BBC SPORT | Cricket | 1948 - Bradman's final innings duck Page last updated at 10:35 GMT, Wednesday, 27 May 2009 11:35 UK 1948 - Bradman's final innings duck Advertisement Don Bradman's last ever Test innings ends with a duck, bowled second ball by Eric Hollies at the Oval. Bradman scored 19 centuries in Ashes Tests, seven more than any other batsman, and finished with a Test batting average of 99.94. He'd needed just four runs for an average of 100. No wonder commentator John Arlott sounds stunned.... SEE ALSO Don Bradman scores a second-ball duck in his farewell Test innings - Cricket Country › Series › The Ashes 1948 (Australia in England) › Articles Don Bradman scores a second-ball duck in his farewell Test innings England were skittled out for 52 by a lethal Ray Lindwall, following which Don Bradman fell for the most infamous duck in the history of cricket.

By Arunabha Sengupta | Updated : August 13, 2016 10:05 PM IST Don Bradman is bowled for a duck by a googly from Eric Hollies in Australia’s first innings in the final Test match against England at The Oval, London, on August 14, 1948 © Getty Images August 14, 1948. England were skittled out for 52 by a lethal Ray Lindwall, following which Don Bradman fell for the most infamous duck in the history of cricket. Arunabha Sengupta remembers the day when the great man played his last Test innings, stopping short of 7,000 Test runs and an average of 100 by 4 runs. Arthur Morris ended the day on 77. After the sun had worked its magic on the rest day rendering it ideal for batting, the left handed Australian opener carried his score to 196. On the first day, Eric Hollies bowled perhaps the best delivery of his life — a googly.

However, in spite of their commendable deeds, the applause of the match was reserved for the most famous duck of all time. And the best innings was played not by Morris but the man to whom Don Bradman passed his mantle of the best batsman of the world. Len Hutton was exceptional as he scored 30 in the paltry England total of 52. As he went out to toss, Bradman averaged 101.39. His previous Test innings at The Oval fetched him 232, 244 and 77. In 1948, he had already batted twice on the ground against Surrey, and had scored 146 and 128. All he needed was four runs to complete 7000 Test runs and end with a career batting average of 100. Sadly, he finished four short. As Jack Fingleton later observed: “The game that had given him so much had denied him at the very last Test appearance.” The Lindwall spell On that Saturday, Bradman lost the flip of the coin and Norman Yardley decided to bat. The wicket was saturated with overnight rain, but the England captain was not really left with an option.

With more rain in the air and uncertainty surrounding the conditions, the decision was inevitable. And on that sodden wicket, Ray Lindwall , Keith Miller and Bill Johnston maintained a stranglehold on the English batsmen for 42 overs and one ball before the pitiful innings ended for a miserable 52. It was England’s lowest total since they had been routed for 45 by Charlie Turner and JJ Ferris at Sydney in 1887. England had ended up winning that Test by 13 runs. Nothing of that sort was about to happen in this one. Lindwall varied his pace superbly, mixing it up with his occasional express delivery. The ball rose to different heights while seldom deviating from the line of the stumps. Norman Yardley, Godfrey Evans, Alec Bedser and Jack Young were bowled, all gingerly hesitant to come forward. Allan Watkins was struck on the shoulder and his abilities as a bowler was taken out of the equation for the Test. After lunch Lindwall’s figures read 8.1-4-8-5. And all through this tale of plight, Hutton demonstrated absolute mastery.

With class written over each and every stroke, he proceeded untroubled to 30. And then, with the last man at the other end, he essayed a perfectly genuine leg-glance off an express Lindwall delivery down the leg side. Behind the wicket Don Tallon took off in a spectacular dive and took the ball at full stretch with his left glove. “A great finish to Australia’s splendid performance,” wrote Wisden. Hutton scored just 30, but it must rank as one of the very best innings he ever played in his illustrious career. Spectators queue outside the Kennington Oval, London, before the opening day’s play of the fifth Test on August 14, 1948. Sadly, they saw their own team being shot out for 52 by the brilliance of Ray Lindwall and then had to take home the bittersweet memories of Don Bradman get a second-ball duck in what turned out to be his last innings in Test cricket © Getty Images Bradman b Hollies 0 There had been a good chance of Hollies not playing at The Oval.

Leslie Duckworth writes in his Story of Warwickshire cricket, “When the invitations to Hollies to play arrived, he told Leslie Deakins he would rather play for Warwickshire. The rubber had already been decided and it would have meant that he missing two county games when he could well be spared. It was the Warwickshire Committee who persuaded their ‘home boy’ to play; if they had not succeeded cricket history would almost certainly have been different.” And now, after Morris and Sid Barnes had already taken the Australian total to more than twice that of England, Hollies struck. Barnes was caught behind by Godfrey Evans. The great moment had arrived. The Don walked out for what would be his farewell innings, accompanied by a sterling ovation from the 20,000 strong crowd. In the middle, Norman Yardley arranged his men to give the great man three cheers. Less known is Yardley’s full statement to his team as Bradman strode out to bat, “We’ll give him three cheers when he gets on the square, but that’s all we’ll give him.

