Observations of the doyen of writers Neville Cardus on Don Bradman

 

The doyen of writers, Sir Neville Cardus, was in the press box when Don Bradman scored his 334 at Leeds in 1930. He wrote later in his book Play Resumed with Cardus: “At Leeds Bradman announced his rights to mastership in a few swift moments. He made 72 runs in his first hour at the wicket, giving to us every bit of cricket excepting the leg-glance. Every fine point of batsmanship was to be admired; strokes powerful and swift and accurate and handsome; variety of craft controlled with singleness of mind and purpose. Bradman was as determined to take no risks, as was to hit boundaries from every ball the least loose. And his technique is so extensive and practised that he can get runs at the rate of 50 an hour, without once needing to venture romantically into the realms of the speculative or the empirical.”

Countering the criticisms of Bradman, Neville Cardus put forward his argument with customary finesse: “People say ‘Oh, but he hasn’t the charm of McCabe, or the mercury of MacCartney, or the dignity of Hammond; the objection is a little unintelligent, as though a lion was criticized for lacking the delicacy of the gazelle, the worrying tenacity of the terrier and the disdainful elegance of a swan or a camel.”

Cardus summed up his views of Bradman with his famous observation, “Bradman’s achievements stagger the imagination. No writer of boys’ fiction would dare to invent a hero who performed with Bradman’s continual consistency. His batsmanship delights one’s knowledge of the game, his every stroke is a dazzling and precious stone in the game’s crown”.

(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

 

Available on Amazon at an attractive price: https://www.amazon.in/dp/8190166859  

Indra Vikram Singh's other books available on Amazon: 

https://www.amazon.in/s?k=Indra+Vikram+Singh&i=stripbooks&rh=p_6%3AA3HSV0N9AV7NOK&dc&qid=1602408830&rnid=1318474031&ref=sr_nr_p_6_1

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

Available on Amazon at an attractive price: https://www.amazon.in/dp/8190166859  

Indra Vikram Singh's other books available on Amazon: 

https://www.amazon.in/s?k=Indra+Vikram+Singh&i=stripbooks&rh=p_6%3AA3HSV0N9AV7NOK&dc&qid=1602408830&rnid=1318474031&ref=sr_nr_p_6_1

Review of Indra Vikram Singh's book 'Don's Century' in The Hindu

(Author Indra Vikram Singh can be contacted on email singh_iv@hotmail.com).

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

Available on Amazon at an attractive price: https://www.amazon.in/dp/8190166859  

Indra Vikram Singh's other books available on Amazon: 

https://www.amazon.in/s?k=Indra+Vikram+Singh&i=stripbooks&rh=p_6%3AA3HSV0N9AV7NOK&dc&qid=1602408830&rnid=1318474031&ref=sr_nr_p_6_1

 

K.S. Duleepsinhji’s views on Bradman. Excerpt from Indra Vikram Singh’s book ‘Don’s Century’

K.S. Duleepsinhji, Don Bradman and Lala Amarnath during India's tour of Australia in 19478-48

There were no Test matches in Australia during the next season of 1929-30, though Arthur Gilligan’s M.C.C. side stopped by to play a few first-class matches en-route to New Zealand for the inaugural Test series there.

Totally focused on the first-class game, Bradman broke Bill Ponsford’s world record score of 437 made two seasons earlier. He hit up 452 in just 415 minutes, having struck 49 boundaries, for New South Wales against Queensland at Sydney. 

In 78 years since then, this score has been passed only twice, by Hanif Mohammad, who was run out for 499 in 1958-59, and Brian Lara, who was undefeated with 501 in 1994. Bradman amassed 1586 runs during that 1929-30 season at an average of 113.28 with 5 centuries in just 11 matches.

K.S. Duleepsinhji was in Gilligan’s team and, along with his teammates was constantly accosted for his opinion on this new star, Don Bradman.

Nearly a quarter century later, Duleepsinhji wrote in the Indian Cricketer Annual: “We of the 1929-30 touring team, most of us not much older than Bradman himself, believed that Bradman was not likely to do well on the wet wickets of England owing to his tendency to play with a slightly crooked bat at the time of impact with the ball, besides his fondness for gliding a ball off the leg-stump to fine-leg and driving the ball pitched almost on the middle-stump past mid-on. We considered that these strokes would prove fatal. In judging Bradman’s prospects in England, we did not reckon with the immaturity of our youthful judgement, the genius of Bradman and the practice of covering wickets in county matches during Australian tours for financial reasons. We had no doubt that Bradman would make centuries in Test cricket, but I must confess that in 1929 I was not prepared for his incredible successes and triumphs over twenty years during which he was easily the most dominating personality in the game.”

