Young Bradman

79 Australia at forward short leg; Tate was also close in, almost square. Others, Hobbs, Hendren, Larwood and Phil Mead, made an inner circle behind the bowler, to stop any drive. White took three wickets for 47 in 28 eight-ball overs; bowlers at the other end meanwhile gave away 101. ‘Have a hit,’ barrackers told Bradman. ‘Have a go both ends,’ they shouted ironically at White. In the second innings of the First Test, Bradman played a ball from White too soon and Percy Chapman, in that ring to the bowler’s left, did not have to move to take the catch chest-high. In his next Test, despite the 79 and 112, Bradman admitted in old age that White tied him down early on: ‘… I was probably being too cautious because naturally I am anxious to cement my place in the team, but as the day went on I became a little more confident; I think that’s all that happened.’ White never got Bradman out in the series again. Another, connected problem was fielding for so long, and then having to bat. Take away the second innings of seven overs when England won the Second Test, and the median number of overs Australia bowled in an innings that series was 183.1; which took about nine hours. Larwood was fast (‘my dear Ballantine’, Percy Fender told the journalist Captain EW Ballantine during the First Test, ‘until you have played against Larwood you have no conception of how fast he is’) yet Larwood first took Bradman’s wicket (for 232), in the Fifth Test in August 1930, the tenth match they faced each other. The medium-pace men - Tate, with his changes of pace and accuracy, and George Geary – got Bradman out most in the 1928/29 Tests, twice each. Vic Richardson, after fielding for those 11 hours in the Second Test, had to open Australia’s second innings in the last hour of the fourth day, and was caught close in by Hendren off Tate for no score; if that had been ‘anxious’ Bradman, his series might have been over. It may have been a good match to be 12 th man. Harold Larwood. Vic Richardson.