Early Tour
In the lead-up to the match against Worcestershire, photographers and cameramen constantly followed Lindwall, trying to capture visual evidence of an illegal drag when he was bowling in the practice nets. Bradman tried to stop the journalists from taking photographs of the crease as Lindwall came in to bowl, and deflected media questions about his bowler's drag. The spectators and media were keenly observing the position of his foot in the tour opener, but Lindwall was not no-balled in the first match at Worcester, and complaints about his drag faded away for the rest of the tour. The hosts elected to bat first, and Lindwall took 2/41 in the first innings, bowling and trapping his victims leg before wicket before delivering three wicketless overs for 19 runs in the second innings. Lindwall took a wicket with his second ball in England, trapping Don Kenyon for a duck to leave the hosts at 1/0. He was promoted to No. 4 as Bradman rotated his batting order and he scored a quickfire 32 from 34 balls with six boundaries before Australia completed an innings victory. According to former Australian Test batsman and journalist Jack Fingleton, Lindwall "took things very quietly ... The fast bowler is very wise who builds up his speed match by match". With the media and public attention now focused on actual bowling, Lindwall's classical bowling action evoked almost as much interest as his captain's batting.
Bradman rested Lindwall for the second tour match against Leicestershire, which ended in an innings victory for the Australians. Lindwall returned for the next fixture against Yorkshire at Bradford, but bowled only nine overs for a total of 1/16. He made a duck in the first innings on a damp pitch favourable to slower bowling, as Australia scraped home by four wickets. Lindwall was due in next when Australia collapsed to 6/31 in pursuit of 60 for victory in the second innings. The tourists were effectively seven wickets down with the injured Sam Loxton unable to bat, but Neil Harvey and Don Tallon saw Australia to the target without further loss. It was the closest Australia came to defeat for the whole tour. The Australians travelled to London to play Surrey at The Oval. They batted first and Lindwall managed only four, clean bowled by Alec Bedser, as Australia amassed 632. He then took the first two wickets to reduce Surrey to 2/15 in the first innings. Bradman used Lindwall sparingly, taking a match total of 3/45 from 25 overs as Surrey were defeated by an innings. Fingleton felt that Lindwall was at his fastest for the season during the Surrey match. One of Lindwall's bouncers flew over three feet above the batsman's head.
Lindwall had another light workout in the match against Cambridge University, taking match figures of 1/33 from nine overs. His solitary wicket was that of Doug Insole, and he was not required to bat as Australia completed another innings victory. After the fixture against Cambridge, Lindwall was rested for two consecutive matches. In the first, Australia crushed Essex by an innings and 451 runs, its largest winning margin for the summer. The second match resulted in another innings victory, this time over Oxford University.
Lindwall was brought back for the match against the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) at Lord's. The MCC fielded seven players who would represent England in the Tests, and were basically a full strength Test team, while Australia selected their first-choice team. It was a chance for the Australian pace attack to gain a psychological advantage ahead of the Tests, with Len Hutton, Denis Compton and Bill Edrich—three of England's first four batsmen—all playing. Australia batted first and Lindwall scored 29, including three sixes from the bowling of England Test off spinner Jim Laker. After Australia amassed 552, Lindwall took combined figures of 2/68, removing Compton and England and MCC captain Norman Yardley as the tourists enforced the follow on by an innings and 158 runs. The MCC fixture was followed by Australia'a first non-victory of the tour against Lancashire. After the first day was washed out, Lindwall made a duck and then took 3/44, removing Test players Ken Cranston and Jack Ikin during the hosts’ only innings. He was not required to bat in the second innings as the match petered into a draw on the final day.
In the next match against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge, Lindwall took 6/14 to gain a psychological blow ahead of the First Test to be held at the same venue. After taking the first four wickets and cutting through the top-order, the paceman returned to finish off the tail and ensure the hosts were dismissed for 179. Lindwall bowled three of his victims with fast and swinging yorkers. He delivered 91 balls, conceding less than a run per over. Only ten of his balls were scored from and not a single run was taken from his last 30 balls. Fingleton said that Lindwall "absolutely paralysed" the batsmen, with some of his bowling "in the real Larwood manner". Harold Larwood was a Nottinghamshire express pace bowler of the 1920s and 1930s who led the controversial Bodyline attack in Australia in 1932–33, and Lindwall modelled his bowling action on Larwood after seeing him in action at the Sydney Cricket Ground during the tour. Lindwall could only manage eight runs with the bat and was unable to repeat his incisive bowling in the second innings, sending down 14 wicketless overs as the match ended in a draw.
Lindwall was rested for Australia’s eight-wicket win over Hampshire, before returning in the following match against Sussex. Bowling with a tailwind, he took two early wickets before returning to remove the last four batsmen to fall. Five of Lindwall's opponents were bowled as he ended with 6/34 from 19.4 overs; the hosts were dismissed for 86. During the tourists' reply, Bradman promoted Lindwall to No. 4 and he came to the wicket at 2/342, scored 57 and put on 93 runs with Neil Harvey, who scored an unbeaten 100 as Australia declared at 5/549. Lindwall then broke through with two early wickets to leave Sussex at 2/2, and went on to finish with 5/25 in 15 overs as the home side were bowled out for 138, handing Bradman’s men a victory by an innings and 325 runs in two days. He ended with match figures of 11/59, with eight of his victims being bowled, five of these by swinging yorkers, unable to counter Lindwall’s swerving deliveries. Fingleton said that "Lindwall bundled the stumps over in all directions" as Sussex "crumpled completely ... in as depressing a batting performance as the tour knew".
Read more about this topic: Ray Lindwall With The Australian Cricket Team In England In 1948
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