Published: Sep 01, 2015, 04:04 PM (IST)
Edited: Sep 01, 2015, 04:38 PM (IST)
February 8, 1929. It was the first and only time Don Bradman was run out in his Test career. It costed Australia a thriller of a Test. In this series, Arunabha Sengupta lists several of the firsts of Bradman’s career.
The season had witnessed the flowering of Don Bradman the new Australian hope, and had glimpsed ominous signs of Don Bradman the record breaking phenomenon of a kind never witnessed before or since.There had been the Test debut, the first Test hundred, 1,000 runs for the season; and less than a week before the start of the fourth Test at Adelaide, the 20-year-old had compiled a mammoth 340 not out against Victoria.
However, by the time the Test series moved on to Adelaide, the season had also been the story of some incredible run feast indulged in by Wally Hammond. There had been 225 against New South Wales; 251 in the second Test at SCG; and 200 during the third Test at MCG. The unfortunate Bradman had fielded through all these mammoth innings.
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The fourth Test at Adelaide was hardly any different from the point of view of the Gloucestershire great. Hammond could manage just 119 in the first innings, remaining unconquered as the rest of the batting folded to the wily leg-spin of Clarrie Grimmett. Of course, such small feats could hardly satisfy his enormous appetite for runs. Hence, in the second innings he amassed 177, bringing his tally of runs to 851 in four Tests at a colossal 141.83. He would get 54 more in the final Test to end with a record aggregate of 905 in the series. With Jack Hobbs in his mid-forties, chugging towards the end of a fantastic career, Hammond was being proclaimed as the man who had taken over the mantle of the best batsman of the world.
It would take Bradman a visit to England and 974 runs in the 1930 series to usurp the title and retain it till the end of his career.
Yet, the Adelaide Test brought to limelight yet another new and supremely talented Australian batsman, at 19 even younger than Bradman. This Test, for all the heroics of Hammond, has perhaps gone down as the tale of the enormous promise displayed by Archie Jackson during the course of his sublime 164.
Jackson’s gem
It was Jackson who was the toast of Australia during and after the match. South Australian Cricket Association presented the young hero with a set of cut-glass, some local fans gave him a travelling clock and a rug, and at home in Balmain, the Mayor called a public meeting to honour him. For the new star, after batting against Harold Larwood, Maurice Tate and Jack White with supreme class, the biggest challenge was to appear in public and make a speech. An old Charles Bannerman, 77 years of age, met him to offer his congratulations, for coming within one run of his 165 in the first-ever Test.
Australia had lost the Test, and England led the five match series 4-0. But, then, the future was there to be toasted. And the match had been a close one. If Bradman had not fallen so tragically on the final day, the hosts might have won this one. It was the only time Bradman would be run out in his Test career, and he had been on his way to winning the match for Australia.
The timeless Test started in gruellingly hot conditions. England batted, and with the unfailing regularity of destiny Hobbs and his famed partner Herbert Sutcliffe put on 143 for the first wicket. Perhaps they had been a bit tardy while accumulating the runs, but in the context of the match it was a most important association at the top — the 13th of their 15 century partnerships.
Soon, however, the pitch responded to wrist-spin. Grimmett started weaving his magical web around the batsmen. Hammond played one of the toughest knocks of his career, ending as stated on 119 not out, shepherding England to 334. Grimmett, the prince of parsimony, surprisingly bowled a rare wide ball while capturing five for 102 off 52.1 overs.
The Australian innings got off to a terrible start. The slightly built Jackson, opening the innings with Bill Woodfull, stood helplessly at one end as one experienced man after another fell inexplicably. Woodfull snicked down leg, Stork Hendry hung his bat out at Larwood, Alan Kippax managed to york himself against the left-arm spin of White.
From 19 for three, Jackson fought back, driving and flicking beautifully. With captain Jack Ryder showing a willingness to play his shots, the situation was retrieved and Australia reached 131 for 3 at the close of the second day’s play. Jackson, unbeaten on 70 after the blistering day, had to be mopped with cold towels on reaching the pavilion. His constitution, alas, would never be the sturdiest.
After Sunday’s rest, Ryder played across the line early on Monday morning to be leg before to White. At 145 for 4 Jackson was joined by Bradman, aged 19 and 20 respectively, in a fascinating cocktail of young talent. The hardened English cricketers applied the pressure and the two lads held on.
As Jackson moved towards his century against some spirited bowling of Larwood and White, Bradman’s stay was distinctly streakier. Not quite assured at the wicket, he nevertheless managed to stay at the wicket for 80 minutes, adding 82 with his young partner. Bradman recalled, “Being so much older [one year to be precise] I had the temerity to give him some advice. I told him, ‘take your time, the century will come.’” Jackson brought up his hundred with a splendid cover-drive off Larwood.
In the end, a ball from White turned and bounced and went off the shoulder of Bradman’s bat. It was deflected off the gloves of George Duckworth and Larwood held the catch at slip. The youthful master walked back for 40, but he had taken his season’s aggregate to 1,247 runs, one more than Victor Trumper’s record of 1,246 amassed in 1910-11.
Jackson scored 164, falling in trying to turn a full ball from White. In spite of the several superb efforts by Hammond, it got the palm for the ‘greatest knock of the series’ from Monty Noble.
The run out
Australia led by 35 in the first innings, and would have held the upper hand but for a magnificent partnership.