Then bowl him out.” In the commentary box, Rex Alston handed it over to a young John Arlott with the words, “The crowd settles down again — they’ve got 40 minutes left to play and Bradman is now taking guard. Hollies is going to bowl and John Arlott shall describe the first ball, so come in, John.” Arlott took it up from there in a piece of splendid imagery laced with emotion, “Well, I don’t think I’m as deadly as you are, Rex, I don’t expect to get a wicket. But it’s rather good to be here when Don Bradman comes in to bat in his last Test. And now, here’s Hollies to bowl to him from the Vauxhall End. Norman Yardley leads his special cheer from his team for Australian captain Don Bradman as he arrives at the wicket to bat in his final Test © Getty Images “He bowls, Bradman goes back across his wicket, pushes the ball gently in the direction of the Houses of Parliament, which are out beyond mid-off. It doesn’t go that far as that, merely goes to Watkins in the silly mid-off.

No run, still 117 for one. Two slips, a silly mid-off, and a forward short leg close to him as Hollies pitches the ball up slowly and …he’s bowled…Bradman bowled Hollies … nought …and what do you say under these circumstances? I wonder if you see the ball very clearly in your last Test in England, on a ground where you’ve played some of the biggest cricket in your life and where the opposing side has just stood round you and given you three cheers and the crowd has clapped you all the way to the wicket. I wonder if you see the ball at all.” The man who had scored tons of runs at The Oval, in all the other English grounds, everywhere he had played his cricket, did not get the four runs required to go past 7000 Test runs and spike his average beyond 100. The legend walked back with the crowd rising in deafening applause yet again.

And Hollies turned to Jack Crapp lamenting, “Best f***ing ball I’ve bowled all season, and they’re clapping him.” After his dismissal, Sid Barnes had rushed back to the pavilion, armed himself with his new cine-camera, and had captured every moment from the time Bradman had walked out to bat. And as Bradman returned, he sat beside him unbuckling his pads and informed his captain that he had got his entire innings. In the press box, Jack Fingleton sat alongside Bill O’Reilly , and there had never been two greater lynchpins of the anti-Bradman brigade. When Bradman was bowled for a duck, the two of them burst into a spontaneous fit of uncontrolled laughter, “I thought they were going to have a stroke they were laughing so much,” reported a fellow commentator. There is a legend that Bradman played the ball through a mist of tears — something he supposedly confided later to Len Hutton. Alec Bedser, a few yards from the man when the three cheers were proffered, remarked that he was indeed deeply affected. Yet, there are many who disagree.

The inimitable Jack Crapp, standing in slip during that delivery, voiced the opinion that “The b***er Bradman never had a tear in his eye his whole life.” And there is a counter-legend in Warwickshire that, before leaving for the Test, Hollies had told his county captain Tom Dollery he would send down a second ball googly to Bradman. Hollies ended the innings with 5 for 131, having dismissed Barnes, Bradman, Keith Miller, Neil Harvey and Don Tallon. Yet, his best bowling performance had perhaps been witnessed 10 days earlier. Bowling against the Australians for Warwickshire, he had captured 8 for 107, and had rattled Bradman’s stumps for 31. So, tears or not, Hollies was a top notch bowler who had the ability to knock over Bradman’s stumps. The closest witness was Arthur Morris who stood watching the epochal moment from the other end.

To this day when the subject of Bradman’s duck is raised, Morris says, “I often say to people, ’Yes, I was there’ I am asked, ‘Were you playing?’ I reply ‘Yes, I got 196.’” What followed? With Morris providing the backbone of the innings, Australia totalled 389. England fared somewhat better in the second innings, but once again they got the worse bargain from the weather, and surrendered for 188 early on the fourth day. When Hollies skied Johnston, the Australians scrambled to collect stumps as souvenirs even before Morris held the catch. The series was secured 3-0 as curtains came down on the greatest batting career of all time. Brief scores: England 52 (Ray Lindwall 6 for 20) and 188 (Len Hutton 64; Bill Johnston 4 for 40) lost to Australia 389 (Sid Barnes 61, Arthur Morris 196; Eric Hollies 5 for 131) by an innings and 149 runs.

( Arunabha Sengupta is a cricket historian and Chief Cricket Writer at CricketCountry. He writes about the history and the romance of the game, punctuated often by opinions about modern day cricket, while his post-graduate degree in statistics peeps through in occasional analytical pieces.

The author of three novels, he can be followed on Twitter at ) First Published on August 14, 2013 11:48 AM IST Last updated on August 13, 2016 10:05 PM IST TOPICS: 20 Jan, 2017 11:30 IST Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai 20 Jan, 2017 16:00 IST Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai 20 Jan, 2017 21:30 IST SuperSport Park, Centurion 22 Jan, 2017 08:50 IST | 03:20 GMT Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG), Sydney 22 Jan, 2017 13:30 IST | 08:00 GMT Eden Gardens, Kolkata 22 Jan, 2017 18:00 IST | 12:30 GMT The Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg 25 Jan, 2017 21:30 IST | 16:00 GMT Newlands, Cape Town 26 Jan

, 2017 08:50 IST | 03:20 GMT Adelaide Oval, Adelaide Sir Donald Bradman - Telegraph Obituaries Sir Donald Bradman Sir Donald Bradman, who has died aged 92, was on any reference to averages by far the greatest batsman who has ever lived; so marked, indeed, was his pre-eminence that he became one of the great sporting legends of the 20th century, standing forth not merely as a national hero in Australia, but as a phenomenon for all the cricketing world to wonder at.

12:00AM GMT 27 Feb 2001 When The Don walked out to bat in his last Test match, at the Oval in 1948, his average in Tests was 101.39. Applauded all the way to the wicket, and given three cheers by the English team, he was then bowled for a duck second ball by a googly from Eric Hollies. So Bradman ended with a Test batting average of 99.94 from 52 Tests, a surprisingly small number by modern standards. (Allan Border played in 156 Test matches between 1978 and 1994.) Bradman played 338 innings in first-class matches, and made 28,067 runs with an average of 95.14. This total included 117 centuries, so that he scored a hundred slightly more than one in every three times he went out to bat. He would have made many more had he not lost so much of his prime to the Second World War.

