Don Bradman's Duck - Numberphile
video description
My uncle Peter (who died just short of his 101st birthday in 2014) was among the crowd during the final 'bodyline' test in Sydney, 1933, watching the game with -his- uncle. In that match, Don scored 48 & 71 at a strike rate of approx 100, despite facing fast bouncers bowled at his head, with no protection and a packed leg side field, for a decent part of it. In the second innings, Don stepped away to leg and upper cut Larwood for consecutive fours through the unpopulated cover region, forcing (England captain) Jardine to change his field, and eventually replace Larwood with the slow left armer Verity. Bradman hit two more fours off Verity, a straight drive and a late cut, but later yorked himself attempting to force Verity away.
I heard a great story about Don: he was being interviewed just after the WI speedster Andy Roberts had skittled Australia in Perth, taking 7/54. The late Richie Benaud asked Don how many he would average against bowlers of Roberts' pace, and Don told him -about 50-. Richie asked Don if he was being too modest, and Don replied -well I am almost 70 years old-.
Date: 2022-04-08
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Comments and reviews: 9
Stephen
A couple of comments on that average and his legacy, which I've heard from Bradman himself in interviews.
Firstly, he was not aware when he went out to bat that he only needed four runs for a century average, because averages were not continuously calculated and published as they are now. When he was asked about that final duck (-0-) he seemed not -too- troubled by it, as it was just one detail in a monumental career. He was able to chuckle about it, and said that if the English players knew they probably would have given him the four runs!
Secondly, Bradman considered that his high scores contributed more to his teams than other high scorers contributed to theirs because of the fast rate he scored them, which would take the game away from the opposition in a few hours. He was very much a one man -match winner-.
Of those others with VERY high averages (around 60, the only one noted as a fast scorer (-attacking-) was Gary Sobers. It seems that the ones with 50 to 57 (2: 30) are generally regarded as the -greatest batsmen- - apart from Bradman.
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A couple of comments on that average and his legacy, which I've heard from Bradman himself in interviews.
Firstly, he was not aware when he went out to bat that he only needed four runs for a century average, because averages were not continuously calculated and published as they are now. When he was asked about that final duck (-0-) he seemed not -too- troubled by it, as it was just one detail in a monumental career. He was able to chuckle about it, and said that if the English players knew they probably would have given him the four runs!
Secondly, Bradman considered that his high scores contributed more to his teams than other high scorers contributed to theirs because of the fast rate he scored them, which would take the game away from the opposition in a few hours. He was very much a one man -match winner-.
Of those others with VERY high averages (around 60, the only one noted as a fast scorer (-attacking-) was Gary Sobers. It seems that the ones with 50 to 57 (2: 30) are generally regarded as the -greatest batsmen- - apart from Bradman.
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Spencer
I knew I'd seen this before, but couldn't recall where. Bradman was the only cricketing name I knew before -Slumdog Millionaire- when I caught -Ricky Ponting. - It was only this late summer into fall that I began to study Cricket: I'm a lifelong Baseball fan with all my prejudices and predilections.
Despite its long history of elitism, Cricket is a noble sport no less worthy of appreciation than Baseball. In fact, Cricket trails only International Football as the most popular sport on the planet, with those crazy sub-Continent fans fueling the fire.
But, before I learned about W. G. Grace, Jack Hobbs, the Aborigine team, Bodyline, Garfield Sobers, Geoffrey Boycott, Nawab Pataudi, Ian Chappell, the Four Horsemen of the West Indies, Shane Warne, Jacques Kallis, Brian Lara, Chris Gayle, Sachin Tendulkar, or Virat Kohli - I learned that Don Bradman proved to be human through this video.
I had a geometry teacher who gave 7-question Monday tests and never awarded more than 99. 999% score. So, Don Bradman's career Test average was right up my alley.
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I knew I'd seen this before, but couldn't recall where. Bradman was the only cricketing name I knew before -Slumdog Millionaire- when I caught -Ricky Ponting. - It was only this late summer into fall that I began to study Cricket: I'm a lifelong Baseball fan with all my prejudices and predilections.
Despite its long history of elitism, Cricket is a noble sport no less worthy of appreciation than Baseball. In fact, Cricket trails only International Football as the most popular sport on the planet, with those crazy sub-Continent fans fueling the fire.
But, before I learned about W. G. Grace, Jack Hobbs, the Aborigine team, Bodyline, Garfield Sobers, Geoffrey Boycott, Nawab Pataudi, Ian Chappell, the Four Horsemen of the West Indies, Shane Warne, Jacques Kallis, Brian Lara, Chris Gayle, Sachin Tendulkar, or Virat Kohli - I learned that Don Bradman proved to be human through this video.
I had a geometry teacher who gave 7-question Monday tests and never awarded more than 99. 999% score. So, Don Bradman's career Test average was right up my alley.
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Jongle
Its easy, you fools. He was in 52 Tests. So that is a potential total of 104 innings. But he only dd 80 innings, so that, on average, in one of every five Tests he never came out to bat a 2nd time. He was not out in ten instances with those 80 inningses, so that he was dismissed on 70 occasions. So that against those exactly 70 dismissals he scored 6, 996 runs in all of his 80 innings in 52 Tests. The average is determined exactly on total aggregate of scored runs against the exact number of times your wicket was taken. So that he was exactly 4 runs short of 7, 000 runs as against his wicket being claimed exactly 70 times. 7, 000 runs scored divided by 70 lost wickets is exactly 100.
