Ray Lindwall With The Australian Cricket Team in England in 1948

Ray Lindwall With The Australian Cricket Team In England In 1948

Source: ], 18 December 2008

Ray Lindwall was a key member of Donald Bradman's famous Australian cricket team, which toured England in 1948. The Australians went undefeated in their 34 matches; this unprecedented feat by a Test side touring England earned them the sobriquet The Invincibles.

Lindwall played as a right-arm opening fast bowler and right-handed batsman in the lower middle-order. Along with Keith Miller, Lindwall formed Australia's first-choice pace duo, regarded as one of the best of all time, and Bradman typically used them in short and sharp bursts against the home batsmen with the new ball. The pair were used to target England's leading batsmen, Len Hutton and Denis Compton during the major matches, and subdued Hutton for much of the summer. England had agreed to make a new ball available after every 55 overs, more often than the usual regulations at the time, thereby allowing the pair more frequent use of a shiny ball that swung at high pace. Bradman gave the duo lighter workloads in the tour matches in order to preserve their energy for the new ball battles against England’s key batsmen in the Tests. Lindwall was a capable lower-order batsman who made two Test centuries during his career, and he featured in several rearguard actions that boosted Australia's scores during the tour.

Lindwall was the equal leading wicket-taker in the Tests (27 along with Bill Johnston) and had the best bowling average (19.62) and strike rate. In the first-class matches, he led the averages although he was second in the wicket-taking list with 86 at 15.68 behind Johnston (102), who was assigned more of the workload in order to keep Miller and Lindwall fresh for the Tests. With the bat, Lindwall scored 191 runs at a batting average of 31.83 in the Tests.

Lindwall's most influential contributions in the Ashes matches were his 5/70 in the first innings of the Second Test at Lord's, a hard-hitting 77 that limited Australia's first innings deficit in the Fourth Test at Headingley, and most notably, his 6/20 on the first day of the Fifth Test at The Oval. The performance was a display of extreme pace and swing that earned high praise from pundits and was largely responsible for England being bowled out for 52. Outside the Tests, Lindwall took 11/59 in a match against Sussex, with eight of his victims being bowled as the ball curved through their defences at high pace. In recognition of his achievements, Lindwall was chosen as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year. Wisden said that "by whatever standard he is judged ... must be placed permanently in the gallery of great fast bowlers".