Three months after VE Day, Keith Miller hit 185 for a Dominions XI against England at Lord's, the highest score of an unforgettable post-war summer. He went from 61 not out overnight to 185 in 99 minutes on the third morning, striking seven sixes — including one over the press box that landed in the upper tier and another that cleared 170 metres into Block Q. Wisden called the match 'one of the finest ever seen' at headquarters; Miller's innings, more than any other in 1945, told English audiences that pre-war balance of power had been broken.
Miller had served as a Mosquito pilot with No. 169 Squadron RAF and No. 153 Squadron RAAF during 1944-45, including night-fighter sorties over Germany. He had played for Victoria pre-war and emerged in the 1945 Victory Tests as a hitter and fast bowler of unusual gifts.
Three of the five Victory Tests at Lord's had drawn record crowds; the August 1945 Dominions match was an additional fixture, played in front of 90,000 over three days. Miller was being talked about as a future Ashes prospect even before the innings.
The Dominions team — captained by the New Zealander Martin Donnelly and stocked with Australian, South African and West Indian servicemen — had drawn level in the unofficial Victory Tests against the Australian Services XI. Their fixture against an England side captained by Wally Hammond at Lord's between 25 and 28 August 1945 was set up as a celebration match. Miller, a 25-year-old RAAF Mosquito pilot still in uniform when he took the field, had already made 26 in the first innings before being run out by Keeton.
In the second innings, with the Dominions chasing a notional lead, he came in at 70 for 3 in the late afternoon of the second day. By stumps he was 61 not out. On the morning of the third day, with the great leg-spinner Doug Wright, Eric Hollies and Bowes operating, Miller scored 124 in 99 minutes. Of the seven sixes, the most famous landed on the upper deck of the pavilion, level with the press box — Sir Pelham Warner described it as 'the biggest six I have seen at Lord's in fifty years'. Another, off Hollies, was still rising when it cleared the press-box roof and dropped into Block Q outside the ground.
He was eventually caught Hammond bowled Pope for 185 made out of 222 in 165 minutes at the crease, with 13 fours and 7 sixes. The Dominions made 336, set England 357 and bowled them out for 311 to win by 45 runs. Hammond made a hundred in each innings for England and Donnelly 133 for the Dominions, but it was Miller's innings that filled the next morning's papers from London to Sydney.
25 Aug 1945 — match begins, Hammond captains England
26 Aug — Miller comes in at 70/3, ends day on 61*
27 Aug — adds 124 in 99 minutes
Six off Hollies clears press-box roof into Block Q
Six lands on upper deck of pavilion next to press seats
Out caught Hammond b Pope for 185 from 222
28 Aug — Dominions win by 45 runs
25 Aug 1945
Match begins, England v Dominions
26 Aug 1945
Miller 61* overnight
27 Aug 1945
Miller 124 runs in 99 minutes; out for 185
28 Aug 1945
Dominions win by 45 runs
Sep 1945
Miller selected for Australian Services tour of India
“The biggest six I have seen at Lord's in fifty years.”
“It was just one of those mornings when I felt I could see the ball off the pitch.”
“A hurricane innings of a quality unsurpassed in our memory.”
On the boat home Miller was already pencilled in for the Australian Services tour of India in 1945-46 and the 1946-47 Ashes. The Lord's innings made him a household name: London Evening Standard sub-editors invented the headline 'NUGGET' that would follow him for the rest of his career.
The Father Time wall at Lord's commemorates the innings to this day. Miller said in 1985, when shown the wall, 'It was just one of those mornings when I felt I could see the ball off the pitch'.
The innings that announced Miller as a new kind of Australian cricketer — fast, dashing, war-tempered — and signalled cricket's return to Lord's after six years of barbed wire and balloon barrages.
Miller's 185 is the foundation stone of his myth — pilot turned strokemaker — and remains, with Compton's 753 in 1947 and Bradman's last Test, the most-quoted English-summer innings of the 1940s. Wisden's 1946 edition described it as 'a hurricane innings of a quality unsurpassed in our memory'.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.