(Author Indra Vikram Singh can be contacted on email singh_iv@hotmail.com).

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

Available on Amazon at an attractive price: https://www.amazon.in/dp/8190166859  

Indra Vikram Singh's other books available on Amazon: 

https://www.amazon.in/s?k=Indra+Vikram+Singh&i=stripbooks&rh=p_6%3AA3HSV0N9AV7NOK&dc&qid=1602408830&rnid=1318474031&ref=sr_nr_p_6_1

As Bradman wound up his first Test series with a second hundred, critics failed to realise that a legend had arrived. Excerpt from Indra Vikram Singh’s book ‘Don’s Century’

 

Since the First World War, the Australians preferred eight-ball overs. But during this 1928-29 home Ashes series, and the next in 1932-33, six-ball overs were bowled. Thereafter again eight-ball overs were in force in Australia until 1979. South Africa, West Indies and New Zealand also tried this at various times. It was now 4-0, and as they say, there was little more than pride to play for in the final Test.

This Test, also at Melbourne, was a triumph for Bradman in more ways than one. Mercifully, Hammond’s run spree was over for the series, but Hobbs and Maurice Leyland got hundreds, and Hendren 95. The result was again a 500-plus total. Woodfull ground out another hundred for Australia, and Bradman came in at no. 5, only to see the opener depart immediately. But Alan Fairfax gave him valuable support in a 183-run partnership. Bradman raised his second Test hundred, a fine 123, this time batting for 217 minutes, having played 247 deliveries and hit 8 boundaries. Australia, though, finished 28 runs in arrears.

Some fine bowling by paceman Tim Wall (five for 66), helped restrict England to 257. The target was 286 runs, but there were only a few minutes left in the 6^th day’s play. So instead of the regular opening pair of Woodfull and Jackson, a duo of nightwatchmen in the form of wicketkeeper Oldfield and no. 11 Percival Hornibrook went in to face the top-class new-ball pair of Larwood and Tate. The makeshift twosome not only did a commendable job of guarding their wickets till stumps were drawn, but also laid a strong foundation on the morrow by posting 51 runs on the board. Hammond was commissioned to break the stubborn stand, and he finally breached Hornibrook’s defence. The newly-hoisted top-order bat had eked out 18 priceless runs off 116 balls in a stay of 97 minutes.

Oldfield made a bigger point, holding on to score 48 in a stay of more than two-and-a-half-hours. Then it was the turn of the real openers Woodfull and Jackson to get together in a stand of 49, after which Kippax and Ryder added 46. Finally, Bradman appeared at 204 for five on the 8^th day of the Test. Carefully, in harness with the captain, he carried Australia to victory. It had taken 134 overs and one delivery to eventually hand a defeat to the imperial power. Bradman returned unbeaten with 37, just a tiny portent of things to come.

Wally Hammond piled up 905 runs at an average of 113.12. This was the highest aggregate in a Test series by a long way, surpassing the brilliant South African allrounder Aubrey Faulkner’s tally of 732 in 1910-11, and Herbert Sutcliffe’s 734 in 1924-25, both against Australia. For Bradman it was a highly satisfying, if not exhilarating, initiation to Test cricket. He notched up 468 runs in his first four Tests, second in the team’s averages at 66.85 per innings. This was the only rubber that Australia lost, apart from the controversial Bodyline series of 1932-33, during the Bradman years. The 1938 face-off in England was drawn, while the other eight series ended on a victorious note.

Not all Englishmen, though, were convinced by Bradman’s methods. Concluding that the hard, bouncy Australian tracks enabled Bradman to get away with the pull shot he so favoured, Alfred ‘Tich’ Freeman told him, “You won’t be able to use those cross-batted shots of yours in England,” before he stepped on the boat headed home. As events were to prove later, the Kent leg-spinner had spoken a bit too soon. Surrey captain Percy Fender, who wrote a book on that 1928-29 tour, was also sceptical about Bradman’s technique, and there was a widely held view that this tendency to play across the line would cost him dear in England. Even the great medium-pacer Maurice Tate remarked, “You’ll be found out when you come to England if you play like that.” How utterly mistaken ‘experts’ can be in cricket was apparent even in the late 1920s. Bradman went on to register three of his best Test innings in England, the two triple centuries at Leeds, and 254 at Lord’s, which he himself rated as his finest. He averaged over 102 in Tests in England, and in all his four tours topped the all-comers first-class averages. Even in 1948, the English were still trying to figure out how to get rid of The Don.

