Don Bradman’s scoring rates in relation to his team and opponents

 

Don Bradman consistently scored higher than his team Australia and his opponents in Test cricket. In his 52-Test career spanning 11 series, he scored at a rate of 3.70 runs per over, while Australia scored at 2.90 runs per over and opposing teams managed 2.30 runs. This is adjusted for six-ball overs as there were eight-ball overs during home series in 1936-37, 1946-47 and 1947-48. Balls faced by batsmen were not recorded during the 1930-31 and 1931-21 series, hence approximate scoring rates were arrived at based on over-rates.

In fact Bradman scored much faster than his team as well as opponents in every series except his last in 1948 against England when he scored at 2.77 runs per over, marginally less than his team’s rate of 2.79 but well ahead of England’s 2.32. In that series, Bradman scored at 29.08 runs an hour with an average of 21 overs bowled every hour. Bradman’s lowest scoring-rate was in his debut series in 1928-29 against England when he scored at a rate of 2.53 runs per over, which was still far ahead of Australia’s rate of 2.19 and England’s 2.30. Bradman clocked 28.50 runs per hour as an average of 22.50 overs an hour were wheeled down. These were the most overs bowled every hour during his career.

In his other nine series Bradman scored higher than 3 runs and 4 runs an over, and more than 30 and 40 runs an hour. In that landmark 1930 series in England when he amassed a record 974 runs, Bradman cruised at 3.69 runs an over. Australia averaged 2.71 runs per over, while England were marginally behind at 2.66. The highest scoring rate of Bradman’s Test career was in the next series in 1930-31 at home against the West Indies when he raced at 4.72 runs per over. Australia scored at 3.29 runs an over, while the West Indies eked out 2.37 runs. Bradman blasted 47.21 runs an hour while an average of 20 overs were sent down every hour.

The Don kept scoring merrily, much quicker than his team and the opponents, who were invariably slower than Australia. Doubtlessly, the Australian scoring rate was boosted by Bradman’s aggressive batsmanship. The lowest over-rate by opponents during Bradman’s career was in the Bodyline series in 1932-33 when England bowled just 16.71 over an hour. This might have been as a result of constant adjustment in field placings.

In sum, Bradman’s average of 3.70 runs per over during his Test career, churning out 37 runs an hour, was in an era when the bowlers clocked 20 overs an hour. Bradman hit up an average of 222 runs in a six-hour day. This helped Australia pile up 348 runs. Don Bradman was not just a run-machine as some would have it; he was an entertainer who turned his side into an all-conquering one. No wonder his 1948 team was called ‘The Invincibles’.

     

Bradman's 1948 Invincibles.

(Source: Indra Vikram Singh’s book ‘Don’s Century’, a cricketing biography of Don Bradman and a panorama of batting from the 1860s to present times).

Don’s Century

Published in India by Sporting Links

ISBN 978-81-901668-5-0

Fully illustrated

Paperback French Fold 11 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches

Weight 480 grams

188 pages

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