TennisNH

Colin McDonald obituary

12-Jan-2021 17:29:36 | Guardian

Tenacious Australian batsman at his best in testing conditions, as when Jim Laker took 19 wickets for England at Old Trafford

The cricketer Colin McDonald, who has died aged 92, was a fine opening batsman for Australia and a more or less constant force for his country during a 47-game stretch that ran from 1952 to 1961, covering 14 Test series at home and abroad.

He was widely admired for his courage and tenacity and, although there was much more to McDonald’s game than mere grittiness, he was undoubtedly at his best when conditions were testing. The strongest evidence of that came with an outstanding performance in the “Laker Test” against England at Old Trafford in 1956, when Jim Laker took a world record 19 wickets in the match and McDonald was one of the few Australians to offer any measure of resistance, making the top score in both innings with 32 and 89.