For more than eight years, between the Test at Headingley in July 1938 and the first at Brisbane in late 1946, he played no Test innings at all. Among those batsmen who have completed their careers and played in more than 20 Test innings, the next best averages are those of Graeme Pollock, George Headley and Herbert Sutcliffe, who all finished with an average of 60, some 40 runs behind Bradman. It is difficult to think of any other field of endeavour in which the best is so much better than the merely excellent. On the other hand, Bradman was never a particularly elegant player, nor a classically orthodox one. He was, after all, entirely self-taught, and had been brought up on concrete wickets covered with matting; he did not bat on a grass wicket until he was 18 (and then, of course, he made a century). Related Articles Ian Craig 19 Nov 2014 In these circumstances Bradman had developed an unusual grip, which he steadfastly refused to change.

The right hand was twisted to the right so that as the palm gripped the handle it was facing nearly directly down the pitch. The left hand was turned so that its back faced the bowler. As Bradman took up his stance the leading edge of the bat pointed almost towards the bowler, while its bottom rested between, not behind, his feet. He took the bat up at an angle of 45 degrees to the flight of the ball. This set-up made him particularly strong in the hook, the pull and the cut. He said his grip made it impossible to lift the hook shot unless he tried to; and he was equally safe with the cut. More extraordinarily, given his grip, he also developed an effective off-drive. On the debit side, it was argued, the grip handicapped him on wet wickets where there was sharp turn. But then his footwork was so sprightly that he could usually smother spin. It goes without saying that Bradman was quick and accurate in his judgment of length and speed, possessed the sharpest reflexes, and was gifted with perfect hand-eye co-ordination. But he was not alone in these qualities.

What made him wholly exceptional were his inner confidence, his determination to dominate an attack, and his ability to sustain total concentration over a long innings. Jim Laker used to tell how, at Lord's in 1948, he tied Bradman up for an over and was only prevented by the faintest edge from claiming him LBW. "Well bowled, Jim," Bradman said at the end of the over. "Thank goodness that's over. Now we can get on with some batting." He hit the first ball of Laker's next over for four and was never in trouble again. On strike, Bradman would be entirely still, not even tapping his bat. Often he was grinning - cynically, as many bowlers came to feel. "As I ran up to bowl," Jim Laker has recorded, "Bradman always seemed to know where the ball was going to pitch, what stroke he was going to play and how many runs he was going to score." Only at the start of an innings did Bradman appear vulnerable. Once he had settled, his instinct was not just to attack the bowling but to tear it to pieces.

Scoring fast was almost as important to him as scoring high, and over his career he averaged 42 runs an hour. His dominance at the crease was the more remarkable as he was only 5ft 8in tall, and used a light bat. No mercy was shown to tired or indifferent performers. "He pitied none," wrote Learie Constantine, the great West Indian fast bowler. "If he can make any bowler look foolish, he will do it." And no matter what the heat, or the pressure, Bradman would always appear entirely cool, with not a drop of sweat. Off the pitch he was neither falsely modest nor arrogantly boastful. Unwilling to talk about himself, he was always ready with praise of other players. Yet he was never one of the boys. Teetotal and a non-smoker, when possible he avoided rowdy celebration, although as a talented pianist he was sometimes roped in to accompany sing-songs. After he made 309 not out on the first day of the Test match at Headingley in 1930, against an attack including Larwood and Tate, he went up to his room to listen to music and write letters.

Some of his team-mates resented this attitude. In particular, the Irish and Roman Catholic members of Australia's side in the 1930s - Jack Fingleton and Bill O'Reilly to the fore - took exception to the tight, dedicated, Empire-loving, Royalty-idolising, aristocrat-adulating genius under whose shadow they lay. "A churlish little man," Fingleton called Bradman in 1980, all passion clearly not spent. And E W Swanton noted that, when Bradman was out for nought in his last Test, "I thought they [Fingleton and O'Reilly] were going to have a stroke, they were laughing so much". Outwardly, Bradman could afford to disdain such critics, though in old age he rather curiously let it be known that when the Irish players arrived at Melbourne station, "they were met by a bunch of priests in cassocks". In the light of this antagonism, O'Reilly's tribute, that Bradman was "the greatest cricketer ever to put boots on and walk on to a cricket field", gains added force. Yet the isolating intensity with which Bradman played exacted its cost.

Throughout the 1930s he was plagued by curiously ill-defined health problems, no doubt caused by the tremendous pressure to which he was subject. In Australia a Bradman failure, such as when he was bowled first ball by Bowes at Melbourne in 1932, was a national disaster. Bradman's will, toughness and grit saw him through. And he was shrewd enough, in between making his centuries, to ensure a measure of financial security outside cricket. Donald George Bradman was born at Cootamundra, 200 miles south-west of Sydney, on August 27 1908. He was the fifth of five children, and four years younger than his brother Victor, the fourth child. The first three children had been daughters. His father's family had originally hailed from Withersfield, just inside Suffolk on the border with Cambridgeshire, where the path to the church door is lined with Bradnams. In 1833, the son of John Bradnam was christened, whether intentionally or by error, Charles Bradman.

