the day after the captaincy announcement, the harvey-led victorians met craig's new south welshmen at the scg in the last match of the shield season. harvey admitted to being irked by the board's snub and felt that it was because of his blunt nature. the men were cordial at the toss and craig sent the victorians in to bat. at the same time, victorian batsman colin mcdonald hit a ball into his face and broke his nose while practising, as harvey and craig went out to toss. harvey asked for a gentleman's agreement to allow a substitute for mcdonald. craig refused, citing the importance of the match. this evoked a rare angry response from harvey, according to benaud. playing with ten men, benaud said that harvey "proceeded, with a certain amount of anger, to play one of the best innings i have seen in sheffield shield". he made 209 and later forced new south wales to follow-on. in the end the match was drawn and harvey was unable to deny new south wales the title. harvey said that his first double century for victoria "gave me as much pleasure as any innings i had ever played". he finished his only season as victorian captain by leading the shield averages with 836 runs at 104.50.