Sir DONALD BRADMAN
Sir Donald Bradman is arguably the greatest cricketer of all time. His statistics are incredibly superior to anyone else even to this day. He played in 52 Test matches for Australia from 1928 to 1948. He batted 80 times against England, the West Indies, South Africa and India for 6996 runs with an average of 99.94. The next best average in history is around 60.97 by Graham Pollock of South Africa. Current top playing cricketers have an average of around 50.
Beginnings:
He was born at Cootamundra, New South Wales but later moved to Bowral in the southern highlands of NSW. As a cricketer, Bradman practised obsessively during his youth and would practice his now famous, cricket game using a single stump and a golf ball hitting it off the rounded water tank. As a scorer for the local Bowral team, Bradman would play a few games for the team when they were short on players in the 1920-21 season. When he finished school in 1922 he took up work at a real estate agent and took up tennis. However he returned to cricket in the 1925-26 season playing for Bowral. During this time, he made 234 runs against Wingello against the great bowler, in Bill O’Reilly and in the final against Moss Vale, he made 300 runs, which attracted a lot of attention.
When an ageing Australian team lost the Ashes in England, a number of players retired, many of whom were from New South Wales. The cricket board were looking for new players and in time Bradman got his opportunity. He played his first state game against Adelaide at the age of 19 where he made 118 runs, and later would make another century against Victoria. It wasn’t until the 1928-29 season when England returned to defend the Ashes that he got his chance. He was chosen for the First Test in Brisbane where England dominated to win by 675 with Australia’s entire team making 66 in the second innings. He was dropped for the Second Test but was reinstated in the Third Test in Melbourne, where he made 79 and 112 to become the youngest man to make a Test century. Bradman would continue his great start to his career with another century in the last Test to help Australia gain their only win in the 1-4 loss to England. He completed the season with 1690 runs (at 93.88), still the record tally for any season played in Australia.
Domination 1930 Tour
In the next season before heading to England, he averaged over one hundred in a season. His standout performance was 124 and was last man out which was followed up with a second innings score of 205 not out made on the same day!! due to the team having to re-bat according to the follow-on rule. In the same season he amassed a record 452 not out against Queensland in only 415 minutes.
During the 1930 tour of England he smashed his way to record scores. His most notable being 224 runs in the second Test and 334 in the Third Test of which 309 was scored in the first day. The tour ended in an Australian victory with Bradman amassing 974 runs at 139.14 average.
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