Decades later, and in retrospect, former England batsman Doug Insole summed up Bradman’s game: “Don was completely different from Lara. He did not use many shots. He got into position so quickly that he could pull anything short and he made balls short that other men would have had to play defensively. He had a late cut and a hit through the off-side. But mostly his runs came from the pull.” This is what Freeman had seen during Bradman’s maiden Test series, and made a hasty judgement.

It was an extraordinary first-class season for Bradman. He hit the first of his six triple centuries, an unbeaten 340 in 488 minutes for New South Wales against Victoria at Sydney. In 13 matches he scored 1690 runs, still a record for an Australian season, at an average of 93.88 with 7 hundreds. It was a season that launched the Bradman legend. For the next two decades he was to dominate the cricket world like few sportspersons have the arenas of their great triumphs. Kenneth Farmer reflected, “He was Legend by the time the world realized he was news.”

(Author Indra Vikram Singh can be contacted on email singh_iv@hotmail.com).

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

Available on Amazon at an attractive price: https://www.amazon.in/dp/8190166859  

Indra Vikram Singh's other books available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.in/s?k=Indra+Vikram+Singh&i=stripbooks&rh=p_6%3AA3HSV0N9AV7NOK&dc&qid=1602408830&rnid=1318474031&ref=sr_nr_p_6_1

Don Bradman’s first Test century and the saga of timeless Tests. Excerpt from Indra Vikram Singh’s book ‘Don’s Century’

 

It was a disastrous Test debut for Don Bradman. England piled up 521, with Patsy Hendren hitting 169. Bradman walked in at no. 7, with Australia in deep trouble at 71 for five. Maurice Tate trapped him leg-before-wicket for 18. Harold Larwood snapped up six wickets for 32 runs, as Australia folded up for 122. Bradman fared worse in the second innings, dismissed for 1. Australia were humiliated, bowled out for 66 and beaten by 675 runs, the biggest margin in history. Very quickly had Bradman learnt what a tough life it is at the Test level. He was dropped from the playing eleven in the second Test.

Having to carry the drinks as 12^th man at the exquisite Sydney Cricket Ground must have rankled the aspiring batsman. Wally Hammond pulverized the Aussies with his 251 after Bill Ponsford had his left hand fractured by a nasty one from Larwood. Australia lost again, this time by eight wickets. The bitter experience, instead of demoralising Bradman, only strengthened his resolve. He was determined to make his mark. He did very soon, and this was the only time that he was ever dropped from the team. Picked for the third Test to replace the injured Ponsford, Bradman never looked back thereafter.

After the early damage caused by Larwood and Tate, Alan Kippax and skipper Jack Ryder put on 161 for the fourth wicket. Bradman consolidated the position with two useful stands with Ryder and Edward a’Beckett, scoring 79. But Hammond was awesome, bringing up his second successive Test double century, a round 200. After wiping out a first-innings deficit of 20 runs, Australia again battled hard. Bradman joined Bill Woodfull with four wickets down for 143, and helped the ever-determined opener carry the score to 201. Woodfull scored 107, and then Bradman staged a wonderful rearguard action, adding 93 for the eighth wicket with Ronald Oxenham. On the way young Don brought up his maiden Test hundred.

The crowd at the historic MCG hailed the coming of a new hero, giving him a standing ovation. All of Australia was agog. As Ken Piesse wrote in The Cricketer International: “Hats were thrown in the air, women waved their handkerchiefs and umbrellas. Motor cars hooted, tram bells clanged and passengers cheered and clapped.” Bradman was eventually caught behind for 112. He was in for six minutes over four hours and faced 281 balls, striking 7 fours. Cricket’s most famous saga had begun.

