wickets in the first innings, were hampered by a wet ball and bowled very little. Conditions got easier for batsmen in the next match: Mann had a spell in which he took three middle-order English wickets while only 10 runs were added, but the score was 540 for three before the first of these wickets fell, and they were his only wickets of the match. For the third and fourth matches of the series, the selectors packed the South African side with bowlers in an attempt to take wickets; a consequence was that Mann bowled very little and failed to take a wicket in either match, though his fellow spin bowler, Rowan, was used more and was successful. In the fifth and final game, the fringe bowlers were left out so Rowan and Mann did most of the bowling and took 15 of the 17 England wickets to fall. In the second innings of this game England were set 172 to win in 95 minutes and achieved the target; Mann's 9.7 overs – eight-ball overs were used in this series – cost 65 runs and brought him four wickets, one of the few times in his career when he was hit in this way. The Australian tour to South Africa in 1949–50 was an even less successful event for the South African side than the England tour had been: the Australians won four of the five Tests and had the better of the drawn game. South Africa's bowling was ostensibly hampered by injury to Rowan which kept him out of all the Tests, though Hugh Tayfield emerged as a spin partner for Mann and the real weakness, shown in the series figures, was in seam bowling – Tayfield took 17 wickets in the series, Mann, 16 and the other bowlers only 17 between them. Mann's best innings figures for the series came in the second match, where he took four for 105 as the Australians scored 526 for seven before declaring. The Australian first innings of the following Test, the third, was the only time in the series when the South African bowlers got on top of the Australian batsmen, and Tayfield took seven for 23 and Mann three for 31 as the touring team was dismissed for just 75 to give the South Africans a first-innings lead of 236: Mann and Tayfield were unable to repeat the feat in