 16 years old and Harvey 21, and their relationship became the subject of controversy when her father told the media that he would object to the couple's engagement until his daughter turned 18. They married four years later at Holy Trinity Church in East Melbourne and had three children: two sons and a daughter.

One of six cricketing brothers, four of whom represented Victoria, Harvey followed his elder brother Merv into Test cricket and made his debut in January 1948, aged 19 and three months. In his second match, he became the youngest Australian to score a Test century, a record that still stands. Harvey was the youngest member of the 1948 Invincibles of Don Bradman to tour England, regarded as one of the finest teams in history. After initially struggling in English conditions, he made a century on his Ashes debut. Harvey started his career strongly, with six centuries in his first thirteen Test innings at an average over 100, including four in 1949–50 against South Africa, including a match-winning 151 not out on a sticky wicket. As Bradman's team broke up in the 1950s due to retirements, Harvey became Australia's senior batsman, and was named as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1954, in recognition of his feat in scoring more than 2,000 runs during the 1953 tour of England.

His next match for Victoria was against Wally Hammond's English tourists. After the fall of three early wickets, Harvey joined captain Lindsay Hassett. He dominated a partnership of 120, making 69 in his second match against the guileful leg spin of Doug Wright. His opponents had no doubt that he would become a Test player. English wicket-keeper Godfrey Evans congratulated him by proclaiming "We'll be seeing you in England next year [for Australia's 1948 tour of that country]". He ended his debut first-class season with 304 runs at 50.66.

Three months after his 19th birthday, Harvey made his entry into international cricket, in the last two Tests against India. He batted at No. 6 and made 13 in his only innings on debut in the Fourth Test at the Adelaide Oval as Australia swept to an innings victory. The selectors retained him for the Fifth Test on his home ground at Melbourne. After reaching stumps on 78, he reached his century the following day, 7 February 1948. His score of 153 after being promoted to No. 5 made him the youngest Australian Test centurion, surpassing Archie Jackson's previous record. He brought up the mark with an all run five, having turned a short ball from Lala Amarnath towards the square leg boundary.

The innings ensured him a place on the 1948 tour of England. Speaking about Harvey's selection, Bradman opined "He has the brilliance and daring of youth, and the likelihood of rapid improvement." In the warm-up matches before the team headed to England, Harvey struck 104 against Tasmania and 79 against Western Australia. He had scored 733 runs at 52.36 for the season.

No international matches were scheduled for the 1948–49 Australian season, and Harvey had a disappointing first-class season, scoring only 539 runs at 33.68. He scored 72 and 75 in Victoria's totals of 165 and 197 as they lost to arch-rivals New South Wales by 88 runs, but his only other score beyond 50 was an 87 for Lindsay Hassett's XI in a Test trial at the end of the season. Nevertheless, the selectors persisted with him for the 1949–50 tour of South Africa.

In 1947–48, Harvey played in two Shield matches with his brothers Merv and Ray. Merv had already gained Test selection, but soon Neil was attracting more attention. In the opening match of the season, Harvey struck 87 against the touring Indian cricket team. He was selected for an Australian XI, which played the Indians before the Tests in what was effectively a dress rehearsal. He made 32 in the first innings and was unbeaten on 56 in the second as the hosts succumbed for 203 and suffered a 47-run loss. Despite this, he was initially overlooked for the Tests. He reached 35 in each of his next five innings for Victoria, including two fifties.

An aggressive 113 for Fitzroy against Melbourne Cricket Club in 1946–47 saw Harvey selected for the Victorian team at the age of 18. He made 18 in his only innings during his first-class debut against Tasmania. In the next match against Tasmania, Harvey made his maiden first-class century, scoring 154. He said that his effort was inspired by elder brother Merv, who gained Test selection in the same year.

First-class cricket had been cancelled during World War II and resumed in 1945–46. At the start of the season, Harvey was selected for a trial match. The Victorian state team played against the Rest of Victoria, and Harvey represented the latter. However, he made a duck in his only innings and was not selected for the senior state side during the season.

Then came the two Australian capitulations against Laker and Lock in the Tests. Harvey made 11 as Australia were bowled out for 143 and forced to follow on in the Third Test played on a turning pitch at Headingley. He then contributed 69 of 140 in the second innings of the Third Test at Headingley, when the rest of the team struggled to deal with Laker and Lock, who spun England to an innings victory. It was the first time Australia had suffered an innings defeat in a Test since 1938. However, Harvey was unable to repeat his defiant form over the next three weeks. The Fourth Test in Manchester was the low point, when Harvey managed a pair, falling both times to Laker, who took a world record 19 wickets. Australia were routed by an innings in what is known as "Laker's match" to concede the Ashes 2–1. The debacle at Old Trafford was part of a three-week trough during which Harvey scored only 11 runs, including three consecutive ducks in a 17-day period that yielded not a solitary run.

