Ken Mackay
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| Full name | Kenneth Donald Mackay | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born |
24 October 1925 Windsor, Queensland |
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| Died | 13 June 1982 (aged 56) Point Lookout, Queensland |
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| Batting style | Left-hand bat | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling style | Right-arm medium | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Kenneth Donald "Ken" Mackay (24 October 1925, Windsor, Queensland – 13 June 1982, Point Lookout, Queensland) was an Australian cricketer who played in 37 Tests from 1956 to 1963.
He was universally known as "Slasher", an ironic reference to his often back-to-the-wall batting style, which was bestowed on him by Toombul District Cricket Club teammate Aub Carrigan. In his first Test at Lord's in 1956 he batted for over four hours in each innings, wearing down the England bowlers with pawky defence and unbreakable concentration. He matured as a test player to become an unobtrusive but often vital member of Richie Benaud's team that brought Australia out of its late-fifties doldrums in two remarkable series, against the West Indies in 1960/61 and England in 1961. Mackay made important contributions in both, most notably his famous last-wicket stand with Lindsay Kline in the 4th test against the West Indies in Adelaide which forced a remarkable draw.
Mackay teamed with Benaud and Alan Davidson to provide a high-quality, flexible core of all-rounders that often proved the difference for Australia in tight situations. While lacking the talent of the fast left-arm swing of Davidson and the leg-spin of Benaud, his economical, nagging right-arm medium pace was often strategically useful and occasionally, especially in Pakistan and India, destructive. He was the second-most economic of significant Australian test bowlers, surpassed in miserliness only by Arthur Mailey. He was not a tidy-looking bowler and he shambled up to the wicket, but in the 1961 Ashes series he was Australia's first-change bowler and in the First Test dismissed Ken Barrington, M.J.K. Smith and Raman Subba Row in four balls to give Australia a 321-run first innings lead.
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