Hobbs and Sutcliffe, in the rarest of occurrences, were both dismissed early and the score read 21 for 2. But Hammond was impregnable, and Douglas Jardine batted with skill and intelligence, both batsmen astutely forcing the balls to the on-side. The fourth day ended with the score on 206 for 2.
The following morning, the partnership was built upon and it amounted to 262 before Jardine was caught at silly mid-off for 98. The rest of the innings fell away with Hammond departing for a majestic 177. Some big hitting by Tate, including a six and six fours, took the total to 383. Australia were set a steep target of 349.
They got off to a good start, Jackson following the sound advice of Noble and attacking the spinners. After the opening stand of 65, quick wickets fell to make it 74 for 3. But Kippax and Ryder, the latter benefitting from a return catch spilled by White, added 137.
Bradman entered at 211 for 4 after Kippax was caught at second slip off White, with just over an hour remaining from stumps on the sixth day. By close of play he had lost Ryder and Ted a’Beckett, both to White, the former superbly caught and bowled as the bowler made amends for the previous error.
It was 260 for 6, five of the wickets picked up by an increasingly dangerous White on a wearying pitch. Bradman, unbeaten on 16, had only the tail to support him and Australia needed 89 to win.
The following morning, as the crowd flocked in for an anticipated thriller, he started with every bit of precision and efficiency that would characterise his batting for two decades.
Larwood started the day with searing pace, with men clustered on the leg side, a precursor to what would follow in 1932-33. Bradman responded with scintillating strokes, a hook off his eyebrow going straight to the square-leg fence like rifleshot. Every stroke that brought forth a run was cheered loudly in the electric atmosphere.
Bradman blunted the edge of White’s spinners with excellent footwork, shielding his partners; as Australia crossed 300, there were increasing signs that England were worried.
At 308 he lost Ron Oxenham, caught off White. The pair had added 50 crucial runs in which Oxenham’s share had been just 12. Bert Oldfield joined Bradman with 41 to win. The genius had brought up his 50 in 111 minutes, stepping up the rate from the previous evening, looking unstoppable.
It was a tragic error of judgement on the part of Oldfield that cost Bradman his wicket and Australia the win. At 320 for 7, Australia needed just 29. It was the last ball of the over and common sense dictated that the wicketkeeper should block the ball, ensuring Bradman had the strike.
But Oldfield stroked hard to cover-point, called for a run and sprinted down the wicket. Bradman responded. An older Bradman might have said ‘No’ but it was Oldfield’s call; Oldfield was, after all, Bradman’s senior by years. And Hobbs, 46-years-old, moved like a panther and sent in a lightning-like throw, low and straight. Duckworth broke the wicket, and for the only time in Bradman’s Test career was he run out.
He trudged back for 58. Perhaps he knew that he had not been out. In trying to retrieve the ball from his feet and break the stumps in one action, Duckworth had scooped the ball up and it had fallen out of the gloves before they had crashed into the woodwork. But, the square-leg umpire, David Elder, was unsighted and raised his finger, much to the relief of Percy Chapman’s men. Bradman later simply called it ‘a hair-splitting decision’.
White gets Blackie
Grimmett came in and put his head down, adding six more to go in at lunch with the score reading 326 for 8. Another 23 remained to be scored, two wickets in hand, the sun was beating down without mercy and a maddeningly hot breeze was blowing in from the north.
After the break every run was cheered as the pair added them slowly, one at a time. The score read 336, and 13 were required, when White pitched short. Grimmett’s eyes lit up, and he pulled hard. Tate on the leg-side got his hand to it, knocked it up, and caught it on his second attempt.
Don Blackie walked in, one of the endearing rabbits who bring up the tail of an innings. He somehow survived the rest of the over. The next was sent down by Larwood and Oldfield could not manage a single to get to the batting end.
White bowled again. Four balls were pitched on good-length, and Blackie blocked them all as the hearts beat loud, nails were chewed to the raw and knuckles cracked to the limit. And then the canny White pitched short again. Blackie went back and heaved. Larwood, positioned strategically by Chapman, sprinted in from the deep-midwicket to hold an excellent running catch. England triumphed by 12 runs.
“What were you thinking?” Blackie was asked about the stroke as he returned. He was honest enough in his response. “I was thinking how the boys will cheer when they see me hit him for six.” But that day White had won over Blackie and finished with figures of 64.5-21-126-8.
Bradman could not manage to win it for Australia that day. However, the innings he played on the final day did have its effects. Warwick Armstrong, who had voiced that he preferred Gordon Harris to Bradman on the eve of the third Test match, now admitted he had not judged Bradman correctly. He wrote: “He is a fine player, and will be a still finer one. Today he never allowed the crisis to worry him.”
Brief scores:
England 334 (Jack Hobbs 74, Herbert Sutcliffe 64, Wally Hammond 119; Clarrie Grimmett 5 for 102) and 383 (Wally Hammond 177, Douglas Jardine 98, Maurice Tate 47; Ron Oxenham 4 for 67) beat Australia 369 (Archie Jackson 164, Jack Ryder 63, Don Bradman 40; Maurice Tate 4 for 77, Jack White 5 for 130) and 336 (Alan Kippax 51, Jack Ryder 87, Don Bradman 58; Jack White 8 for 126) by 12 runs.
(Arunabha Sengupta is a cricket historian and Chief Cricket Writer at CricketCountry. He writes about the history of cricket, with occasional statistical pieces and reflections on the modern game. He is also the author of four novels, the most recent being Sherlock Holmes and the Birth of The Ashes. He tweets here.)