Harvey adapted his style and improved his performance. He scored 36 and 76 not out against Lancashire at Manchester and an unbeaten 100 at Hove against Sussex in only 115 minutes in the last match before the First Test. Former Australian Test batsman Jack Fingleton described Harvey's innings as "a superb century, rich in youthful daring and stroke production". However, this was not enough for selection and reserve opener Bill Brown batted out of position in the middle-order, as he had done against Worcestershire and the MCC. Harvey was the 12th man because of his fielding abilities, and spent a large proportion of time on the field due to an injury to pace spearhead Ray Lindwall.

As the series 2–1 in Australia's favour and not yet won, the Fifth Test in Melbourne was a timeless Test. Harvey compiled his third consecutive century and highest Test score of 205 as Australia amassed 520 in the first innings. This put Australia in control of the Test, despite South Africa successfully chasing an unlikely target of 295. Harvey accumulated 834 Test runs at 92.66 in the series. This surpassed Bradman's aggregate of 806 runs in 1931–32 as a series record against South Africa. In ten Tests against South Africa, he had eight centuries, totalling 1494 runs at an average of 106.71.

Robert Neil Harvey OAM MBE (born 8 October 1928) is an Australian former cricketer who was a member of the Australian cricket team between 1948 and 1963, playing in 79 Test matches. He was the vice-captain of the team from 1957 until his retirement. An attacking left-handed batsman, sharp fielder and occasional off-spin bowler, Harvey was the senior batsman in the Australian team for much of the 1950s and was regarded by Wisden as the finest fielder of his era. Upon his retirement, Harvey was the second-most prolific Test run-scorer and century-maker for Australia.

Harvey was the fifth of six boys born to Horace Harvey. Despite his small build, Harvey was born large, weighing in at 4.5 kilograms (10 lb). The family lived in Broken Hill, where Horace was a miner, before moving to Sydney, and finally to Melbourne in 1926, where they settled in the inner northern industrial suburb of Fitzroy. There the six boys were taught cricket under the guidance of their father. In conditions conducive to producing batsmen rather than bowlers, they played cricket using a tennis ball on cobblestones or a marble rebounding from the backyard pavement. The boys went to George Street State School and Falconer Street Central School. Cricket and cricket talk was an integral part of the daily family life. Horace held the family batting record with 198 for Broken Hill, and continued to play in Melbourne club cricket. Harvey's eldest brother Merv went on to play one Test for Australia, while Mick and Ray both played for Victoria. All six brothers, the other two being Brian and Harold, also played for Fitzroy in district cricket. Except for Harold, all five represented Victoria in baseball.

Harvey was thus selected in the series against England, his last in international cricket. During the season, Harvey applied to the Australian Cricket Board for permission to work as a journalist while also playing cricket. The application was refused, but Harvey wrote some bitter criticism of England captain Ted Dexter at the end of the series. Following a complaint from the Marylebone Cricket Club, the ACB said that it deplored Harvey's comments. Beginning steadily with half-centuries in the first and third Tests, Harvey made his 21st and final century in the fourth Test at Adelaide. Scoring 154 in a drawn match at the venue where his international career began 15 seasons earlier, Harvey then returned to his adopted hometown of Sydney for his farewell match. With the series level at 1–1, the Ashes were still alive but the game turned into a dull draw and Harvey scored 22 and 28. He was bowled by David Allen in the final innings. In the two English innings, he held six catches to equal the world record, a reminder of his prowess as one of Australia's great all-round fielders. Harvey retired as Australia's most capped player, and a tally of runs and centuries second only to Don Bradman.

At first, Harvey struggled in the English conditions, failing to pass 25 in his first six innings. His most notable contribution in the early stages of the campaign was against Yorkshire in Bradford, on a damp pitch that suited slower bowling. The match saw 324 runs fall for 36 wickets. No sooner had Harvey walked out to bat, stand-in captain Lindsay Hassett was caught to leave Australia at 5/20 in pursuit of 60. To make matters worse, Sam Loxton was injured and could not bat, so Australia were effectively six wickets down and faced its first loss to an English county since 1912. Harvey had scored a solitary run when he hit a ball to Len Hutton at short leg, who dived forwards and grabbed it with both hands before dropping it. Harvey then swept the next ball for a boundary. Colin McCool was out at 6/31 before Harvey and wicket-keeper Don Tallon steadied Australia. Harvey was reprieved on 12; he charged the bowling but the wicketkeeper fumbled the stumping opportunity. Harvey then hit the winning runs with a six over the sightscreen, ending unbeaten on 18 not out. It was the closest Australia had come to defeat for the whole tour.

The tour started poorly for Harvey. In five innings in the first three weeks, he scored only 36 runs at 7.20, and this included a ten-wicket defeat at the hands of Laker and Lock's Surrey. It was Australia's first loss to a county side since 1912. Harvey began to run into some form after that, scoring 45 against Cambridge University before the match against the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), which fielded a virtual England Test team in what was effectively a dress rehearsal for the Tests. Harvey made 225 in Australia's 413 and the hosts made 9/203 to draw the match. However, he was unable to replicate this form in the Tests.