This Charles, an agricultural labourer, emigrated to Australia in 1852, settling at Mittagong, 80 miles south of Sydney. He married a local girl, and set about earning enough money to buy his own land. In 1874 he fulfilled this ambition by moving 150 miles west to Jindalee (near Cootamundra), where property was cheaper. Two years later his third child, George, Don Bradman's father, was born. At 17 George married Emily Whatman, from a rather better-off farming family. Emily's brother George was a keen and talented cricketer. In 1910 George Bradman gave up his farm and moved near to his wife's family in the Mittagong-Bowral area, where he worked as a carpenter. Don Bradman grew up in a weatherboard bungalow, with no water supply. Often left to his own devices, he satisfied his sporting instincts by throwing a golf ball against the brick base of a water tank, attempting (and usually succeeding) to hit it with a stump as it rebounded.

He practised fielding by throwing his golf ball at the bars in a gate - which meant tedious retrieval if he missed. At Bowral High School, Don found that he invariably came third in class. But when, aged 12, he played for the school team against their rivals at Mittagong, he made an undefeated 115 in a total of 155. Two years later, in 1921, he was given a chance in Bowral Town senior team. Still in shorts, and using a bat far too large for him, he went in at Number 10, and made 39 not out. Shortly afterwards his father took him for the first time to Sydney, where they watched Charlie Macartney take 170 off England. Don left school at 14, commended by his headmaster as "truthful, honest, industrious, and an unusually bright lad", and began work in an estate agency in Bowral. In 1923-24 he played no cricket at all, and very little in the following summer. Most of his free time was given to tennis. It was his uncle George Whatman who lured him back to play cricket for Bowral.

In December 1925 the town played their local rivals from Wingello, the match taking place on successive Saturday afternoons. The opposition had a demon bowler, nearly three years older than Bradman: Bill O'Reilly, no less. At the close of play on the first Saturday Bradman was 234 not out - though he was bowled first ball by O'Reilly when he resumed his innings the following week. In the next match he made 300 against Moss Vale. Word of these deeds travelled to Sydney, and in October 1926 the New South Wales selectors invited the prodigy for a trial. He impressed, and in December 1927 made his debut for the state in a match against South Australia at Adelaide. Going in at No 7, he treated Clarrie Grimmett, one of the greatest of all leg spinners, with scant respect, and duly completed his century. His debut in Test cricket came against England at Brisbane in 1928. For once he failed to do himself justice, and was dropped for the second Test.

Returning for the third at Melbourne, he made 79 and 112, and then hit another century in the fifth match of the series. In between he hammered Victoria's attack for 340 not out. In 1930 Bradman flayed Queensland's bowlers to amass 452 not out, which for almost 30 years remained the highest score in first-class cricket. There were seasoned English players - Maurice Tate, Frank Woolley and Percy Fender among them - who felt that Bradman's frequently cross-batted attacking style could never succeed so well on English wickets. Bradman gave his response in the Test series of 1930, when he scored 974 runs (still a record) and averaged 139.14 without the benefit of a single Not Out. He rated his 254 at Lord's that year as the best innings he ever played; every shot, he said, went exactly where intended, even the one from which he was caught; he had only forgotten that Percy Chapman was so tall. His 334 in the next Test at Headingley remains the highest score by an Australian against England.

Nemesis came in the form of the bodyline tactics employed by Douglas Jardine when England toured Australia in 1932-33. Larwood and Voce fired in short-pitched deliveries aimed at the body and head with a cluster of short legs to take the catch as the batsman tried to fend the ball off. Larwood, of course was one of the fastest bowlers of all time, and he was reinforced by the ruthlessness of Jardine, who required his players to refer to Bradman as "the little bastard". After early failures, Bradman found a solution. "He ran to the off or [more often] out to the leg to get away from those head-high whistling balls," wrote Walter Hammond, "and he played golf shots and overhead lawn tennis shots, and from one after another the ball went crashing to the pickets. That was sheer courage." Nevertheless England succeeded in reducing Bradman's average for the series to 56.57, excellent for any other player who has ever lived, but a comparative failure for him. Australia lost the series 1-4.

Though the Australian players had been given £600 each to tour England in 1930, Bradman was aware, in those years of economic depression, of the need for an income outside cricket. Earlier he had publicised sporting equipment; and in 1931 he signed up with a newspaper and radio group in Sydney. He also engaged in some sharp battles with the Australian Board of Control over his right to earn extra money by writing about the tour of 1930. In 1934 Bradman moved from Sydney to Adelaide to take up a contract for £700 a year offered by a stockbroker called Henry Hodgett. Thereafter he played for South Australia. During the tour of England in 1934, Bradman (now promoted to vice-captain) was troubled by bad health - to such an extent that he went 13 innings without making a century, before making amends with 304, 244 and 77 in the fourth and fifth Tests. At the end of the season an abnormally complicated appendix operation left him at death's door. He did not play cricket again for more than a year.

Appointed captain of Australia for the 1936-37 season, Bradman got off to a disastrous start, as Australia were heavily defeated in the first two Tests. But thanks to a glut of runs from the skipper, they eventually won the series 3-2. The Australians retained the Ashes in England in 1938, with Bradman averaging 108.50 in the Tests, and 115.66 for the tour. His 103 in appalling light in the fourth Test at Headingley was one of his finest innings. "Bradman is in such form," wrote Jack Hobbs, "that he could play by candlelight". Back in Australia he was more prolific than ever in 1938-39. But the war proved an unhappy time for him. Volunteering for the Royal Australian Air Force in 1940, he subsequently transferred to the Army as a supervisor of physical education. But his health broke down. He suffered from muscular trouble and, graver still, his eyesight temporarily worsened, so that his scores in 1940-41 were 0, 6, 0 and 12.

