Third Test, 1948 Ashes Series - 8 July: Day One

8 July: Day One

The match started amid clear weather, a far cry from the previous Ashes Test at the ground in 1938, which was abandoned without a ball being bowled due to continuous rain for several days. The outfield was also smooth and green, a contrast to its state during World War II, when it was left cratered by Germany bombing raids. Yardley won the toss and elected to bat.

The change in England's opening pair did not result in an improvement on the scoreboard. A run out was narrowly avoided following a mix-up on the first ball, and Cyril Washbrook and Emmett appeared to be uncomfortable on a surface that offered early assistance to the bowlers. The Australians themselves started with Ray Lindwall and Bill Johnston taking the new ball, but Bradman had misjudged the breeze and had to swap his bowlers' ends. For this purpose, Loxton bowled a solitary over. He was erratic in his length and bowled three long hops outside leg stump at the debutant Emmett, who ignored the opportunity to attack and let the balls pass. At the other end, Washbrook also played watchfully and avoided any horizontal bat shots, apart from a missed cut against Johnston's bowling. Overall however, the English openers appeared comfortable in the first half hour of play.

With 22 runs on the board after half an hour of play, Washbrook played around a yorker from Johnston and was bowled, much to the disappointment of his Lancashire home crowd. Johnston had been bowling from over the wicket, and his left-arm deliveries had generally been swinging back into the right-handed Washbrook. However, the opening batsman did not detect Johnston's variation ball, which was released from wide of the crease and angled across more sharply without curling back in. Washbrook played inside the line of the ball, which hit his stumps. Australia nearly had two wickets in the same over as the new batsman Bill Edrich struggled. He played loosely outside the off stump to the first ball but did not get an edge, and on the third delivery he faced from Johnston, Edrich survived again. Receiving a ball on middle and leg stump, he tried to defend it straight back down the pitch, rather than the conventional stroke to the leg side, and managed to edge the ball past the slips for four.

Six runs after the fall of Washbrook, the diminutive Emmett fended a rising ball from Lindwall to Sid Barnes at short leg, leaving England 28/2. Surprised by Lindwall's bouncer, Emmett took his eyes from the ball and fended with one hand on the horizontally-held bat, while ducking his head down below his arms. The ball bounced slowly off the pitch and after hitting Emmett's bat, rebounded gently up in the air for Barnes to collect. In Australia's match against Gloucestershire immediately preceding the Test, Lindwall bowled a bouncer to Emmett, who hesitantly parried it away for a single. Lindwall did not deliver any more bouncers to Emmett during the match, and O'Reilly thought the paceman was quietly waiting until the Tests to expose his opponent's weakness against the short ball. O'Reilly concluded that Australia's pace duo "had again disposed of the English opening batsmen with the minimum amount of effort".

Edrich eschewed attacking strokeplay as he and Denis Compton attempted to establish themselves. He was hurried by the pace of Lindwall and Johnston, making many last-moment movements to either hit the ball or withdraw from a shot.

Lindwall bowled a series of short balls. One hit Compton on the arm and the batsman attempted to hook another bouncer, but edged it into his face. Upon hearing the umpire's call of no ball while the ball was travelling towards him, and knowing he was immune from dismissal, Compton decided to change his stroke. Having initially positioned himself to deflect the ball into the leg side, he then attempted to hook the ball, but could not readjust quickly enough. The velocity of the ball was such that it rebounded from his head and flew more than halfway to the boundary before landing. This forced Compton to leave the field with a bloodied eyebrow with the score at 33/2. After a ten-minute delay, Crapp strode to the centre for his debut innings, and he got off the mark from his first ball, gliding Lindwall past gully for a single. Lindwall then struck Edrich on the hand with another short ball, provoking angry heckling from spectators who compared him to Harold Larwood, a 1930s paceman who targeted batsmen with Bodyline, a strategy of intimidatory bowling. Edrich and Crapp then engaged in grim defensive play, resulting in one 25-minute period during which only one run was added, as England reached lunch with their total on 57/2. Edrich had made 14 from 90 minutes of batting, while Crapp had made 11 in 60 minutes. One of the motives of batting slowly without taking risks was to ensure the innings lasted long enough that it would still be in progress by the time Compton recovered from his concussion, so he could resume batting. Edrich appeared to be lacking in confidence due to his recent run of low scores, and thus hesitant to play with any attacking intent, whereas Crapp was usually circumspect. For a series of accurate overs from Ernie Toshack, Crapp repeatedly defended a sequence of deliveries to Arthur Morris at silly point. Toshack's first five overs were all maidens.

Upon the resumption, Crapp began to accelerate, hitting a six—which flew directly back over the bowler's head and over the sightscreen—and three driven boundaries from the off spin of Ian Johnson. This was a stark contrast to Johnson's first ten overs before lunch, which had yielded only seven runs. Crapp was eager to use his feet to get to the pitch of Johnson's deliveries, and subsequently dealt with the spin fairly comfortably, whereas many of his compatriots stood in their crease and found matters much more difficult. He then hit Toshack to Barnes at short leg, but the catch was dropped. However, Crapp did not capitalise as Toshack conceded only eight runs in a sequence of eight overs. Australia took the new ball with the score at 87 and Lindwall trapped Crapp—who did not offer a shot—leg before wicket for 37; the batsman misjudged the line of a straight ball and thought it had pitched and struck his leg outside off stump. Tom Dollery came in and took a single to get off the mark but then missed a Johnston yorker and was bowled. This dismissal mirrored that of Washbrook's in that Dollery failed to detect Johnston's variation ball, and thus played for swing when there was none. England had lost two wickets for one run to be 97/4. Captain Norman Yardley came in and played the fast bowling of Lindwall and Johnston with relative ease, retreating onto the back foot to allow himself more time to play his shots. Edrich was struck on the hand and Yardley edged to Keith Miller in the slips cordon on the half-volley.

After 170 minutes of slow batting, Edrich gloved a rising Lindwall delivery and was caught behind by wicket-keeper Don Tallon. At 119/5, Compton returned to the field, his head wound having been stitched to stop the bleeding. He and Yardley played carefully until the tea break, and only the England captain offered a chance; Barnes was unable to complete the reflex catch at short leg from the bowling of Toshack. After the resumption of play, Yardley on-drove Lindwall for a four, but lofted Ernie Toshack, who had been bowling leg theory, into the packed on-side where he was caught by Johnson at forward square leg. Toshack's defensive bowling had caused the English skipper to lose patience and his departure for 22 left the score on 141/6.

This brought wicket-keeper Godfrey Evans to the crease and exposed the hosts' lower-order. The last of the specialist batsmen, Compton nearly departed soon after when he leaned forward to a leg-side delivery from Johnson's off spin. He overbalanced and stumbled forwards, and Tallon removed the bails. There were no television replays to assist the umpires in those days, and although the attempted stumping appeared close to the naked eye, the benefit of the doubt was given to the batsman and the appeal rejected. Compton made use of this and attacked Toshack successfully, forcing Bradman to make a bowling change. In fading light, Compton combined with the gloveman to add 75 runs for the seventh wicket in 70 minutes, before Lindwall removed Evans—who attempted a wild slash—to leave England 216/7. Compton reached stumps on 64, accompanied by Alec Bedser, who was on four, as England ended the day at 231/7. Compton had been dropped one-handed on 50 by Tallon, before being missed on 64 by the wicket-keeper from the bowling of Johnston just before stumps.