Young Bradman

67 New South Wales After three days, New South Wales led on first innings, 533 to 422, and then looked like failing yet again in their second innings. Blackie bowled Jackson, and caught and bowled Morgan first ball, so that Bradman joined Kippax at 86 for four, facing a hat-trick. ‘Blackie tried to entice him down the wicket when he first came in,’ Mailey wrote that night in the Sun , ‘but the Bowral lad stayed at home.’ Once more, Bradman showed how he was prone to getting himself out, this time by faulty running – whether because of his shoes, or bad judgment. Bradman played the ball wide of mid-on, and ran. Kippax sent him back. Bradman slipped - lost his bat, some said - and was stranded in the middle of the pitch. Francis Morton’s return was bad, the Melbourne Age grumbled, ‘but Ellis should have certainly taken it.’ Bradman rescued New South Wales, first with Kippax, then Oldfield. Some wished that Kippax had declared an hour or half an hour before the close, when Bradman was in the 90s. Whether Kippax was letting Bradman make a century, or wanted rather to deny Victoria any reasonable last innings target in a high-scoring match, the Herald saw how Bradman ‘scratched about in most immature fashion for 15 minutes’, and ‘threw away singles’, perhaps a sign of more bad running. The tired Victorians showed how they felt as Hendry bowled at half pace and Woodfull let Ponsford bowl three overs of leg breaks. He bowled three more in his career. The Herald called it a farce. That was a pity, because as the Herald pointed out, Bradman had saved the match for New South Wales, ‘against bowling of as high a quality as he has met to date’. Bradman’s 134 had saved the match for New South Wales. Ten of the 22 in that match had played in Tests. ‘Probably there are many more accomplished batsmen, so far as stroke equipment is concerned, in Sydney grade cricket,’ the Herald summed up, ‘but none who has the temperament to go in as he did when wickets were falling Victoria and Australia wicket-keeper Jack Ellis.