In May 1941 Bradman was discharged from the Army on medical grounds. A frozen shoulder left him unable to lift his right arm. He also lost all feeling in the thumb and index finger of his right hand; it never returned, he wrote in his book Farewell to Cricket (1950). For the rest of the war Bradman busied himself at the Adelaide stock exchange. But even this proved fraught, as Harry Hodgett, his boss, was imprisoned for fraud in 1945. Bradman worked hard and successfully to restore the position of the firm, which now traded as Don Bradman and Company. When the England team arrived in Australia in 1946, they thought Bradman looked so ill that he would be better off in a nursing home than on a cricket pitch. But, without recapturing the flair of his pre-war days, Bradman scored 187 in the first Test, and 234 in the second. England were duly annihilated, and the next season he went on to plunder the Indians for an average of 178.75 in the Tests.

Confident in his team, he set off for England in 1948 determined to complete the tour without defeat. The mission was achieved. On this last tour Bradman decided that his ageing muscles made it too risky to go for the second hundred. Nevertheless, in the fourth Test at Headingley he achieved one of his greatest triumphs, when Australia scored 404 for three wickets in their second innings to win a game they had looked like losing. Bradman's contribution was 173 not out. After a final three testimonial matches in Australia, Bradman was knighted in 1949. "I would have preferred to remain just Mister," he volunteered. In 1979 he was appointed Companion of the Order of Australia. He was the first Australian to be made a life Vice-President of MCC. He continued to work as a stockbroker until 1954 when he announced, rather curiously, that his doctor had advised him to retire. His golf handicap was quickly reduced to scratch.

Bradman reported on the Australian tours of England in 1953 and 1956, sitting next to his old enemy Douglas Jardine in the press box at Headingley in 1953. In 1962-63, the Australian Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies, persuaded him to captain a side against MCC, but to everyone's disappointment he was bowled for four by Brian Statham. As a delegate to the Imperial Cricket Conference, and (from 1960 to 1963) as chairman of the Australian Board of Control, Bradman helped find a solution, or at least a diplomatic compromise, to the throwing controversy sparked off by the Australians Ian Meckiff and Gordon Rorke, and by the South African Geoff Griffen. Conscious of the waning appeal of cricket, Bradman urged the Australian team to adopt a more enterprising attitude; the result was the memorable series against the West Indies in 1960-61. Once more chairman of the Board of Control from 1969 to 1972, he was obliged, rather reluctantly, to cancel the South African tour of 1971-72.

The series against the Rest of the World which he organised in its stead proved a great success. Latterly Bradman avoided the limelight. "They usually leave this sort of thing until you are dead," he remarked when a stand was named after him at Sydney in 1974. Apart from his memoirs, his publications included The Art of Cricket (1958) and The Bradman Album (1988). The Don Declares, taped conversations about his career, was issued in 1988. Bradman married, in 1932, Jessie Menzies, a childhood friend, who died in 1997. They had a son and a daughter. Published February 27 2001 Don Bradman scores a second-ball duck in his farewell Test innings | Zee News Don Bradman scores a second-ball duck in his farewell Test innings Last Updated: Wednesday, August 14, 2013 - 18:16 0 Follow @ZeeNews Arunabha Sengupta August 14, 1948.

England were skittled out for 52 by a lethal Ray Lindwall, following which Don Bradman fell for the most infamous duck in the history of cricket. Arunabha Sengupta remembers the day when the great man played his last Test innings, stopping short of 7,000 Test runs and an average of 100 by four runs. Arthur Morris ended the day on 77. After the sun had worked its magic on the rest day rendering it ideal for batting, the left handed Australian opener carried his score to 196. On the first day, Eric Hollies bowled perhaps the best delivery of his life — a googly. However, in spite of their commendable deeds, the applause of the match was reserved for the most famous duck of all time. And the best innings was played not by Morris but the man to whom Don Bradman passed his mantle of the best batsman of the world. Len Hutton was exceptional as he scored 30 in the paltry England total of 52. As he went out to toss, Bradman averaged 101.39.

His previous Test innings at The Oval fetched him 232, 244 and 77. In 1948, he had already batted twice on the ground against Surrey, and had scored 146 and 128. All he needed was four runs to complete 7000 Test runs and end with a career batting average of 100. Sadly, he finished four short. As Jack Fingleton later observed: “The game that had given him so much had denied him at the very last Test appearance.” The Lindwall spell On that Saturday, Bradman lost the flip of the coin and Norman Yardley decided to bat. The wicket was saturated with overnight rain, but the England captain was not really left with an option. With more rain in the air and uncertainty surrounding the conditions, the decision was inevitable. And on that sodden wicket, Ray Lindwall, Keith Miller and Bill Johnston maintained a stranglehold on the English batsmen for 42 overs and one ball before the pitiful innings ended for a miserable 52.

It was England’s lowest total since they had been routed for 45 by Charlie Turner and JJ Ferris at Sydney in 1887. England had ended up winning that Test by 13 runs. Nothing of that sort was about to happen in this one. Lindwall varied his pace superbly, mixing it up with his occasional express delivery. The ball rose to different heights while seldom deviating from the line of the stumps. Norman Yardley, Godfrey Evans, Alec Bedser and Jack Young were bowled, all gingerly hesitant to come forward. Allan Watkins was struck on the shoulder and his abilities as a bowler was taken out of the equation for the Test match. After lunch Lindwall’s figures read 8.1-4-8-5. And all through this tale of plight, Hutton demonstrated absolute mastery. With class written over each and every stroke, he proceeded untroubled to 30. And then, with the last man at the other end, he essayed a perfectly genuine leg-glance off an express Lindwall delivery down the leg side. Behind the wicket Don Tallon took off in a spectacular dive and took the ball at full stretch with his left glove.

