page_title: George Hirst
section_title: Second tour of Australia
hierarchical_section_title: George Hirst / Test match regular / Second tour of Australia
caption_attribution_description: Caricature of Pelham Warner (1873-1963), England cricket captain
context_page_description: George Herbert Hirst was a professional English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Yorkshire County Cricket Club between 1891 and 1921, with a further appearance in 1929. One of the best all-rounders of his time, Hirst was a left arm medium-fast bowler and right-handed batsman. He played in 24 Test matches for England between 1897 and 1909, touring Australia twice. He completed the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in an English cricket season 14 times, the second most of any cricketer after his contemporary and team-mate Wilfred Rhodes. One of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year for 1901, Hirst scored 36,356 runs and took 2,742 wickets in first-class cricket. In Tests, he made 790 runs and captured 59 wickets.
  Born in Kirkheaton, Hirst first achieved success for Yorkshire as a bowler who could bat a little. Over his first few seasons, his batting improved at the expense of his bowling until he was regarded mainly as a specialist batsman. Around 1900, his bowling re-emerged when he discovered a method to make the ball swing in the air after he released it.
context_section_description: Early in the 1903 season, Hirst suffered a leg injury. This, coupled with other players' absences, was partly responsible for a poor start to the season by Yorkshire, and although the team recovered, it could only achieve third place in the County Championship. When Hirst returned his bowling speed was reduced, but during the season he rediscovered his swing bowling. In completing the first of 10 consecutive doubles, he took 128 wickets at an average of 14.94 and scored 1,844 runs at an average of 47.28. For Yorkshire, he topped both the batting and bowling averages and had the third highest batting average in the country. Hirst played in two end-of-season games for the Players against the Gentlemen; his 124 not out in the second match was his only century in the Players versus Gentlemen series.
  In 1903, Pelham Warner, who played for Middlesex, was chosen to captain the first tour of Australia to be sponsored by MCC, in the winter of 1903–04. According to Warner, Hirst and Rhodes were the first two players to be selected, as "the two best bowlers of the present day in this country". Before the tour, critics claimed Hirst would be unsuccessful, citing his failure during his previous tour. However, Warner later wrote: "Hirst, to say nothing of his batting, bowled excellently throughout the tour, and was of much more value as a bowler than his average would suggest". He further described him as the best all-rounder in England and noted that "the tighter the match, the better he plays". Wisden was less convinced, and the report on the tour said that, as a bowler, "Hirst, though by no means the failure he had been with Mr Stoddart's team six years before, fell far below his English form." While commenting on his batting record, the Wisden report noted: "The Australian wickets [i.e. pitches] in fine weather are rather too fast to suit the pulling and hook strokes of which he is such a master in England." As he could not make the ball swing in Australia in the same way it did in England, Hirst used leg theory, bowling at leg stump with fielders close by on the leg side.
  In his second match of the tour, Hirst scored 92 and used his pull shot more effectively than on other occasions. He followed this with 66 in the third match but did not take many wickets before the first Test. Warner considered he had nevertheless bowled well but was finding it difficult to maintain his energy in the hot conditions; his bowling lost pace and sting later in his bowling spells. Hirst played in all five Test matches, the first two of which were won by England. In the first game, Hirst took two wickets. In his first innings, he scored a duck and was dropped by Frank Laver before he had scored in the second. He survived to score 60 not out and his partnership with Tom Hayward guided England to victory after wickets had fallen early chasing a target of 194. Hirst scored 11 runs in the second match and took three wickets on a difficult batting pitch, badly affected by rain. Although this performance was not statistically impressive, Warner thought he bowled very well. During the third Test, Hirst took three wickets and, with innings of 58 and 44, was one of the few successful England batsmen in a poor performance which enabled Australia to win the match. England won the crucial fourth match to ensure the series victory. Hirst took two wickets and contributed scores of 25 and 18. Australia achieved a win in the final match in which Hirst scored 0 and 1, but after taking no wickets in the first innings he achieved his best Test figures of the tour in the second, with five for 48.
  In the Test series, Hirst scored 217 runs at an average of 24.11 and took 15 wickets at an average of 30.06. He scored 569 runs at 33.47 and took 36 wickets at 24.50 over all first-class games on the tour. His best bowling performance was five for 37 against Tasmania. Warner described Hirst as a very consistent batsman throughout the tour, and noted that while he was a less effective bowler in Australian conditions than at home, he was often unlucky.
caption: Pelham Warner, the captain of the first MCC tour of Australia
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