Donald Bradman With The Australian Cricket Team in England in 1948 - First Test

First Test

Australia headed into the First Test at Trent Bridge starting on 10 June with ten wins and two draws from twelve tour matches, with eight innings victories. It was thought that Bradman would play a specialist leg spinner, but he changed his mind on the first morning when rain was forecast. Bill Johnston, a left-arm paceman and orthodox spinner, was played in the hope of exploiting a wet wicket. This was the only change from the teams that Australia had fielded in the matches against Worcestershire and the MCC. Yardley won the toss and elected to bat. Pundits predicted that the pitch would be ideal for batting apart from some assistance to fast bowlers in the first hour, as the surface of the pitch had become moist following overnight rain, assisting seam bowling. Australia's selection policy meant that their reserve opener Brown would bat out of position in the middle order while Barnes and Morris opened, while Neil Harvey was dropped despite making a century in Australia's most recent Test against India.

Despite an injury to pace spearhead Ray Lindwall, Bradman's fast bowlers reduced England in their first innings to 8/74 before finishing them off for 165. Bradman dropped two catches in this innings. English gloveman Godfrey Evans came to the crease with the score at 6/60, and hit Johnston hard to cover, where the ball went through Bradman for a boundary. The second chance went through Bradman's hand and struck him in the abdomen. However, these missed catches did not cost Australia much, as Evans was soon caught at short leg by Morris close in, leaving England at 7/74. England managed to recover somewhat after Laker and Bedser added 89 runs in only 73 minutes for the ninth wicket. At first, Bradman did not appear concerned by the partnership, and it was surmised that he may have been happy for England to continue batting so that his top order would not have to bat in fading light towards the end of the afternoon, but he became anxious as the total continued to mount and both Bedser and Laker appeared comfortable.

On the second day, Morris fell at 1/73 and Bradman came in to join Barnes. Yardley set a defensive field, employing leg theory to slow the scoring. He packed the leg side with fielders and ordered Alec Bedser to bowl at leg stump. Bradman almost edged the second ball onto his stumps, before defending uneasily for a period. While Jim Laker stopped the scoring at the other end, Bradman managed only four runs in his first 20 minutes. The Australian captain regarded Bedser as the finest seam bowler he faced in his career, and he batted in a circumspect manner as he sought to establish himself. At the other end, Bradman misjudged a ball from Laker and an incorrectly executed cut shot narrowly went wide of the slip fielder. Now aged 40, Bradman's reflexes had slowed and he no longer started his innings as confidently as he had done in the past.

The score progressed to 121 when Barnes fell to Laker. Miller came in and was dismissed for a duck without further addition to Australia's total. The hard-hitting Miller had come in at No. 4, a position usually occupied by the more sedate Hassett, indicating that Bradman may have been looking to attack, but the change in batting order failed. All the while, Australia had been scoring slowly, as they would throughout the day. Brown came in, but he looked unaccustomed to batting in the middle order. The Australian captain decided to hasten the new ball by using his feet to get to the pitch of the ball to attack the spinners, hitting them through the off side. Yardley took the second new ball, but this move backfired as Bradman struck his first boundary in over 80 minutes, and in the first 40 minutes after lunch, 43 runs were added. Yardley then took the second new ball. Bradman struck his first boundary in more than 80 minutes but the run rate remained low. Australia passed England's total before Yardley brought himself on to bowl and removed Brown. This ended a 64-run stand with Bradman in 58 minutes, and Hassett came in at 4/185. Following the departure of Brown, the Australian scoring slowed as Bradman changed the team strategy to one of attempting to bat only once.

Yardley continued to employ a leg side field, as he and Barnett bowled outside leg stump. During one over, Bradman did not attempt a single shot and then put his hands on his hips. During the 15 minutes before the tea break, Bradman did not add a single run and was heckled by the crowd for his lack of scoring. The Australian captain reached the tea break on 78, and 55 minutes after the resumption of play, he cover drove Bedser to reach his century in 218 minutes. It was his 28th Test century, and his 18th in Ashes Tests; the last 29 runs took 70 minutes. It was one of his slower innings as Yardley focused on stopping runs rather than taking wickets. Nevertheless Bradman had appeared comfortable after the early stages of his innings, and patiently scored most of his runs between mid-off and mid-on, often from the back foot. After the Australian captain had reached his milestone, many of the spectators began to leave the ground, content with what they had seen. Bradman added a further 30 in the last hour to end with 130. Australia batted to stumps on the second day without further loss, ending at 4/293, a lead of 128.