“A great finish to Australia’s splendid performance,” wrote Wisden. Hutton scored just 30, but it must rank as one of the very best innings he ever played in his illustrious career. For more click here» Don Bradman and his ducks - Cricket Country Don Bradman and his ducks Ducks are a statistic one does not usually associate with Sir Donald Bradman. By Abhishek Mukherjee | Updated : February 16, 2016 2:33 PM IST Norman Yardley and his team sings “for he’s a jolly good fellow” as Don Bradman walks out to bat for the last time in his Test career. Two balls later he was dismissed for a duck © Getty Images Don Bradman averaged 99.94 at the highest level for Australia . The First-Class average, if anything, was lower (95.14), which still remain the highest by a distance. Ducks, thus, are a statistic one does not usually associate with the man. Abhishek Mukherjee lists Bradman’s First-Class ducks. Don Bradman made 16 First-Class ducks. Surprisingly, seven of them came in Tests.

As we know, if he had scored an aggregate of four from those seven innings he would have finished with a three-digit Test average, which makes the ducks even more unbelievable. ( See the photo gallery of Don Bradman’s ducks here ) Also Read Don Bradman scores a second-ball duck in his farewell Test innings Volumes have been written about the 29 Tests hundreds; even the 117 First-Class hundreds have been chronicled in detail. The ducks (at least three of them), have been written about a lot as well. Bradman scoring a duck was no mere incident: the duck made it to the main headline on the front page, overshadowing almost all contemporary events. For those twenty years almost no other news took precedence over Bradman’s ducks. Ask Arthur Morris . Here, then, is the complete list, and a chronicle: For b Eric Hollies 1. Before the star was born At 18 Bradman was considered talented, but hardly a prodigy.

He batted at eight that day (and in the second innings) at SCG as New South Wales (NSW) hammered their way to 639 with Alan Kippax — the man David Frith considered the link between Victor Trumper and Archie Jackson — slamming 315 not out in characteristic fashion. When Bradman came out to bat at 467 for 6 NSW were already in control. A desperate Leo O’Connor asked for the services of Francis Gough and his leg-breaks: the Boy from Bowral lasted was bowled first ball by Gough, who later finished with 3 for 100. He picked up only seven more wickets in his entire First-Class career. 2. Griffith fells the hero West Indies were supposed to be a pushover when they, having been inducted into Test cricket the two years back, visited Australia in 1930-31. With Bradman having scored 974 in Australia’s regaining of The Ashes, nobody expected a contest; things went as expected till the teams reached SCG for the final Test.

The quartet of Learie Constantine, Manny Martindale, George Francis, and Herman Griffith had won the hearts of the tourists. Griffith, a genuine quick in his heydays, was 37 at the time of the Test. The wily Jackie Grant set Australia 251 on a wet pitch. Bill Woodfull and Bill Ponsford added 49 before Bradman walked out. Constantine later wrote in Cricket and I that Bradman’s wicket “came after a skilful, teasing series of deliveries from (Herman) Griffith, and demoralised the Australians.” Australia lost by 30 runs. 3. The fastest ball he faced? At 5’7” and 57 kg, nobody expected the little aborigine Eddie Gilbert to bowl express, let alone trouble Bradman. His rise was astronomical (both for his suspect action and his incredible pace), but his career did not last long enough: he could not make it to the biggest stage. That over from hell at The Gabba is not something historians are likely to forget. After Gordon Amos skittled out Queensland for 109, Jack Fingleton saw off “Pud” Thurlow’s first over.

Then Gough (remember the man?) summoned Gilbert. Wendell Bill could only protect his throat; as the ball brushed his gloves and went to the wicketkeeper. Bradman walked out. Could the new menace get the better of the champion? Most would have been intimidated by the grandeur of the contest. Not Gilbert. He turned out to be express — quicker than Bradman’s estimates. Bradman was pushed back by pace, but being Bradman, he still managed to keep out the first ball he faced. The second bounced, but was outside leg-stump and Bradman let it go. The next beat Bradman’s bat and thudded into the big gloves behind him. The fourth was a snorter: it hit Bradman on the underbelly and left him gasping for breath; his bat was knocked out as an impact. He reeled in agony, and it took him time to resume batting. The spectators got to the edges of their seats as Gilbert steamed in again. Had Bradman recovered? Gilbert produced another brute, similar to the previous ball; Bradman, how desperate to protect both ego and the wicket, tried to counterattack, but the resultant top-edge landed in the wicketkeeper’s gloves.

Bradman later acknowledged: “The keeper (Leonard Waterman) took the ball over his head, and I reckon it was halfway to the boundary.” He also admitted that those five balls were “were unhesitatingly faster than anything seen from Larwood or anyone else.” The dismissal, combined with his performance in the Bodyline series the following season, gave Bradman’s critics fodder about his weakness against genuine pace. Eddie Gilbert removes Bradman for a 5-ball duck. Do note the direction Bradman is looking at. Photo courtesy: Wikimedia Commons. 4. Coming up against Wall The Sheffield Shield contest of 1935-36 between NSW and South Australia at SCG was a clash between two captains who served cricket and became legends in their respective fields: Bradman and Alan McGilvray. Incessant rain meant that they could start play only late on Day Two. Bradman walked out after Ronald Parker was dismissed by Ted White. Bradman walked out, and a few minutes into the innings, holed to Ray Little off the left-arm fast-medium bowling of Bob Hynes. South Australia were bowled out for 94 (Ted White took 8 for 31) but time ran out for NSW. 5.

