This was a young and inexperienced Australian side. The average age was 25. They came to Ireland direct from Sheffield where Yorkshire had given them their first defeat - by an innings. They had, nevertheless, won the first Test and drawn the second. Only three were left of the 1961 tourists to Ireland. They were Lawry (now captain), Jarman and Mackenzie. Of the Irish players only Duffy and Colhoun had played seven years ago. The Australian team included six of those who had played in the second Test and only Mallett and Inverarity had not played in a Test at all.

The day was cold and cloudy but rain did not fall. The crowd was good. Ireland were put in to bat at 11:30 am (the Australians had arrived in Dublin Airport at 10 am) and were not all out until 3:30 pm. Pigot and McCall opened to Hawke and Freeman, both of whom moved the ball a good deal. After 15 minutes Freeman bowled Pigot on a full toss and, in the same over, McCall was caught at the wicket. 5-2. Connolly replaced Freeman after five overs. Waters fished at his second ball and was caught at second slip. O'Brien and Anderson added 17. Hawke came off after nine fruitless overs and was replaced by off spinner Mallett. Then, at 27, Connolly had O'Brien taken at the wicket. Freeman came back for Connolly and bowled Monteith who was playing badly. 33-5.

Cowper (off spin) and Chappell (leg spin) were given a bowl and 22 were added in 35 minutes before lunch by Anderson and Duffy. Connolly came back and bowled Anderson off the last ball before lunch. 55-6-26. Anderson batted 82 minutes and had looked in good form. Duffy and Colhoun after lunch added 28 in 45 minutes off Hawke, Connolly, Cowper and Chappell. Colhoun was dropped at second slip by Sheahan off Hawke at 62 but he did very well to stay with Duffy and display more strokes than usual. At 82 Duffy hit Chappell to Joslin at mid-wicket and was given out but Joslin indicated "no catch". One run later Duffy got a lifter from Hawke and was caught at gully for 23. Freeman now finished off the innings. He bowled Goodwin at 89, Colhoun at 98 and Torrens at 106. Freeman, in 12.5 overs, had taken 6-15.

Cowper and Joslin, both left-handers, opened for Australia. The bowlers were Goodwin and Leng. 16 were scored in 20 minutes when Joslin flicked Leng and Goodwin took a good catch at leg slip. Sheahan and Cowper battled quietly to tea at 4:30 pm. Soon after tea Torrens came on for Goodwin. Cowper hit his second ball for four and was bowled decisively by the third. Cowper had batted just under an hour for 30. 56-2-30. 10 minutes later Inverarity cocked the first ball of an over from Monteith to forward short leg. 65-3-0. Chappell hit his first ball for six, stopped the next, advanced to the next and mis-hit it to mid-on. 71-4-6. Freeman arrived at 5-22 pm and delighted the crowd. He had earlier in the tour made a century in 88 minutes against Northamptonshire. In 37 minutes today Freeman and Sheahan added 57 and, incidentally, won the match. Duffy eventually got a bowl and bowled Sheahan in his second over.

This tall, promising forward player had scored 45 in 92 minutes. Freeman now launched an attack on Anderson and Duffy. Fours and sixes flowed and several balls were lost. Eventually Duffy had him caught in his fifth over for 75. He batted in all for 56 minutes and scored his runs out of 104. He had hit four sixes and seven fours - all of them clean hits. Lawry was LBW to Goodwin at the same score, 175. Taber and Mallett brought the match to an end at 190-7. The bowling was very steady until Freeman struck out and the fielding was good

Derek Scott