as the series 2–1 in australia's favour and not yet won, the fifth test in melbourne was a timeless test. harvey compiled his third consecutive century and highest test score of 205 as australia amassed 520 in the first innings. this put australia in control of the test, despite south africa successfully chasing an unlikely target of 295. harvey accumulated 834 test runs at 92.66 in the series. this surpassed bradman's aggregate of 806 runs in 1931–32 as a series record against south africa. in ten tests against south africa, he had eight centuries, totalling 1494 runs at an average of 106.71.