Sid Barnes With The Australian Cricket Team in England in 1948 - Second Test

Second Test

Australia opted to field an unchanged lineup for the Second Test at Lord's, the home of cricket. Before the match, Barnes wagered £8 at 15/1 on himself to score a century, and trained especially diligently in the lead-up to the Lord's fixture. He was motivated because the Australian Board of Control had given his wife rare permission to attend the match, and the refusal of the authorities at Lord's to allow him to practise there when he was in London a year earlier; Barnes saw a strong personal performance as an ideal response to what he regarded as a snub. On the first morning, Bradman won the toss and elected to bat, and Barnes continued his run of low scores since the First Test. The first over bowled by Bedser to Barnes was watchfully played to complete a maiden. The debutant Alec Coxon opened the bowling with Bedser and removed Barnes for a duck in his second over, caught by Len Hutton at short fine leg. Barnes tried to knock the short delivery through square leg but misjudged the pace of the wicket and played his shot too early, mishitting the ball to Hutton, and leaving Australia at 1/3. They eventually reached 350 and bowled England out for 215 early on the third day.

The weather was fine as Australia started their second innings just after noon. On the second ball of the innings—bowled by Bedser—Barnes got off the mark to avoid his pair. Coxon took the new ball at the other end and Barnes and Morris saw it off. In contrast to their English counterparts, the Australian opening pair began cautiously, avoiding the hook shot and not playing at balls that were not going to hit the stumps, establishing a solid start for themselves. Keen to win his bet, Barnes was particularly determined. He survived a stumping opportunity from Laker when he was 18; he came down the pitch and the ball bounced out of the footmarks past the bat and narrowly missed the leg stump, but Evans fumbled the ball, which went away for four byes, giving Barnes a life. Barnes took advantage of the let-off to combine with Morris for an opening stand of 122, as Yardley made frequent bowling changes in an attempt to disrupt the Australian pair. Morris stopped shuffling, while Barnes adopted a strategy of pre-emptively moving down the pitch to attack the off spin of Laker. Earlier in the tour, Barnes had often been bowled or trapped leg before wicket (lbw) while trying to force off breaks into the leg side from the crease. On this occasion, he drove Laker into the pavilion for six and Australia reached 0/73 at the luncheon adjournment with Barnes on 25, an overall lead of 208. After lunch, Morris was bowled for 62. Bradman joined Barnes and the Australian skipper played and missed a few times before settling down. Barnes responded to his captain's difficulties by manipulating the strike and shielding Bradman from Bedser. The Australian opener had little trouble against the leg trap Bedser set for him, scoring freely into the leg side and taking the shine off the second new ball. Generally however, Barnes also scored sedately after lunch, and after one extended period of defence, he drove Laker for four through the covers, eliciting a round of ironic applause. Barnes responded to the public gallery by placing his hand on his chest and bowing to the spectators. Barnes had started slowly, but accelerated after reaching his half-century. He reached 96 with Australia at 1/222 half an hour after tea. By this time, the pace of the pitch appeared to have slowed, making batting relatively easy.

Barnes lingered for a further ten minutes on 96 before reaching his century with a straight drive from Laker. He had taken 255 minutes and hit ten fours in reaching triple figures. Having registered his century and fulfilled his bet, Barnes became particularly aggressive. He stepped out of his ground to attack Laker, but missed, as did Evans, who was unable to stop the ball as it spun down the leg side. Barnes dispatched one Laker over for 21 runs, including two consecutive shots over the long on boundary and two fours. Barnes was finally removed for 141, caught on the boundary by Cyril Washbrook from the bowling of Yardley. He struck 14 boundaries and two sixes in his innings and the speed of his batting had allowed Australia to reach 2/296 in 277 minutes after a 174-run partnership with Bradman. Hassett was bowled first ball, so Miller came to the crease at 3/296 to face the hat-trick ball. He survived a loud lbw appeal to deny Yardley his hat-trick; Australia consolidated and eventually declared at 7/460 on the fourth day.

England faced a target of 596, which would have required a world record Test run-chase—no team had successfully chased down more than 400 for victory. Early on, Washbrook pulled Lindwall for a four, almost collecting Barnes in the nose in his customary short leg position. Australia bowled out the hosts for 186 to win by 409 runs and take a 2–0 lead.

The next match was against Surrey and started the day after the Test. After 16 days of cricket in 20 calendar days, Barnes was rested as Australia completed a 10-wicket win. Barnes returned for the following game against Gloucestershire. The tourists elected to bat first and Barnes—playing many square cuts—made 44 in an opening partnership of 102 with Morris, who went on to top-score with 290. Australia reached 7/774 declared, its highest score for the tour, laying the groundwork for a victory by an innings and 363 runs. When Australia was fielding, Barnes was not at his characteristic close-range position, but spent much of the time at third man or fine leg near the edge of the playing arena. At times, Barnes wandered about aimlessly between various positions, but Hassett, captaining in place of the resting Bradman, did not attempt to command him.