Lives in Cricket No 48 - Maurice Leyland

Ashes to Ashes 107 this series and it had been suggested that England would need to win the series before that luck changed. How true that prophecy. The great man went on to make 270 in this second innings and when Australia were finally dismissed they had taken their total to 564 and set England a target of 689 runs to win. For all his grit and determination this was surely a task even beyond Maurice? In the event, he marched out to the middle with the score on 65 for two and he was still there the following day, unbeaten on 111 when England’s final wicket fell on 323. There was a 52 run stand with Hammond (51) for the third wicket and 111 for the seventh with Walter Robins. It was the latter partnership that prompted that oft repeated, “We’re 500 behind, we can’t get them all tonight!”, remark from Maurice after a rash stroke from Robins at the start of their stand. As it was, they did frustrate the Australian attack no end but following Robins’ eventual departure on 306 there was no one left with the heart, or guile, to stay out in the middle and the last three wickets added only 17 runs. Bouncing back from a defeat by 365 runs was a daunting task for England but they initially had a good stab at it. Batting first, Australia had seven down for 267 at the end of the first day’s play in the Fourth Test, at Adelaide, then Maurice caught his old adversary O’Reilly, off Allen, early on the second morning, and the last two followed quickly with the final total reaching 288. England, needing a good start, gambled and lost with Verity (19) opening as Charlie Barnett’s partner, Hammond (20) followed with the score on 108 and though Maurice upped the tempo slightly he still had only 35 to Barnett’s 92 at the close of a slow scoring day. The stage was perfectly set for Maurice to take the initiative on the third day but Fleetwood-Smith, who was to enjoy one of his best Tests ever against England, dismissed him for 45 and his four for 129 return helped restrict England’s lead to 42 despite an innings of 129 from Barnett. From this point it was downhill all the way. Bradman, having started the series scoring 38, no score, no score, 82 and 13, followed his second innings 270 at Melbourne with only 26 in the first at Adelaide but 212 out of 433 left England needing 392 to win in the fourth innings