Arthur Morris With The Australian Cricket Team in England in 1948 - Second Test

Second Test

In the Second Test at Lord's, Australia elected to bat first and England made an ideal start. The debutant Alec Coxon opened the bowling and removed Barnes for a duck in his second over to leave the tourists at 1/3. England restricted the Australians in the first hour and created several near misses, particularly against Bradman, who nervous early on. In contrast, Morris was playing fluently and scored many runs from the back cut. At the end of the pace bowlers’ opening spells, the leg spin of Doug Wright was introduced and Australia cut loose. Wright bowled a no ball that Morris dispatched over the leg side fence for six, before hitting another ball for four. Bradman and Morris settled down as Coxon and Wright operated steadily, although the latter was able to extract substantial spin, hitting Morris in the stomach with a ball that turned in sharply from outside off stump. At lunch, Australia were 1/82 with Morris on 45 and Bradman on 35.

Shortly afterwards, with the score at 87, Bradman was caught for the third consecutive time in Tests in Bedser's leg trap. Len Hutton—who took the catch—had dropped Bradman in the same position when the Australian captain was on 13. At the other end, Morris began to take control. He drove the ball through the covers and clipped it off his pads through the leg side. Morris reached his century with consecutive boundaries from Coxon. Fingleton called the innings "a pretty Test century in the grandest of all cricket settings". This ended a run of poor form for Morris, a period during which he had shuffled uncertainly on the crease without moving forward or back decisively. O'Reilly called it Morris's best Test century to date, as this was the strongest English attack he had faced during his career, and because of the loss of wickets at the other end. O'Reilly said Morris had been disciplined in not playing loose shots outside off stump and missing or edging them, yet still being able to score quickly at every opportunity. Morris was out soon after for 105 from 166 balls, after hitting Coxon to Hutton in the gully to leave Australia at 3/166. His innings included 14 fours and one six, and was noted for powerful, well-placed cover drives. With Morris gone, Australia fell to 7/258 at stumps, before the lower order counterattacked on the second morning and took the total to 350. Bradman’s team took a 135-run lead after dismissing England for 215.

The weather was fine as Australia started their second innings on the third morning. The Australian openers took a cautious approach to begin with, avoiding the hook shot and not playing at balls that were not going to hit the stumps, looking for a solid start. Both openers were given early reprieves. Barnes survived a stumping opportunity when he was 18. Laker came on and induced Morris into hitting an airborne ball back down the pitch, but he was slow to react to the possibility of a caught and bowled. According to O'Reilly, most other bowlers would have been able to reach the ball and attempt a catch. The openers took advantage to combine for an opening stand of 122. Wright came on and again bowled a no ball at the start of his spell, which Morris lofted into the crowd for six. After shuffling around with uncertainty at the start of his innings, Morris began to play more fluently. He was eventually bowled for 62, knocking a ball from Wright onto his stumps. The opening partnership laid the platform for Australia's 7/460 declared, which allowed them to set an imposing target of 596 and win by 409 runs to take a 2–0 series lead.

Morris was rested by Bradman for the second match against Surrey, which started the day after the Test and ended in a ten-wicket victory for the Australians. The following match was against Gloucestershire at Bristol, and in only five hours on the first day, Morris scored his career best of 290. Having lost the first two Tests, England were contemplating changes to their team: Tom Goddard was earmarked to replace Jim Laker as the off spinner after performing strongly in county cricket, while Laker had struggled in the Second Test. The English hoped Goddard would be the strike bowler to cut through Australia's strong batting line-up. Morris's assault ended Goddard's hopes of Test selection. His innings was highlighted by his quick assessment of the length of the ball, followed by decisive footwork. Morris confidently advanced out of the crease when the ball was of a full length to drive and rocked onto the back foot to and cut if Goddard dropped short. Unable to contain Morris, Goddard packed the leg side field and bowled outside leg stump. Morris responded by stepping down the wicket towards the leg side, charging the bowler and repeatedly lofting the ball inside out over the off side. He reached his century before lunch and his 200 by the tea interval. By the time Morris was dismissed, he had struck 40 fours and a six. He put on stands of 102 with Barnes, 136 with Keith Miller and 162 with Neil Harvey before falling with the score at 4/466. Fingleton said "Morris flayed it in all directions", while former English Test paceman Maurice Tate said "Tom is not used to batsmen using their feet to him ... the county batsmen diddle and diddle to him and that gets him many wickets." Australia amassed 5/560 on the first day before declaring at 7/774, their largest score of the tour and the second highest by any Australian team on English soil. Morris took a match total of 1/35 as Australia won by an innings.