after scoring 34 in the first test at johannesburg, harvey amassed 178 in the first innings of the second test at cape town, which set up a first innings lead of 248 runs. he then scored 23 not out to guide australia to an eight-wicket victory in the second innings. this was followed by an unbeaten 151 in five and a half hours at durban, regarded as one of his finest test innings. having been dismissed for 75 on a wet wicket in the first innings, australia had slumped to 3/59 in pursuit of a victory target of 336. on a crumbling, sticky pitch, the australians were having extreme difficulty with the spin of hugh tayfield and faced their first test defeat against south africa for 39 years. despite a few square cuts, harvey adapted his game to play a patient innings, prompting heckling from spectators for the first time in his career. on 40, a ball from tufty mann broke through his defence and harvey thought himself bowled, only to see that the ball had goven for byes. however, mann and tayfield began to tire in the heat and harvey began to score more quickly, reaching 50 in 137 minutes by the lunch break. he registered his slowest ever century on his way to guiding his team to an improbable victory by five wickets. harvey brought up the winning runs by clipping a ball from mann to the midwicket boundary.