his maiden Test century. Nourse is the only batsman to score a double century in the second innings of a Test match after being out for a duck in the first innings. The match was controversially drawn after the South Africa captain Wade appealed to the umpires against the bad light causing danger to his players, the first time that a fielding captain had successfully appealed against the light; Australia won the other four matches, and the series 4–0. The international schedule of the day meant that South Africa did not play Test cricket for three years, but Nourse then played against the English tourists in 1938–39, taking six hours to score a century in the famous 10-day-long timeless Test at Durban. In his prime as a player, Nourse lost six years of international cricket during the Second World War, during which time he served in the Middle East. South Africa resumed Test cricket in 1947, and Nourse joined the tour to England as vice-captain under Alan Melville. South Africa lost the series 3–0. Nourse topped the South African batting averages, and he and Melville were Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1948. As captain Nourse was appointed captain of South Africa for its home series against England in 1948–49, and remained captain until he retired in 1951. He captained his country in fifteen matches, the two home series against England in 1948–49 which was lost 2–0 and against Australia in 1949–50 which was lost 4–0, and the tour to England in 1951. It was as captain in the 1951 series that he played what Cricinfo describes as "his most renowned innings", against England in the First Test at Trent Bridge in 1951. He batted for 9 hours, with a pin in his right thumb that had been broken while fielding in an earlier tour match. Each batting stroke exacerbated his increasingly painful thumb; nonetheless, he scored 208 in the first innings. He was then unable to field, or bat in the second innings. His innings was the first double century by a South African against England, and was enough to give South Africa its first Test win in 16 years – Nourse's first as captain, and only his second as a player (the other was also against England, at Lord's in 1935). England won three of the remaining matches, with the Fourth Test at Headingley drawn, and South Africa