After the day's play, former Australian Test leg spinner Bill O'Reilly and former teammate of Bradman, now a journalist, consulted Bedser on his use of leg theory. O'Reilly had much experience in attacking leg stump in his career and helped Bedser refine his leg trap plan to ensnare Bradman.

On the third morning, amid sunshine, Bradman resumed on 130, before progressing to 132 and becoming the first player to pass 1,000 runs for the English season. The Australian captain was not aware of the reason for the spontaneous crowd applause until notified by wicket-keeper Evans. Bedser was bowling and soon implemented O'Reilly's variation of the leg trap. Hutton was moved from leg-slip to a squarer position at short fine leg, around 11 metres from the bat. Two short legs and a mid on were put in place. Bradman drove Bedser through cover for a boundary, but on the next ball, his innings was terminated at 138 when he glanced an inswinger from Bedser to Hutton at short fine leg, where he caught the ball without having to move. Bradman had batted for 290 minutes and faced 321 balls and Johnson replaced him with Australia at 5/305. Bedser waved to O'Reilly in the press box. When former Australian Test cricketer and journalist Jack Fingleton reported what his friend and former team-mate O'Reilly had done, there was some debate in the media as to whether O'Reilly's actions in advising Bedser were treacherous. Australia went on to end on 509 and take a 344-run first innings lead.

Although Lindwall was able to run between the wickets during Australia's innings, he did not take the field in the second innings and the 12th man Neil Harvey replaced him. However, Yardley was sceptical as to whether Lindwall was sufficiently injured to be forced from the field, but did not approach Bradman to object to Harvey's presence on the field. O'Reilly said that as Lindwall demonstrated his mobility during his innings, he was in no way "incapacitated" and that the English captain "must be condemned for carrying his concepts of sportsmanship too far" when no substitute was justified.

After lunch on day four, with England on 3/191, the light was poor with clouds gathering, although England did not appeal against it. Yardley wanted to bat in poor visibility so that he could build a lead, so that if a shower came later and turned the pitch into a sticky wicket, Australia would have to chase a target on an erratic surface. Bradman thought that rain might come so he utilised Ernie Toshack and Ian Johnson to bowl defensively with a leg side field so that England would not have a lead should rain and a sticky wicket arise. Wisden opined that "rarely can a Test Match have been played under such appalling conditions as on this day". Fingleton said the conditions were "pitiable" and "utmost gloom in which batsmen and fieldsmen had intense difficulty in sighting the ball". Australia eventually finished off the hosts' second innings for 441, leaving them a target of 98 on the final afternoon. Late in England's innings, Bradman raised eyebrows by deliberately giving centurion Denis Compton easy singles by spreading his fielders in order to bring Evans on strike so that he could be targeted. Compton thought that Evans could be relied upon and readily accepted the runs gifted to him by the Australian captain, and Evans continued to play confidently, eventually reaching 50.

Australia proceeded steadily to 38 from 32 minutes before Morris fell. Bradman came to the crease and stayed 12 minutes without getting off the mark. He was out for a duck from the 10th ball that he faced, caught again by Hutton at short fine leg in Bedser's leg trap. Bradman showed obvious displeasure at allowing himself to be dismissed by the same trap in consecutive innings, and his departure left Australia at 48/2. It was the first time in four tours to England that Bradman had made a duck in a Test. This left Australia 2/48, but they reached the target without further loss after 87 minutes of batting.

Between Tests, Bradman rested himself during the match against Northamptonshire, which started the day after the Test, as Hassett led Australia to victory by an innings. He returned for the match against Yorkshire. Bradman came in at 1/0 when Barnes fell for a duck and top-scored with 54 as Australia made 249. Bradman pulled many short balls and reached 50 in 76 minutes. After the hosts replied with 209, Bradman came in at 1/17 and put on 154 for the second wicket with Brown, ending with 86 as the match petered into a draw. His innings ended when Hutton caught him in the leg trap. Not wanting to tire his bowlers before the Second Test that started the day after next, Bradman showed little intent to win the match. The batsmen batted unhurriedly and set Yorkshire 329 for victory with only 70 minutes of play remaining and the hosts ended at 4/85. Yardley expressed his displeasure by allowing his part-timers to bowl and then promoting tail-enders to the upper half of the batting order in the second innings. The Australians were booed from the field by the spectators.