Second Test, 1948 Ashes Series - 29 June: Day Five

29 June: Day Five

The final day started poorly for England; after failing to hit a leg stump full toss for a boundary from the first ball of the day, Compton edged Johnston to a diving Miller at second slip from the second ball of the morning. Compton had aimed a square drive, but the delivery was Johnston's variation ball, which went away instead of into the batsman. It took the outside edge and flew to a diving Miller, who knocked the ball upwards before falling on his back and completing the catch as the ball went down. Compton stood his ground and waited for the umpire to confirm whether Miller had caught the ball cleanly, and was duly given out by the unhesitating official. O'Reilly described Miller's effort as "perhaps the very best slips catch of the whole series and ... a real match-winner." England had lost a wicket without adding to their overnight total.

Yardley and Dollery took the score to 133 before Toshack bowled the former for 11. He trapped the new man Coxon two balls later in the same over for a duck, leaving England at 133/6. Coxon shuffled across his stumps and missed his first delivery, which hit him in front of the stumps and prompted a loud lbw appeal, and did the same thing to the next ball. During this spell, Toshack conceded only seven runs from eight overs, but was taken off as Bradman wanted to take the new ball and utilise Lindwall and Johnston. In the meantime, Dollery had continued to bat effectively, watching the ball closely onto his bat, and scoring three leg side boundaries from Johnston's bowling. Eight runs after Coxon's dismissal, Dollery shaped to duck a Lindwall bouncer, but it skidded through low and bowled him. Lindwall bowled Laker without scoring later in the same over to leave England at 141/8. Evans continued to resist stubbornly, remaining 24 not out as England were bowled out for 186 to cede a 409-run victory. Johnston had Bedser caught by Hassett for nine before Wright hit Toshack to Lindwall for four.

Toshack ended the innings with 5/40, while Lindwall and Johnston took 3/61 and 2/62 respectively. The dominance of Australia's three-man seam attack was such that the off spinner Johnson bowled only two of the 78.1 overs. Arlott said that while Toshack had the best figures, Lindwall was the pivotal figure. He said that when Lindwall "so patently disturbed Hutton he struck a blow at the morale of the English batting that was never overcome." O'Reilly said England's second innings "had developed into an undignified scramble" and had allowed the Australian bowlers to pick up wickets as though they were playing against a weak county team. He blamed the low standards of county cricket for allowing English batsmen to accumulate large tallies of runs easily while not testing them against formidable bowling. O'Reilly said they had become soft after many matches against weak opposition, which had not forced them to concentrate as intensely as they would have had to in Test cricket. The gross attendance was 132,000 and receipts were £43,000—a record for a Test in England.