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Australian cricket allrounder Keith Miller dies at 84
AP, MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
Tuesday, Oct 12, 2004, Page 19
Australian cricket great Keith Miller, an allrounder on Donald Bradman's Invincibles team that toured England unbeaten in 1948, has died at the age of 84, his family said Monday.
Miller, voted vice-captain of Australia's "dream" team of the last century in 2000, died Monday at a nursing home on the Mornington Peninsula south of Melbourne.
Miller, considered one of the world's greatest allrounders, played 55 tests for Australia, scoring 2,958 runs at an average of 36.97 and claiming 170 wickets at 22.97 after making his debut in 1945-1946.
He and fellow fast bowler Ray Lindwall formed a winning partnership to dominate the Australian bowling lineup in the immediate period after World War II.
Miller claimed he'd loaned Bradman his baggy green test cap when Bradman returned to international cricket in 1946 -- the first postwar Ashes test.
Bradman, 38, scored an important century and reportedly kept Miller's cap for the rest of the series.
Miller made 181 on debut for Victoria state as an 18-year-old and played his first test for Australia against New Zealand in 1945-46.
Miller's best bowling figures were 7-60 and he took five wickets in an innings on seven occasions and 10 wickets once.
In 226 first-class matches, he had 14,183 runs with a high score of 281. He was named Wisden cricketer of the year in 1954 and became a member of the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame in 1996.
A gifted sportsman, he played 50 Australian Rules football games for the Melbourne team St. Kilda in Australia's premier league and represented Victoria state in 1946.
Miller was also a World War II fighter pilot.
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