Rain spares MCC after Nagel's heroics

Drawn - Scorecard

Winning the toss, Wyatt decided to take first innings and MCC appeared to be well placed when they had reached 182 before the third wicket fell. Then, apart from a lively 27 by F. R. Brown, who hit five boundaries off two overs from Ironmonger, Oxenham, flighting the ball and changing pace cleverly, got right on top of the later batsmen, getting two wickets with successive balls, and at the close of play MCC had only totalled 238 for 8. If not at his best Sutcliffe scored an invaluable 87, but the slowness of his play was not to the liking of the crowd.

There was more slow scoring on the second day when the Australian XI replied to the MCC total with 216 for 9.

The third day's play was remarkable for the MCC collapse before the bowling of Lisle Nagel, who returned an outstanding analysis. The tall Victorian - he is about 6ft 6in - obtained most of his wickets with beautiful break backs, but it was not easy to see why he got so much work on the ball as the wicket was perfectly dry. He bowled into a strong wind which helped him considerably but without detracting from Nagel's performance it must be stated that the MCC batting was really poor.

Heavy rain caused play to be given up after Woodfull and O'Brien had come out to open the Australian XI's second innings. The last day's play was completely ruined by the rain; still the match was a big financial success, the attendance being 109,501 and the receipts £6,284.