March 10, 1970 – Last day of Test cricket for South Africa's greatest generation

10th March 1970 remains as a historic day for South Africa’s cricket history as they completed whitewash in a 4-match Test series over touring Australia. However, they less knew that the next they feature in an International game only after 21 years. It turned out to be the last day of International cricket for one of the greatest generation of cricketers produced by South African. The Anti-Apartheid Movement in South Africa that caused imbalances to the sport made ICC impose a ban on the African team.

South Africa vs Australia, March 5-10 in 1970 at St. George’s Park in Port Elizabeth:

The hosts dominated Australia in the first three matches of the 4-match Test series by winning by 170 runs in Cape Town, innings and 129 runs in Durban and 370 runs in Johannesburg. In the final Test in Port Elizabeth, South Africa elected to bat first. They posted 311 in the first innings after Barry Richards and Eddie Barlow shared a 157-run opening partnership. Australia’s struggles with the bat in the series continued as they managed only 212 on the board.

Richards bettered his 81-run knock in the 2nd innings with a 212-ball 126 while Lee Ervine scored a 146-ball 102. The hosts posted 470/8 before declaring their innings to set a 570-run target in front of the Aussies. The visitors needed to bat nearly one and a half day to avoid a whitewash but none of their batsmen converting the starts didn’t help their cause. Mike Procter took 6/73 to bundle out Australia for 246 as the Saffers registered a huge 323-run win.

A rare Test whitewash defeat for Australia:

South Africa completed a 4-0 whitewash with another huge win to become the first team to whitewash Australia in nearly 84 years and the first in a 4-match series. Till date, Australia got whitewashed in a 4-match Test series only twice and three times in a 3-match series. This Test turned out to be the last one for ten of the 11 South Africans in the playing XI. The youngest member in that South African XI, John Traicos, later featured in four Tests for Zimbabwe at the age of 45 during 1992/93.

The isolation brought an end to the careers of the Pollock brothers; Graeme, who averaged over 60 with the bat scoring 2256 runs in 43 innings and Peter, who took 116 wickets at 24.18 and scored at 21.67 average. Mike Procter bagged 41 wickets in seven matches at an average of 15.02 but his career was restricted to first-class where he scored 21936 runs and took 1417 wickets under 20. An aggressive batsman in Barry Richards’ Test career was limited to four Tests he played in his debut series scoring 508 runs at 72.57 and an S/R of nearly 60.