Don Tallon - Style

Style

Regarded as one of Australia's finest ever wicket-keepers, Tallon was lean and relatively tall for a wicket-keeper, standing 180 cm. Tallon's high acclaim among cricket pundits derived from his style, rather than raw statistics. In 21 Tests, Tallon kept wicket in 41 innings, making 58 dismissals at an average of 1.41 per innings. Modern Australian glovemen such as Rod Marsh and Ian Healy, both of whom held the Test world record for dismissals, averaged closer to two. Tallon's Test batting average of 17.13 pales in comparison to that of contemporary wicket-keepers such as Australia's Adam Gilchrist and Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara, both of whom have made a double century and more than ten centuries. English wicket-keepers from two decades after World War II such as Godfrey Evans and Jim Parks scored two Test centuries apiece and averaged substantially more than Tallon.

Tallon had an understated style, which was without flourish or flamboyancy. He was known for his anticipation of the flight, length and spin of the ball. He was particularly regarded for his stumping efficiency and his ability to catch balls down the leg side. Tallon often stood up to the stumps for medium pace bowlers and his stumping was highlighted by his textbook technique of lifting the bails without disturbing the stumps (pictured). Tallon's crouch was more pronounced than most other keepers and he rebounded upwards further and faster than others. He had a particularly smooth and graceful catching technique that left his hands undamaged from the ball's impact, the injury in England in 1948 being a notable exception that proved the rule. In recognising him as one of their five Cricketers of the Year in the 1949 Wisden, the Almanack noted that his hands resembled those of a violinist, while Bradman noted that all his "fine, longer fingers were intact" as though he had not played much cricket. According to his English counterpart Godfrey Evans, Tallon was the "best and most nimble keeper ever" while Australian team-mate Alan Davidson called him the "Bradman of keepers". Due to financial reasons, Tallon could not afford new equipment and he used an outdated pair of iron-coated gloves for most of his career.

Strong driving and quick scoring were hallmarks of his batting, made possible by his swift footwork. According to Bradman, Tallon's batting was "attacking, positive and with a technique to rival most first-class batsmen". This led Bradman to select Tallon in his all-time best XI. Tallon was a vociferous and frequent appealer behind the stumps, something that led to complaints from opposition batsmen who felt that the pressure he exerted was unfair.