the defeat, Mallett was dropped. Returning to state duty, Mallett took 2/30 and 6/69 in the next match against New South Wales, helping to set up a three-wicket win. Two games later, he took 4/41 and 7/57, orchestrating an innings victory over Queensland. These efforts were not enough to win a recall to the Test team, and Mallett ended the season with 39 wickets at 23.15 as South Australia won the Sheffield Shield. He also scored 110 runs at 15.71 with a top-score of 24. Mallett was not highly regarded by Lawry. Tour of India In Australia's 1969–70 tour to India, Mallett took 28 wickets and was an instrumental component of Australia's last Test series victory there for 35 years. During a stopover in Ceylon, he took 4/63 in a drawn match against Sri Lanka, but did not have immediate success after arriving in India. In the drawn warm-up match against West Zone, he took only 1/85. In the First Test in Bombay, he took 0/43 in the first innings, before removing wicket-keeper Farokh Engineer and tail-ender Erapalli Prasanna and ending with 2/22 in the second innings as Australia won by eight wickets. Mallett then hit form, taking 3/42 and 7/38 to orchestrate an innings win over Central Zone. In the Second Test in Kanpur, Mallett bowled 87.5 overs, 43 of them maidens in an attritional drawn match. He took 3/58 in the first innings and 1/62 in the second innings, removing the top-scorer Gundappa Viswanath for 137. On a dry, crumbling, turning pitch at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi, the hosts levelled the series. After Australia had made 296, Mallett took 6/64 to secure a 73-run lead. However, Australia were then bowled out for only 107 and the home team made 3/181 to win the match. Mallett took 2/60 and bowled 61.3 overs for the match. Ahead of the next Test, Mallett took 5/37 and 1/37 as Lawry's men defeated East Zone by 96 runs. Immediately after the tour of India, the Australians headed to South Africa for four more Tests. Mallett took a total of 10/263 in two warm-up matches and retained his place in the Test team. The hosts batted first in the First Test at Newlands in Cape Town on a hard pitch not conducive to spin bowling, and made 382, but Mallett still managed to take 5/126, the leading bowling figures for the innings.