What Bodyline? Douglas Jardine ’s men had come with the sole purpose of taking the urn back. Bradman had missed the first Test of the Bodyline series at SCG due to contract issues, but was back for the second. Woodfull had decided to bat at MCG, and Australia lost Fingleton and Leo O’Brien with 67 on the board. Bradman had been pushed back to four. He walked out amidst tumultuous applause. Bradman took a long, semicircular route to the crease. This served two purposes: he could wait for the applause to subside and could get accustomed to the light. Bill Bowes, the bespectacled man who looked anything but intimidating, ran in. What did Bowes do before he started his run-up? He later recollected in Express Deliveries: “It was deafening. I had to stop in the middle of my run-up and wait for the noise to subside. To fill in time, I asked my mid-on to move up to silly mid-on. Once again I began my run. Once again came the terrific roar. Once again I had to stop. This time I moved my fine-leg fieldsman on the boundary edge.

I saw Don (Bradman) eyeing these changed field positions with a look of determination. Then the thought flashed through my mind, ‘He expects a bouncer — can I fool him?” Bradman fell for it. He did expect the bouncer to come: he played a premeditated pull, only to realise that the ball was pitched on a length. He tried to make a last-moment adjustment, but could only get an edge; the ball hit timber; and MCG turned into a graveyard. Bowes later recalled: “The crowd was stupefied. Bradman walked off the field amid a silence that would have been a theatrical producer’s triumph. The spell was broken by a solitary woman’s clapping. The feeble sound rippled above the hushed throng, and then an excited chatter broke out from all parts of the ground. And it was then that I noticed Jardine. Jardine, the sphinx, had forgotten himself for the one and only time in his cricketing life. In his sheer delight at this unexpected stroke of luck, he had clasped both his hands above his head and was jigging around like an Indian doing a war dance.” 6.

A student’s moment of glory Jack Davies never played Tests, though he had a decent career with Kent on either side of World War II; he also played rugby union, and was a noted psychologist (he became the chief psychologist in the Directorate of Personnel Selection as well as an Honorary Fellow of the British Psychological Society. The men who had turned up for Australia’s tour match against at Fenner’s Ground were disappointed. They saw Australia pile up 481 for 5 (with Bill Brown scoring a hundred and Ponsford getting a double) and bowl out the students for 158 (Grimmett took 9) and 160. The defeat, however, was almost expected: what was not expected was what Davies did. The crowd was just warming up when he had dismissed Woodfull; a few minutes later he clean bowled Bradman — for what was his first duck on English soil. 7. Baring the defence Hampshire had surprised the tourists twice, first by recovering from 19 for 2 to 326 for 3, and then by getting bowled out for 420.

Young Giles Baring was known to be quite quick (again!); Bradman walked out after Brown had fallen for a duck, and tried to hit out early in the innings. He mistimed the ball, and responding to the Hampshire yell of “catch it!” Phil Mead made no mistake. 8. A little wicket The Sheffield Shield contest was a clash between two captains who served cricket and became legends in their respective fields: Bradman and Alan McGilvray. Bradman walked out after Ronald Parker was dismissed by Ted White. Bradman walked out, and a few minutes into the innings, holed to Ray Little off the left-arm fast-medium bowling of Rob Hynes. 9. Allen strikes The 1936-37 Ashes was, to cut things short, heavily dependent on Bradman. He scored two ducks in the first two Tests and Australia lost both; he scored 270 (considered by many as the greatest-ever innings) in the third Test to seal a victory; and scored hundreds in the last two to clinch the series. It was Bradman’s first Test as captain.

England had obtained a 124-run lead (Bradman had scored a brisk 57-ball 38 before being caught by Stan Worthington at gully off Bill Voce). They were set a difficult, but not impossible, 381 — but then it rained, and Voce and Gubby Allen bowled unchanged to skittle Australia for 58. Bradman had held himself back, sending in Morris Sievers at three and Bert Oldfield at four. Allen removed Sievers with the fourth ball of his second over, and Bradman walked out with the score on 7 for 3. He survived the first ball that shot up to his chest, but tried a prod off the next ball; it landed in the hands of Arthur Fagg at third slip, and that was that. 10. After Allen, it was Voce This time it was Wally Hammond ’s turn to rise to the occasion: a sublime 231 not out helped Allen to declare at 426 for 6 the moment it started to shower. O’Brien fell in the seventh ball of Voce’s first over.

Allen had five slips for Bradman, which was probably the reason for him trying to play it towards square-leg. Allen accepted the catch gleefully; Bradman was out thrice in four balls in his Test career, Australia were bowled out for 80, and lost by an innings. 11. Queensland and The Gabba, again It was Bradman’s third duck against Queensland, and the third at The Gabba as well. Bradman had elected to bat in the Sheffield Shield last Sheffield Shield season before World War II; he went in when Jack Stackpoole had Thomas Klose caught-behind, and fell immediately, caught by Les Dixon. He carved out 97 in the second innings to help set a target of 350, but Brown’s hundred helped Queensland reach 214 for 1; they won by two wickets. 12. During The War Sheffield Shield had come to a halt due to The War, but a handful of matches were still played. Bradman managed to pick up two ducks in the two matches played in the season (he finished with 18 runs at 4.50). The first of these came against Victoria at Adelaide Oval.

