Second Test, 1948 Ashes Series - 28 June: Day Four

28 June: Day Four

After the Sunday rest day, Australia resumed with a lead of 478 runs and six wickets in hand. The morning was punctuated by three rain stoppages, which increased England's chances of saving the game. Just ten minutes after the start of the day's play, heavy rain intervened. The weather cleared and Miller and Brown moved to lunch on 63 and 32 respectively, having advanced Australia to 409/4. Miller was given a life before lunch when he hit a ball high into the air; Dollery stood right under it and had ample time to prepare, but dropped the catch. In 88 minutes of play, Australia added a further 66 runs. During this time, the third new ball became available, but England opted not to use it immediately, as the wet and slippery ground had made it hard for the bowlers to grip the ball or run up to the crease with confidence; the hosts instead waited for drier conditions so they could exercise more control over the ball. However, after a period of using his slower bowlers, Yardley opted to take the new ball, and Miller hit three boundaries to pass 50, and both batsmen lifted their rate of scoring. It appeared that aside from the need to score quickly in preparation for the declaration, both players found the new ball easier to see than its muddied predecessor. Miller hooked Coxon repeatedly, and drove Bedser for many runs. Bradman was expected to declare just before lunch so he could attack the English openers for a short period before the adjournment, but a shower at this time deterred him from doing so, as his bowlers would have struggled to grip the ball; Lindwall had also been injured on a slippery surface in earlier times.

After the resumption of play, Brown was caught behind from Coxon for 32 without adding to his lunch score, ending an 87-run partnership with Miller, and bringing Lindwall to the crease at 416/5. Miller and Lindwall attacked at every opportunity before the declaration. Miller's innings was noted for its driving, and he was out for 74, playing a hook shot that was caught by Bedser at square leg from Laker in pursuit of quick runs. He was followed by Lindwall, who ran out of his crease in attempt to hit Laker across the line to the boundary, missed, and was stumped for 25, prompting Bradman to declare with Australia at 460/7 with a lead of 595 runs. The tourists had added 51 runs for the loss of three wickets in approximately an hour's batting after lunch. Yardley and Laker had been the only multiple wicket-takers, with two each. The Australians had punished the spinners the most, taking more than 3.50 runs per over from each of Wright, Laker and Compton. It would take a world record chase from England to win the match.

Yardley decided to use the medium roller to flatten out the surface, but further showers breathed more life into the pitch, forcing a rain break immediately after the start of England's run chase. The rain immediately stopped after the players returned to the pavilion, but upon promptly returning to the middle, the rain started again. The players returned after 15 minutes and played for approximately half an hour, before Washbrook and Hutton unsuccessfully appealed against the light. Rain then came again for another 40 minutes, which included the tea break. The weather cleared in time for the normal resumption of play at 4:30 after the scheduled adjournment.

When the players returned, Lindwall and Johnston extracted steep bounce with the new ball, troubling the English batsmen. However, Washbrook changed his tactics and decided to eschew the hook shot, even allowing some short balls to hit him on the body. Washbrook drove Johnston for three runs and then pulled Lindwall for a four, almost collecting Barnes—who was standing close in at short leg—in the nose. He proceeded to score England's first 16 runs. Lindwall dropped Hutton from Johnston's bowling before the English batsman had scored. Johnston usually moved the ball into the right-handed batsmen, but on this occasion the ball went straight on and took the outside of the edge of the bat. Hutton had trouble dealing with Lindwall, and played and missed multiple times in the deteriorating light, hampered by the lack of a sightscreen. Fingleton described it as "probably Hutton's worst effort in a Test". In a fidgety display, Hutton played loosely outside the off stump and missed four times in one Johnston over. O'Reilly said Hutton "seemed to have lost all power of concentration and looked like a man being led to the gallows", and that he "was little more than a masquerader compared to the Hutton ". Hutton took 32 minutes of batting to score his first run of the innings.

Hutton and Washbrook took the score to 42, England's highest opening partnership of the series thus far, before the former edged Lindwall to Johnson in the slips and was out for 13. Edrich and Washbrook were then subjected to repeated short balls, and the latter was hit several times on the fingers while fending down Lindwall's bouncers, having decided to avoid the hook shot. Edrich ducked so low and so quickly that the top of the stumps could often be seen behind his back. Soon after, Toshack removed both Edrich and Washbrook in quick succession to leave England at 65/3. Edrich, having played only one scoring shot in the preceding 20 minutes, edged an overpitched delivery to Johnson low down in the slips, and decided to stand his ground after the catch was taken. The batsman thought he may have hit a bump ball into the ground before it flew to Johnson, but the umpire ruled otherwise and gave him out. Tallon then took a difficult catch to remove Washbrook. Washbrook inside edged a Toshack full toss directly downwards at Tallon's ankle. Bradman described the catch as "miraculous" because Tallon had to reach so low, so quickly, in order to take the catch. Up until this point, Washbrook had been beginning to find some fluency and was striking the ball confidently. Arlott speculated that Edrich and Washbrook may have lost concentration after Lindwall was replaced by Toshack, lulled into a false sense of security once Australia's leading bowler was no longer operating. However, Compton and Dollery added 41 in the last 30 minutes to take England to 106/3 at the close of play. Compton was on 29 and Dollery 21. The latter was particularly fluent in scoring on the leg side and he defied the Australian bowlers resolutely. Lindwall was brought back to put pressure on Dollery, having bowled him for a duck in the first innings, but the batsman had already been in the middle for a short period, and played the pace bowling with more assurance in the second innings.