[4] At the age of 19, McCabe was called up for the 1930 tour of England despite being yet to score his maiden first-class century as the selectors chose the youngest ever team to leave Australia.

His performance began to improve after adjusting his technique and he played in all five Tests, although he continued to have problems converting starts into large scores, failing to make a century during the tour.

In 1932–33, McCabe made his breakthrough at international level in the First Test of the infamous Bodyline series, scoring an unbeaten 187 at the Sydney Cricket Ground in only four hours as his teammates fell around him.

After missing most of the 1934–35 domestic season due to injury, McCabe scored an unbeaten 189 in the Second Test of the 1935–36 tour of South Africa, including a century in one session, taking Australia to the brink of a world record-breaking victory on a difficult final-day pitch in poor light before the match was called off.

[19] McCabe played twice against the touring England cricket team led by Percy Chapman, once in a match at Goulburn for the Southern Districts of New South Wales,[11] and the other time for his state, but managed only 24 runs in three innings.

His parents only allowed him to settle there permanently if Dwyer could help find him a job and lodgings, and McCabe subsequently began work in the accounting division of Colonial Mutual Insurance Company.

[35] On one occasion, a particularly fast Gilbert delivery supposedly evaded both the batsman and wicket-keeper, travelled more than 60 metres and crashed through a fence before hitting and killing a dog on the other side.

Gilbert cut down the New South Wales top order with a spell of 3/12 and forced Alan Kippax to retire hurt after hitting him in the upper body.

His innings was marked by dangerous cutting and compulsive hooking of short-pitched deliveries in front of his face, unfazed by the repeated body blows which hit his teammates.

He was particularly effectively in farming the strike while batting with his tail end partners; in his last wicket stand of 55 with Tim Wall, he scored 50 of the runs in just half an hour.

[48] Immediately after the innings, McCabe told his teammates that he would never be able to replicate the feat because it was too difficult to hook the ball consistently without hitting it up into the air and giving away catching opportunities.

He then scored 192 against the Marylebone Cricket Club at Lord's, combining with Ponsford in a record partnership for the third wicket of 389,[11] in what was effectively a dress rehearsal for the Tests; the MCC fielded almost a full-strength England team.

At the time, Wisden said of him: "He blossomed forth as an almost completely equipped batsman of the forcing type and was probably the best exponent—Bradman himself scarcely excluded—of the art of hitting the ball tremendously hard and safely.

However, he was made vice-captain to Vic Richardson for the tour, with Woodfull and Ponsford having retired, and Bradman ill.[55] McCabe enjoyed more success, heading the Test batting figures with 420 runs at 84.00.

[40] After scoring 24, 65 and 29 in three warm-up matches, all of which were won by innings,[19] McCabe hit 149 in the First Test at Durban, sharing a second-wicket partnership of 161 with Bill Brown in gale-force conditions which caused balls to make U-turns in the headwind,[56] forced the umpires to glue the bails to the wickets using chewing gum,[9] to set up a nine-wicket victory.

[59][60] McCabe had reached his century in only 90 minutes,[62] and continued on despite a storm that brought low dust clouds and hindered visibility,[3] and increasingly irregular bounce and cut off the pitch.

However, Herbie Wade, the South African captain made an unprecedented appeal against the light due fear "for the fieldsmen's safety" in the face of McCabe's aggressive batting.

McCabe scored 76, 28, 23, 83 and 46 in the lead-up, but started the series poorly; he made 51 in the first innings but managed only seven as Australia was caught out on a sticky wicket on the final day and were bowled out for 58 to lose the First Test in Brisbane by 322 runs.

In the 1930s, Australia had been divided along sectarian lines, with a sizeable Irish Catholic minority that included McCabe often pitted against Anglicans and/or Protestants such as Bradman (of Anglo-Irish descent), particularly practitioners of Freemasonry, leading to speculation that the tension was fuelled by religion.

[55][65] Four of the five Catholics in the team, McCabe, leading bowler Bill O'Reilly, along with Leo O'Brien and Chuck Fleetwood-Smith were summoned by the Board of Control to respond to allegations that they were undermining Bradman.

[19] In 1937–38, no international matches were scheduled, and McCabe played a full season with New South Wales, leading them to the Sheffield Shield title, with three wins and three draws.

McCabe had struck three boundaries by this stage, two cut shots and an on drive, and had survived a final spell from fast bowler Ken Farnes without a sightscreen, accompanied by nightwatchman Frank Ward.

With all the other specialist batsmen dismissed, McCabe was now batting with wicket-keeper Ben Barnett and began to attack the English bowlers with powerful drives and hook shots.

[80] Wisden reported that McCabe played "an innings the equal of which has probably never been seen in the history of Test cricket; for the best part of four hours he maintained a merciless punishment of the bowling".

[89] Upon returning to Australia, McCabe continued to captain New South Wales, but only played in two matches during the 1938–39 season due to illness, scoring 141 runs at 47.00 including one century.

[94] Fellow state and Australian batsman Bill Brown described McCabe as the "finest strokeplayer I ever saw",[62] further adding "When Stan was in command, he was so magnificent to watch, and he left everyone, including Bradman, for dead.

[95] The leading English cricket writer Neville Cardus said that "Genial, friendly, Stan was Australia’s most gallant and knightly batsman since Victor Trumper.

Due to his poor health and feet, he knew that his utility would be limited, and he also had a newborn son and fledgling business at the time, so he had not rushed to enlist at the start of the war.

[1] The coroner's investigation noted that McCabe's hands had tufts of ripped grass in them, indicating that he had tried to grab onto vegetation in a vain attempt to stop his fall.

After the death was announced over the public address system, the crowd spontaneously stood up and took off their hats, as did the players, and they observed a self-initiated moment of silence.