Teja.
Global Moderator
Apart from two of us, none of the regular posters here have seen Bradman bat/lived and grew up around the time Bradman was in his prime. Yet the bond that develops with happenings of the past purely from opinion, records and the like is rather special in my opinion, due to the optimistic purity of it. (whether that misguides us in judging it is another question for another day)
Bradman's cricketing career is, rightly, the most celebrated and remembered among generations born later. Sometimes the fact that he averaged what he did leads to newer fans worshiping his numbers and looking it little else but that's a bloody shame IMO because he had one of, if not the most fascinating career, in many ways in cricketing history.
The most remarkable aspect for me was his tendency to play some absolutely stunning innings' at a ridiculous frequency. One would expect a batsman who racked up such huge scores to perhaps have been an accumulator but it's incredible to see that a considerable number of his most memorable ones, the ones which stand out the most even if scoring rate is not looked at, were actually scored at mind-boggling speeds especially for those times.
So what is your favourite Bradman innings? For me it's the 103* in the second ashes test, I know Larwood was injured for a portion of that innings but the sheer romance of it, Bradman, the best batsman by far in the world missing the first test, getting bowled out for a duck in the first innings and then scoring an unbeaten 103/191 in the last over of the Australian innings on the third day with 70,000+ people at the MCG in under 150 balls! A few classes above any other knock in the game and considering the match was a 228-169-191-139, a thumping victory margin of 119 runs shows how impressive that knock would've been on a deteriorating third day pitch. For me it's a better innings than McCabe's 187, impressive as it was and probably more important from a purely tacking bodyline POV as it was. According to the Wisden report "To few other Australian batsmen could such an innings as Bradman played have been possible"
Be good if someone could shed some light on some great Bradman FC tons too. As impressive a statistical monument as his Int'l record is, in my opinion.
Bradman's cricketing career is, rightly, the most celebrated and remembered among generations born later. Sometimes the fact that he averaged what he did leads to newer fans worshiping his numbers and looking it little else but that's a bloody shame IMO because he had one of, if not the most fascinating career, in many ways in cricketing history.
The most remarkable aspect for me was his tendency to play some absolutely stunning innings' at a ridiculous frequency. One would expect a batsman who racked up such huge scores to perhaps have been an accumulator but it's incredible to see that a considerable number of his most memorable ones, the ones which stand out the most even if scoring rate is not looked at, were actually scored at mind-boggling speeds especially for those times.
So what is your favourite Bradman innings? For me it's the 103* in the second ashes test, I know Larwood was injured for a portion of that innings but the sheer romance of it, Bradman, the best batsman by far in the world missing the first test, getting bowled out for a duck in the first innings and then scoring an unbeaten 103/191 in the last over of the Australian innings on the third day with 70,000+ people at the MCG in under 150 balls! A few classes above any other knock in the game and considering the match was a 228-169-191-139, a thumping victory margin of 119 runs shows how impressive that knock would've been on a deteriorating third day pitch. For me it's a better innings than McCabe's 187, impressive as it was and probably more important from a purely tacking bodyline POV as it was. According to the Wisden report "To few other Australian batsmen could such an innings as Bradman played have been possible"
Be good if someone could shed some light on some great Bradman FC tons too. As impressive a statistical monument as his Int'l record is, in my opinion.
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