page_title: Sid Barnes
section_title: The Invincibles tour
hierarchical_section_title: Sid Barnes / Test cricket / The Invincibles tour
caption_attribution_description: SPORTING LIFE MAG 1948 MAY, SID BARNES COVER
context_page_description: Sidney George Barnes was an Australian cricketer and cricket writer, who played 13 Test matches between 1938 and 1948. Able to open the innings or bat down the order, Barnes was regarded as one of Australia's finest batsmen in the period immediately following the Second World War. He helped create an enduring record when scoring 234 in the second Test against England at Sydney in December 1946; exactly the same score as his captain, Don Bradman, in the process setting a world-record 405-run fifth wicket partnership. Barnes averaged 63.05 over 19 innings in a career that, like those of most of his contemporaries, was interrupted by the Second World War.
  He made his first-class debut at the end of the 1936–37 season when selected for New South Wales, and he was later included in the team for the 1938 Australian tour of England, making his Test debut in the final international of the series. On the resumption of Test cricket after the war, he was picked as the opening partner to Arthur Morris. Barnes was a member of The Invincibles, the 1948 Australian team that toured England without losing a single match.
context_section_description: The 1948 Australia team that toured England has become known as The Invincibles, because they did not lose a single game. Following their performances during the Australian season, Barnes and Morris were favoured as Australia's first-choice opening pair, while Brown batted out of position in the middle order in the first two Tests.
  Before the second Test at Lord's, Barnes wagered £8 at 15/1 on himself to score a century. He made a duck in the first innings but ensured success in the second, making 141.
  Barnes and Morris shared century opening partnerships at Lord's and The Oval, where their 117 run stand dwarfed the 52 all out made by the entire England team. In addition to his century at Lord's, Barnes made three other scores over 60 in the series.
  
  When fielding, Barnes stationed himself as close to the bat as possible at either forward short-leg or point. The report of the tour in the 1949 edition of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, stated that Barnes's fielding was as important a factor as his batting in The Invincibles' success: 
  Probably a number of batsmen were sufficiently affected by his close attendance to cause them to lose concentration on the bowler running up, but equally important was the fact that the knowledge of his presence influenced opponents to avoid strokes in that direction. The Barnes demeanour in the field illustrated the general purposefulness of the Australians.
  However, he received criticism for this approach and it resulted in him missing the fourth Test at Headingley through injury. In England's first innings of the third Test, he was hit in the ribs by a full-blooded pull shot from Dick Pollard from the bowling of Ian Johnson, and had to be carried from the pitch by four policemen. The following day, he collapsed while practising in the nets, and when he went in to bat at number six, he collapsed again and had to retire hurt. After this, he was taken to hospital where he spent 10 days before rejoining the tour for the Derbyshire match that followed the fourth Test.
  Barnes thus played in four of the five Tests, missing the fourth Test through injury. He scored 329 runs, averaging 82.25. During the first-class tour matches, Barnes's performance was less spectacular. In all first-class matches on the tour, he amassed 1354 runs, averaging 56.41. Barnes made 176 in 255 minutes against Surrey early in the tour, but, apart from his Test hundred, his only other century came in the final tour match, when the final 50 runs of his 151 against the H. D. G. Leveson-Gower XI at the Scarborough cricket festival came in just 25 minutes.
caption: Barnes on the cover of Sporting Life, 1948.
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