Bill Johnston With The Australian Cricket Team in England in 1948 - Fourth Test

Fourth Test

In the Fourth Test at Headingley, England batted first on a pitch regarded as being ideal for strokeplay, and Australia's bowlers had little success on the first day. Early in the day, Johnston appeared to be having back problems. He had bowled the most overs of any bowler on the tour and his loss would have meant a heavy workload for his remaining colleagues. His apparent discomfort led onlookers to opine that he should have been given more rest in the county matches. After an opening partnership of 143, England consolidated to reach 1/268 in the last over of the day before Johnston removed Washbrook for 143. Johnston did not taste further success in the first innings and ended with 1/86 from 38 overs as the home team ended on 496, their highest score of the series.

In reply, Australia were still more than 100 runs behind when Johnston joined Lindwall with the score at 8/355, late on the third day. Lindwall hit out, scoring 77 in an innings marked by powerful driving and pulling, dominating the stand of 48 with Johnston, who made only 13. Johnston accompanied Lindwall for 80 minutes, before the injured Ernie Toshack survived the last 50 minutes until stumps, with Johnston running for him. Despite Toshack and Johnston’s lack of familiarity with having and acting as a runner respectively, and the resulting disorders in running between the wickets, Lindwall was able to manipulate the strike so he faced most of the balls. Johnston able to survive against the English pacemen with relative ease when he was batting, leading O’Reilly to lament the absence of leg spinner Doug Wright, whose guile and flight was held in high regard by the Australians. Lindwall was the last man out on the fourth morning with the total on 458, leaving Australia 38 runs in arrears on the first innings.

Australia lost the services of Toshack after he broke down with a knee injury in the first innings, increasing the burden on the remaining bowlers as England sought to extend their lead on the fourth day. For the second time in the match, Washbrook and Hutton put on a century opening partnership. After reaching 50, Washbrook hooked a short ball from Johnston and top edged it, but Bradman failed to take the catch. However, Washbrook soon repeated the shot from the bowling of Johnston with fatal results. The ball again went in the air, and Neil Harvey quickly ran across the ground and bent over to catch it at feet height while on the run, removing the opener for 65. Fingleton said that Harvey’s effort "was the catch of the season—or, indeed, would have been had Harvey not turned on several magnificent aerial performances down at The Oval ". O’Reilly doubted "whether any other player on either side could have made the distance to get to the ball, let alone make a neat catch of it". He further said the "hook was a beauty and the catch was a classic".

England moved to 4/277 when a mini-collapse occurred. Yardley made seven before he was removed by Johnston, caught by a leaping Harvey while attempting a big shot. Johnston then removed Ken Cranston, caught behind for a duck to leave England at 6/278. When Johnston removed Compton for 66, caught by Miller at cover, the hosts were 7/293 with no recognised batsmen remaining, having lost 4/33. England recovered to reach 8/362 at the close of the fourth day. The next day, Yardley declared at 8/365, leaving Johnston with the pick of the bowling figures, 4/95 from 29 overs. This left the tourists a target of 404 from 345 minutes. Australia went on to break the world record Test run-chase record by scoring 3/404 to take a 3–0 lead with 15 minutes to spare.

Johnston went on to play in the match against Derbyshire immediately after the Headingley Test, taking 3/41 and 1/35 as Australia enforced the follow on and won by an innings. He was rested for the next game against Glamorgan, which ended in a rain-affected draw without reaching the second innings. Johnston returned and took 2/41 in the first innings against Warwickshire, before taking 4/32 in the second innings, including three of the last five wickets, as the hosts fell from 5/118 to 155 all out. The left armer bowled almost unchanged during the second innings, sending down 39 of the 85.5 overs, including 16 maidens. His wickets included New Zealand Test batsman Martin Donnelly and Indian and Pakistani dual international Abdul Hafeez Kardar, as Australia went on to win by nine wickets. Johnston was then rested from two consecutive matches, against Lancashire and Durham, both of which were rain-affected draws.