Denis Lindsay

Since 1902–03, when the two sides first met in a Test series, Australia had toured South Africa five times and had never lost a match in 21 Tests.

Denis Thomson Lindsay (4 September 1939 – 30 November 2005) was a South African cricketer who played 19 Test matches for South Africa between 1963 and 1970.

During his career, Lindsay was usually erroneously listed as 'J.D. Lindsay', the same as his father, Johnny, who played three Tests for South Africa in 1947.

Denis Lindsay made his first-class debut at the age of 19 for North-Eastern Transvaal in the "B" Section of the Currie Cup in the 1958–59 season.

Playing against Orange Free State at Benoni he batted at number five and kept wickets, hitting his team's highest score, 43, in a narrow defeat in a low-scoring match.

He immediately became a fixture in his provincial side.

He hit his first century, 116, against Orange Free State the next season.

In 1961 he was selected with 12 other promising young players to tour England as the South African Fezela XI under the captaincy of Roy McLean.

In the first of the three first-class matches, against Essex, he hit five sixes in successive balls off the leg-spinner Bill Greensmith to win the match.

After solid performances with the bat and behind the stumps for North-Eastern Transvaal, Lindsay was selected to tour Australia and New Zealand in 1963–64.

Against South Australia in one of the early matches he scored 104 batting at number nine, adding 108 in 75 minutes with Kelly Seymour, and taking the score from 192 for 7 to 375, when he was last out.

He played his first Test four weeks later, batting as a specialist batsman at number five (John Waite kept wicket) and making 17 in his only innings.

He missed the next two Tests, but returned for the Fourth Test in Adelaide, keeping wicket for the first time.

In South Africa's only Test victory on the tour, he scored 41 in his only innings, took four catches, and conceded only one bye.

Wally Grout described Lindsay's catch to dismiss Barry Shepherd as "one of the best catches I have ever seen by a wicket-keeper"; Lindsay "turned and sprinted at least 20 yards towards the boundary before diving to catch a ball that went high enough to bring rain".

Waite returned to keep wickets in the Fifth Test, but Lindsay stayed in the side, scoring 65 and putting on 118 for the sixth wicket with Colin Bland.

He played as a batsman in all three Tests against New Zealand, but made only 86 runs at an average of 17.20.

At the start of the 1964–65 season he was selected for a South African team against The Rest in a trial match for the forthcoming Test series against the visiting English team.

Batting at number six he hit 107 not out, and put on an unbroken partnership of 267 for the fifth wicket with Bland.

He was selected to keep wicket for the first three Tests.

He top-scored in the first innings of the First Test with 38, and kept through an English innings of 531 in the Second Test without conceding a bye, but he had not made the quick runs South Africa needed, and after the Third Test he was dropped in favour of Waite.

He toured England in 1965 and played in all three Tests.

He made the team's first century of the tour, 105 in three hours against Yorkshire batting at number three.

He stayed at three for the First Test, making 40 and 22, taking three catches and conceding one bye.

He took four catches and a stumping and conceded one bye again when South Africa won the Second Test, though he scored only 0 and 9.

Asked to open the batting in the Third Test in an attempt to find a partner for Eddie Barlow, he made only 4 and 17 and made only one stumping, but conceded no byes.

Commenting on the series overall, Wisden said he "shone behind the stumps".

He made 425 runs at 47.22 in 1965–66 with three 50s, helping North-Eastern Transvaal to victory in the "B" Section of the Currie Cup, and kept wicket for North in the North v South trial match at the end of the season.

Lindsay was not considered a certainty to play, as Dennis Gamsy, who had toured England in 1965 without playing a Test, had been in excellent form behind the stumps for Natal, and Lindsay's Test batting record at this stage was a moderate 415 runs at 21.84 in 12 Tests.

But in the first match of the domestic season Lindsay hit 216 for North-Eastern Transvaal against Transvaal 'B', and was subsequently selected in a South African XI to play the touring Australian side in a four-day match three weeks before the First Test.

In this important game Lindsay hit 30 and 68 to help the home team to an easy victory and raise the South Africans' confidence leading into the Test series.

In the First Test in Johannesburg, Peter van der Merwe won the toss and batted, but South Africa quickly lost five wickets for 41 before Lindsay came in.

He scored 69 off 101 balls, adding 110 for the sixth wicket with Tiger Lance.

Nevertheless, South Africa was all out for 199.

Australia then made 325, Lindsay taking six catches, equalling the Test record.

In the second innings South Africa was more successful, but at 268 for 5 the lead was only 142.

His outstanding series was against Australia in 1966–67, when he scored 606 runs in seven innings, including three centuries, took 24 catches as wicketkeeper and conceded only six byes.

Of all wicketkeepers in Test history with a career of 10 Tests or more, Lindsay has the lowest number of byes per Test, with 20 byes conceded in the 15 Tests in which he kept wickets; the best keepers generally average around 3 or 4 byes per Test.

He later became an international cricket referee.

In 1966–67 the South Africans believed they had a good chance of their first success.