Australia v West Indies Melbourne Cricket Ground December 31, 1951 to January 3, 1952

John Goddard Captain of West Indies won the toss and decided to bat and batting number 3 Frank Worrell with 108 was the major contributor to the score of 272. The “Three W’s” Worrell, Everton Weekes and Clyde Walcott from Barbados were ranked with the best batsmen in the World. Keith Miller was amongst the wickets with 5 for 60.

Australia struggled making 216, the highlight being a partnership of 124 between Neil Harvey 83 and Keith Miller 47. During this partnership an intriguing battle took place with the West Indies spin twins Alf Valentine left arm and the mystery spinner Sonny Ramadhin right arm.

In their second innings West Indies were held to 203 with Stollmeyer 54 and Christiani 52 being the main contributors. The wickets were shared by Ray Lindwall 3, Miller and Bill Johnston 2 each.

Australia were set 260 to win and again the spinners were on top with Valentine 5 and Ramadhin 3 wickets. They didn’t have express fast bowlers in those days. Lindsay Hassett held the innings together for 5 hours making 102. With the score 9 for 222, number 11 Bill Johnston joined his Richmond team mate Doug Ring requiring 38 runs to win.

The next 35 minutes had the crowd on the edge of their seats watching an amazing and exciting finish to the match. Doug Ring was a more than capable lower order batsman who liked to chance his arm with lusty blows over the infield. Bill Johnston, despite leading the batting averages on a tour of England, was regarded as a bunny. They soon had the West Indies in panic mode with dropped catches, misfields and mid pitch conferences involving a number of their players. However to no avail as the last pair held their nerve, with Johnston turning a ball to fine leg for the winning run for victory by one wicket.