Bradman walked out after Kenneth Ridings was run out for a duck. He was up against the young speedster (again!) Walter Dudley, and merely holed out to Sievers. Jack Badcock’s hundred and Grimmett’s bowling, however, turned out to be more than a handful for Victoria, who lost comfortably. 13. Ellis strikes gold The fundraising match between Bradman’s XI and McCabe’s XI had a mismatched bowling attack: while McCabe had O’Reilly and Grimmett (neither of whom was particularly fond of the great man), Bradman had to do with lesser mortals. After Badcock and Sid Barnes scored hundreds and allowed McCabe to declare at 449 for 9, thus, the match was reduced to a no-contest. Bradman walked out after Brown fell early to Jack Ellis. Ellis struck gold again, by having Bradman caught by substitute fielder Gordon Tamblyn, and the two legends shared 16 wickets to lead McCabe’s XI to an innings victory. The main purpose was served, though: a crowd of 20,538 had resulted in revenue of £923. 14.

Bedser’s peach The Ashes resumed after war with Hammond’s men playing in the brightest of moods and Bradman pushing for ruthless victories. It was not quite the “goodwill series” Hammond had wanted, or expected, it to be. They were crushed by the Australian juggernaut at The Gabba and SCG, and by the time the sides reached Adelaide Oval for the fourth Test the Ashes had already been retained. The Test is usually remembered for the twin tons of Morris and Denis Compton , the first time two men had achieved the feat in the same Test. Australia drew the Test, but there was no shortage of drama in their first innings. After Merv Harvey (Neil’s brother) was dismissed by Bedser, Bradman walked out and struggled for a while against both Bedser and Doug Wright. Then Bedser produced a peach to unsettle the stumps. It was Bradman’s last duck at home. 15. Too easy?

The Invincibles began the Test series on a high note at Trent Bridge: Keith Miller and Bill Johnston bowled out England for 165; Bradman and Lindsay Hassett amassed hundreds to provide the tourists a 344-run lead; and despite Compton’s outrageous hundred (184) against Miller and Johnston Australia were left to score only 98. Bradman walked out at 38 for 1 to join Barnes. He struggled a bit against Bedser before the Surrey-man swung one into him late; Bradman had not timed it well, and Len Hutton took an easy catch at short fine-leg. There were no further hiccups as Barnes and Hassett polished off the remaining runs. Video: The law of averages - Don Bradman out for a duck in his last innings Test Cricket Video: The law of averages - Don Bradman out for a duck in his last innings Don Bradman bowled for 0 in his last innings to finish with a career batting average of less than 100.

by Pradeep Kalamegam @PradeepK_tweets Video 14 Aug 2014, 12:10 IST Legendary Australian cricketer Sir Donald Bradman had scored 29 centuries and 13 fifties in his 79 innings and needed just 4 in his last innings to bid adieu from international cricket with a career average of 100+. The right-hander who once said he "doesn't believe in the law of averages" was indeed consumed by the same. The Don was only able to keep out the first delivery he faced, as the next one beat his defence to rattle the timber. With his 7th duck in Test cricket, his average dropped from 101.39 to 99.94. Eric Hollies, the county cricket great who by the end of his career had 2323 first class wickets, is the leg-spinner who deceived the legend with his googly. This is the one dismissal Hollies is still remembered for.

Bradman's runs and records Bradman's runs and records If Bradman had scored just four runs in his last Test innings at The Oval in 1948, he would have finished with a Test average of 100 runs an innings - a level of performance unchallenged by any other batsman at the time, before or since. Bradman was bowled second ball by England's Eric Hollies for a duck. Perfectionists and cricket enthusiasts alike will mourn that dismissal forever. The man himself had a different view. Don Bradman played in 52 Test matches for Australia from 1928 to 1948. World War II interrupted his career at its peak. He batted 80 times against England, the West Indies, South Africa and India for 6996 runs at that average of 99.94. Bradman made 29 Test hundreds. Discounting his 10 not outs and his multiple hundreds, this means Bradman exceeded the century more often than every third time he went out to bat.

His nearest contemporary in batting genius, England's Walter Hammond, made only 253 more runs in 33 more Test matches and another 60 innings at an average of 41 less than Bradman. Hammond's 22 hundreds came at a rate greater than every sixth time he went out to bat. Bradman made 12 Test double-centuries or more, with 334 and 304 against England and 299 not out against South Africa the highest. In all first-class cricket Don Bradman scored 28,067 runs at an average of 95.14 with 117 centuries and a highest score of 452 not out. He hit 37 double-centuries, six of them over 300. Compare that with the likes of the modern day masters such as Border, Lara and Tendulkar. Yet the cricket career of Sir Donald Bradman cannot be measured in mere facts and figures. The Don gave enjoyment not to thousand of people, but to millions. And he didn't mind enjoying himself, either. In 1931 he scored 100 runs in three overs!

NSW cricketer Wendell Bill was batting at the other end. So there it is : 99.94. It is six-hundredths of a sharp single short of 100, or one step down the wicket to the slow bowlers. Some cricket purists are glad Bradman didn't hit that solitary boundary and leave the game with a permanent century against his name. His failure to do so proves to them that even the greatest in the game isn't as great as the game itself.

Question: Who bowled Don Bradman for a duck in his last Test Innings?
Answer: ERIC HOLLIES