This was the highest score ever made by an Australian in his first match in England, the best by a visitor in his first innings of an English tour and the highest score made by any batsman on his first tour of any other country. Bradman became the first Australian to score 1, runs in England before the end of May Bradman's brilliant scoring against the English Test side on the tour concerned the English officials, with good reason.
Returning to Australia, Bradman played in the series against the West Indies and in the series when South Africa toured Australia. For the tour of Australia, the English captain Douglas Jardine had conceived his infamous 'bodyline' strategy of bowling for Bowes, Larwood, Voce and Allen. However, Bradman was still able to amass the highest batting aggregate and average of the Australian players. In he was a member of the Australian side for the English Test tour and repeated his high scoring with another double century at Worcester and at Leeds in the Fourth Test.
Don Bradman and his wife came to Adelaide to live in For the return visit of England in , Bradman captained the Australian side. He was captain for the tour of England where he scored his third consecutive double century at Worcester.
He captained the Australian side for the tour by England that year and for the first Test series against an Indian side in Australia in In the latter series, he scored, in Sydney, his th century - the first Australian batsman to reach that milestone score. His last Test and role as Australian captain was the triumphant tour of England.
The Australians went through the tour undefeated. The Leeds Fourth Test was particularly memorable when Australia's innings score of for three wickets including Bradman's not out created a new record.
Never before had a team scored runs in its last innings to win a Test match. Bradman was praised for his leadership. However, on a flatter and more batting-friendly wicket in the third Test at the MCG, Bradman went on to score 79 and a his first hundred , but Australia went on to lose this Test too, and hence the series. Bradman looked to make amends to Australian fortunes, but the lack of experience cost him in the 4th innings run-chase as he was run-out for the first and only time in his career, for a score of 58 as Australia lost the 3rd Test by 12 runs, after coming heartbreakingly close to victory.
The Aussies won the 5th Test, a consolation after losses in the first four, as Bradman and Jack Ryder steered the victorious 4th innings chase. Before the Australians toured England, several columnists and experts questioned his unorthodox bottom-handed technique, deeming it unsound for English conditions and his promise unfulfilled. Bradman needed to do well for Australia to win, with a bowling side over-reliant on Grimmett.
No comments were made by Bradman in the build-up to the tour. It was the calm before the storm. Little did they know, that they had watched a demigod at an all-time low… 'He makes a mistake, then makes it again and again; he does not correct it, or look as if he were trying to do so. Australia started poorly, with a loss in the first Test, as Bradman scored a second-innings on a pitch that had flattened out considerably over the course of the match.
In the deciding Test at the Oval, Bradman scored the most difficult runs of his career. Harold Larwood, the express-pacer, made life difficult as the pitch was rendered venomous by the intermittent rain in the days of uncovered wickets.
The two-paced nature of the wicket demanded dogged batting, and powers of concentration that Bradman was now known for, on his way to a remarkable as Australia went on to win by an innings and regain the Ashes. Bradman went on to prove that his skills, although unlikely to work in these conditions, were so sharp that he was able to react late to every ball that he face, which in turn made him more lethal in English conditions that the traditional batsman; not to mention his unparalleled powers of concentration.
Bradman, averaging an absurd His Test average had shot to , and Donald George Bradman was the pride of Australia for bringing the Ashes back to the country - for a country that had been hit hard by the Great Depression, it was a source of sporting solace. More than 10, miles away, the English watched with unease, as they brewed an antidote for The Don. After England selected three extra pacers in their side, Bradman suspected some shrewd thinking on their part.
In the midst of the depression, he had other problems to deal with and averaged just 17 in his practice games against England as they unravelled their Bodyline tactics in just one of the games. Bradman returned for the second Test to a rousing ovation from the Australian crowd. In an anticlimactic turn of events, he anticipated the short ball first up and moved across the stumps to hook.
The ball, however, failed to rise and he was bowled off his first ball. The third Test at Adelaide was marred by drama. Bradman, however, found his own solutions to Bodyline, by backing away and stroking the ball into the off-side, with agricultural strokes developed for run-scoring purposes. He ended up scoring runs at He had defeated Bodyline. As corollaries to this law, several others were introduced later, including limiting the number of bouncers per over, and limiting the number of fielder behind square on the leg-side to two.
The Great Depression: Chapter 2 In the aftermath of the Bodyline series, Bradman went 13 innings without a century and struggled with his defensive strokes, fueling the rumors that his concentration had deserted him and that Bodyline had put him off his game. There were rumors that he was experiencing heart trouble, and Bradman was experiencing a career trough, with runs in 5 innings and the series level at With his reputation at stake, Bradman returned to his old self amidst a Sheffield Shield game with a score of It is a testament to his commitment that he declined an invitation from Neville Cardus after the first day of the 4th Test, citing the reason that his 'team needs him to score a double-century tomorrow'.
It is rumored that Cardus told him that the such an event was against the law of averages, as he had scored a in his previous appearance at Headingley. He went on to bat the entire second day, eventually being dismissed on the third after going one better and scoring as rain marred yet another likely win for the Aussies. After pulling out of the 4th Test due to fatigue, Bradman returned for the must-win fifth and put on a then-record partnership with Ponsford of runs, as Bradman scored to record a massive run win in the Timeless Test as Australia regained the Ashes once again after a heart-breaking loss in the Bodyline series.
Test Captaincy Bradman was awarded the Test captaincy of Australia, though he was surprisingly omitted from the side during the tour of South Africa. After Vic Richardson led the side to a win, a host of anti-Bradman players made their voices heard and there were calls of making Richardson full-time captain. It was reformed as a non-profit charitable trust first called the Bradman Foundation and then as the International Cricket Hall of Fame.
In , when the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame was created, Bradman was made one of its 10 inaugural members. Each of the members of the panel was able to select five cricketers: All voted for Bradman.
Three years before he died, Bradman became the first living Australian to be featured on an Australian postage stamp. After his death, the Australian Government produced a cent coin to commemorate his life. Sir Donald George Bradman or The Don, as the Australian cricketer is popularly known, is justifiably considered as the greatest Test batsman of all time. With a near perfect Test batting average of Share Via.
The Don emerges During the tour of England, with the series level , Bradman and Bill Ponsford sewed up a world record stand of in the fourth Test. Personal life Bradman met Jessie Martha Menzies in and they were married in Interesting facts 1. Sources: Wikipedia, famousauthors. Get our Daily News Capsule Subscribe. Thank you for subscribing to our Daily News Capsule newsletter.
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