England needed 332 to win, and got them with three wickets to spare on the seventh day. Even today there is a misconception in some quarters about timeless Tests. It is believed that there is only one instance of a timeless Test ever played - the final game between South Africa and England at Durban in 1938-39. That, in fact, is the longest Test ever played, spread over eleven days, with nine days of actual play. As is well known, it was abandoned as a draw since the English team had to catch the ship leaving for home. Up to the Second World War, Test matches in Australia were timeless, after which a six-day limit was imposed. In England, Test matches were initially of three-day duration, but from 1912 onwards there was a provision that should a series be undecided at the commencement of the final Test, then that Test would be played to a finish. From 1930, Test matches in England were extended to four days, with the stipulation of a final deciding Test being timeless still in place. From 1948 onwards, duration of Tests in England were extended, and limited, to five days.

(Author Indra Vikram Singh can be contacted on email singh_iv@hotmail.com).

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

Available on Amazon at an attractive price: https://www.amazon.in/dp/8190166859  

Indra Vikram Singh's other books available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.in/s?k=Indra+Vikram+Singh&i=stripbooks&rh=p_6%3AA3HSV0N9AV7NOK&dc&qid=1602408830&rnid=1318474031&ref=sr_nr_p_6_1

Matthew Hayden, one of the hardest hitting opening batsmen in history. Excerpt from Indra Vikram Singh’s book ‘Don’s Century’

For long his colleague Matthew Hayden sizzled in the first-class game, but fizzled at the highest level. His successes for Queensland did not translate into performances of any note for Australia. His first stint was mediocre and he was dropped. The big man continued to persevere, scoring heavily in domestic cricket, finally making his breakthrough at the age of 29 in the 2000-01 series in India. It has been forgotten that in that big turnaround in the Kolkata Test, engineered by the Herculean partnership between V.V.S. Laxman and Rahul Dravid, Hayden was a star performer for Australia with scores of 97 and 67. Since then the southpaw did not look back. Each year from 2001 to 2005 he hit up 1000 Test runs. Forging highly successful left-handed opening partnerships, with Adam Gilchrist in the One-dayers and Justin Langer in Tests, Hayden played a key role in Australia’s golden run.

The big bully advanced menacingly down the pitch, almost intimidating the bowlers like a giant caveman brandishing a chunky club. He did actually club the ball with his booming drives, rasping cuts and thundering pulls. The most menacing hitter since Ian Botham, Hayden slammed pacemen and spinners alike. His one weakness was his tendency to play a shot too many in his quest to dominate the bowling, thereby often giving his wicket away.

In their heyday this century, the Australians came to be hailed for their quick scoring. This was mainly courtesy the rousing starts Hayden gave with his partners. In the Tests they would hammer the new ball around and Australia invariably clocked four runs an over. In the shorter version, Hayden and Gilchrist would knock up six to seven runs an over in the first fifteen overs with the field in. That was the foundation for the incredible success Australia achieved during his fruitful days at the top of the order.

Hayden’s moment of euphoria, of course, was when he broke Lara’s Test record, blasting 380 against Zimbabwe at Perth on October 10, 2003. The bowling may have been ordinary, but it was a terrific display of hitting. Hayden struck 38 fours and 11 sixes - 218 in boundaries alone - off just 437 balls in 10 hours and 22 minutes. He took 208 deliveries to reach his hundred, and then just 229 more for the rest of his 280 runs. The Perth wicket was not as fast and bouncy as of yore, and with the ball coming nicely on to the bat, Hayden made merry. India’s former captain S. Venkataraghavan, who was umpiring that match told The Times of India, “He’s just so uninhibited. Nothing seemed to bother him.”

Just over six months later on April 12, 2004 Lara snatched the record back. Hayden bludgeoned his way through to 8625 runs at an average of 50.73 with 30 hundreds in his 103 Tests. In the One-dayers Hayden slammed 6133 runs at an average of 43.80, and a strike-rate of 78.96. An essential part of Ponting’s all-conquering World Cup team, Hayden hit the then fastest century in the competition off 66 balls against South Africa at St. Kitts in 2007. He also had the highest aggregate in that tournament with 659 runs at an average of 73.22 with three hundreds in 11 matches. One of the hardest hitting opening batsmen in history, Hayden’s contribution to Australian cricket has been matched by few.

(Author Indra Vikram Singh can be contacted on email singh_iv@hotmail.com).

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

Available on Amazon at an attractive price: https://www.amazon.in/dp/8190166859  

Indra Vikram Singh's other books available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.in/s?k=Indra+Vikram+Singh&i=stripbooks&rh=p_6%3AA3HSV0N9AV7NOK&dc&qid=1602408830&rnid=1318474031&ref=sr_nr_p_6_1