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

Second Test

Bradman opted to field an unchanged lineup for the Second Test, which started on 24 June at Lord's. Following his injury in the previous Test, Lindwall was subjected to a thorough fitness test on the first morning. Bradman was not convinced of Lindwall's fitness, but the bowler's protestations were sufficient to convince his captain to gamble on his inclusion. Bradman won the toss and elected to bat, allowing Lindwall further time to recover. Miller played, but was unfit to bowl.

Barnes fell for a duck in his second over, bringing Bradman to the crease at 1/3. Bradman received a loud reception from the crowd as he came out to bat in his final Test at Lord's. Bradman initially struggled against the English bowling. He faced his first ball from Alec Coxon and inside edged it past his leg stump, before missing the third ball from Coxon and surviving an appeal for leg before wicket (lbw). Bowling from the other end, Bedser beat Bradman with seam movement off the pitch and the ball narrowly skimmed past the stumps. Standing up to the stumps, wicket-keeper Godfrey Evans removed the bails as Bradman leaned forward, but his foot had stayed firmly behind the crease. In another close call, Bradman inside edged a ball towards Yardley at short leg, but the English captain was slow to react and the ball landed in front of him. The Australian captain managed only three runs in the first twenty minutes as Australia had only 14 after the first half-hour. Coxon consistently moved the ball into a cautious Bradman, and the Australians scored only 32 runs in the first hour.

Edrich came on and bowled a bouncer, which Bradman tried to swing to the leg side, but instead the edge went in the air and landed behind point. On 13, Bradman played a Bedser ball from his legs, narrowly evading Hutton in the trap at short fine leg. After one hour he was on 14. Bradman and Morris settled down as Coxon and Doug Wright operated. The Australian captain drove the debutant Coxon through the covers for two fours, and Yardley made frequent rotations of his bowlers. At the lunch break, Australia were 1/82 with Morris on 45 and Bradman 35. Shortly afterwards, in the third over after the resumption of play, with the score at 87, Bradman was caught for 38 for the third consecutive time in Tests by Hutton off Bedser at short fine leg, just two days after falling the same way in the second innings against Yorkshire. According to O'Reilly, this was evidence that Bradman was no longer the player he was before World War II, as he had been unable to disperse the close-catching fielders by counter-attacking, before eventually being dismissed. O'Reilly said that this was the first time that Bradman had fallen to the same trap three times in succession. Australia reached 7/258 at the end of day one, before a lower order burst took them to 350 on the second morning.

England then started their reply, and Lindwall took the new ball and felt pain in his groin again after delivering his first ball to Hutton. Despite this, Lindwall persevered through the pain. Seeing that Lindwall was able to bowl through the pain, Bradman tossed the ball to Miller for the second over to see if Miller could bowl. However, Miller threw the ball back, indicating that his body would not be able to withstand it. This resulted in media consternation that Bradman and Miller had quarrelled.

Although Bradman claimed that the exchange had been amicable, others disputed this. Teammate Barnes later claimed that Miller had retorted by suggesting that Bradman—a very occasional slower bowler—bowl himself. Barnes said that the captain "was as wild as a battery-stung brumby" and warned his unwilling bowler that there would be consequences for his defiance. According to unpublished writings in Fingleton's personal collection, Bradman chastised his players in the dressing room at the end of the play, saying "I'm 40 and I can do my full day's work in the field." Miller reportedly snapped "So would I—if I had fibrositis"; Bradman had been discharged from the armed services during World War II on health grounds, whereas most of the team had been sent into battle. Miller had crash-landed while serving as a fighter pilot in the Royal Australian Air Force in England and had suffered chronic back trouble since then.

On the second afternoon, Bradman delayed the taking of the second new ball until after tea so that Lindwall and Johnston could have an extra period of recuperation before a new attack. This proved dividends as the bowlers took a wicket apiece within three overs of the new ball being taken, leaving England at 6/134. England were bowled out for 215 on the third morning, as Lindwall took 5/70. In later years, Bradman told Lindwall that he pretended not to notice Lindwall's pain. Lindwall was worried that Bradman had noticed his injury, but Bradman later claimed that he feigned ignorance to allow Lindwall to relax. Australia batted much more productively in the second innings in ideal weather on the third day. Morris and Barnes put on 122 before the former fell for 62. Bradman joined Barnes at the crease for his last Test innings at the home of cricket. Yardley surrounded the Australian captain with fielders and Laker then beat his bat thrice in an over. Bedser was then introduced with the leg trap ploy again in place as he bowled on Bradman's pads. The Australian captain decided to negate the danger of being caught glancing at short fine leg by padding the ball away with his front leg. Bedser responded by changing his tactics by bowling a series of outswingers, beating the outside edge of Bradman's bat three times in a row, narrowly missing the off stump on one occasion. Barnes then manipulated the strike to shield his captain from Bedser. The Australian opener had little trouble against the leg trap, and negated the danger Bedser was posing. Bradman accelerated after tea and took two consecutive boundaries from Wright to bring up his fifty, with Barnes on 96 and Australia at 1/222.

Barnes passed his century and began accelerating before finally falling for 141, leaving Australia at 2/296 in 277 minutes, after a 174-run partnership with Bradman. Hassett was bowled first ball off the inside edge, but Miller survived a loud lbw appeal on Yardley's hat-trick ball. Bradman was on 89 and heading towards a century in his last Test innings at Lord's when he fell to Bedser again, this time because of a one-handed diving effort from Edrich. Bradman had been worried by Bedser's angle into his pads and the leg trap, but Bedser then moved the ball the other way towards the slips and caught Bradman's outside edge. It was the fourth time out of four innings in the series that Bedser had dismissed Bradman. This left Australia at 4/329 and the next day, Bradman was expected to declare just before lunch so that 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. The Australian captain declared on the following day of play at 7/460, 595 runs ahead. It would take a world record chase from England to win the match. England lost wickets regularly and fell for 186 to lose by 409 runs.

The next match was against Surrey and started the day after the Test. Australia elected to field and the hosts made 221. Brown injured a finger while fielding, and was not able to bat in Australia's first innings. Ron Hamence filled in as an opener but was out for a duck, so Bradman joined Hassett at 1/6. Bradman made 128 and put on 231 with Hassett (139) as Australia replied with 389. Bradman's innings took only 140 minutes with 15 fours and was described by Jack Fingleton as "lovely". In the second innings, Australia's makeshift openers Harvey and Sam Loxton chased down the 122 runs for victory to complete a 10-wicket win. Australia wanted to finish the run-chase quickly so they could watch the Australian tennis player John Bromwich compete at Wimbledon and after Bradman had accepted Harvey's offer to open, Australia made the runs in only one hour. Bradman rested himself in the following match against Gloucestershire before the Third Test. Hassett led the team as Australia reached 7/774 declared, its highest of the tour, underpinning an innings victory.