Quintin Mc Millan - Tour To Australia and New Zealand

Tour To Australia and New Zealand

Though McMillan's Test figures had been modest, he was cited as "the best slow bowler of the tourists" a syndicated Louis Duffus article in Australian newspapers at the start of the 1931-32 tour to Australia and New Zealand. The same article described him as "short and tubby".

In fact, the tour marked the end of McMillan's first-class cricket career, and it began very well for him, with a career-best bowling performance of nine wickets for 53 runs in South Australia's second innings in one of the warm-up matches before the first Test. That Test, by contrast, was a personal failure: he failed to score in either innings and took no wickets in 10 expensive overs as Donald Bradman hit the first of four centuries (in five innings) in the series. McMillan was dropped for the second Test, but returned for the third match of the rubber. He took no wickets in the first innings, but then scored 29 and shared in an eighth wicket partnership of 104 with Ken Viljoen in South Africa's first innings. He followed that with four wickets for 150 in Australia's second innings, his best in Test cricket to that point. The fourth Test was not a success for McMillan: he made scores of 19 and 3 and took no wickets. And though there were three wickets for him for 29 runs in the fifth and final Test, the match was decided by South Africa's batting woes in difficult conditions, which saw the whole team dismissed first for 36 and then for 45; McMillan recorded his second "pair" of the series.

Having lost the Australian series 5-0, the South Africans then moved on to New Zealand to play two Test matches against much less demanding opposition, winning both games. McMillan had his two best Test bowling performances in these games. In the first of them, he took four for 61 in the first innings and followed that with five for 66 in the second innings. In the second match he took five for 125 in the first innings and a further two wickets in the second.