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Its easy, you fools. He was in 52 Tests. So that is a potential total of 104 innings. But he only dd 80 innings, so that, on average, in one of every five Tests he never came out to bat a 2nd time. He was not out in ten instances with those 80 inningses, so that he was dismissed on 70 occasions. So that against those exactly 70 dismissals he scored 6, 996 runs in all of his 80 innings in 52 Tests. The average is determined exactly on total aggregate of scored runs against the exact number of times your wicket was taken. So that he was exactly 4 runs short of 7, 000 runs as against his wicket being claimed exactly 70 times. 7, 000 runs scored divided by 70 lost wickets is exactly 100.
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Rohan
I think all historical all time lists of averages need to lift the qualification from twenty matches to maybe 22 or 23, for as decent a batsman Voges was, he was NO all timer and doesn't deserve to be on that list, let alone second to The Don. He himself would probably say the same thing. His average is a pure anomaly, achieved in a short end of career stint in tests that came against some fairly pedestrian opposition. It featured one enormous innings in particular, and some handy not outs. If he'd played 50 tests his average would have been much closer to 41 very likely. The rest are legends, some like Pollock were geniuses.
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I think all historical all time lists of averages need to lift the qualification from twenty matches to maybe 22 or 23, for as decent a batsman Voges was, he was NO all timer and doesn't deserve to be on that list, let alone second to The Don. He himself would probably say the same thing. His average is a pure anomaly, achieved in a short end of career stint in tests that came against some fairly pedestrian opposition. It featured one enormous innings in particular, and some handy not outs. If he'd played 50 tests his average would have been much closer to 41 very likely. The rest are legends, some like Pollock were geniuses.
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Ernest
4: 16 A lot of people don't realise that this was Australia's 1st Innings and that it was still only Day 1 of the Test. So England's players certainly didn't know it was Bradman's last innings.
If it hadn't been for England's very poor effort with the bat(52 and 188 all-out) or Arthur Morris' brilliant 196, then The Don would've had the chance to bat a 2nd innings in this Test and score the amount of runs needed to finish with a Test average of 100.
5: 23 A Not Out score of 4 or above would've sufficed.
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4: 16 A lot of people don't realise that this was Australia's 1st Innings and that it was still only Day 1 of the Test. So England's players certainly didn't know it was Bradman's last innings.
If it hadn't been for England's very poor effort with the bat(52 and 188 all-out) or Arthur Morris' brilliant 196, then The Don would've had the chance to bat a 2nd innings in this Test and score the amount of runs needed to finish with a Test average of 100.
5: 23 A Not Out score of 4 or above would've sufficed.
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Bill
You said Bradman walked to the crease knowing it was his last innings and needing 4 runs to have a life time average of 100. This is simply not true. Bradman didn't know he was only going to bat once in that test when he went to the crease. He ended up batting only once because Australia ended up winning the Test by more than an innings i. e. they bowled out Engalnd twice for a combined score less that Australia's total in the first innings. He had no way of knowing that was going to happen.
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You said Bradman walked to the crease knowing it was his last innings and needing 4 runs to have a life time average of 100. This is simply not true. Bradman didn't know he was only going to bat once in that test when he went to the crease. He ended up batting only once because Australia ended up winning the Test by more than an innings i. e. they bowled out Engalnd twice for a combined score less that Australia's total in the first innings. He had no way of knowing that was going to happen.
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Dom
If he wanted to, and the selectors and the rest of the team were willing, at the next test, he could have batted at number 11, scored 4 runs then had the number 10 get out on purpose so he wouldn't have that extra dismissal. I'm sure the other side would have been willing to do that, but then the ABC's GPO box number wouldn't be his average.
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If he wanted to, and the selectors and the rest of the team were willing, at the next test, he could have batted at number 11, scored 4 runs then had the number 10 get out on purpose so he wouldn't have that extra dismissal. I'm sure the other side would have been willing to do that, but then the ABC's GPO box number wouldn't be his average.
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Shay
Hey, I don't think anyone is looking at this video nowadays, but what if: -
Sir Don Bradman played another match and in both the innings, they sent him at the position when the team has scored enough runs. He would score 4 runs and then the team captain will declare. Is this possible as I think he remains not out here.
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Hey, I don't think anyone is looking at this video nowadays, but what if: -
Sir Don Bradman played another match and in both the innings, they sent him at the position when the team has scored enough runs. He would score 4 runs and then the team captain will declare. Is this possible as I think he remains not out here.
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Vishwadeep
1: 51 now I know where that average came from. What a joke.
I wanna see his average after facing bowlers like Bumrah, Starc, Shami, Cummins or the bowlers of late 90s and early 2000s era like Wasim Akram, Curtly Ambrose, Shoaib Akhtar, Glenn McGrath.
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1: 51 now I know where that average came from. What a joke.
I wanna see his average after facing bowlers like Bumrah, Starc, Shami, Cummins or the bowlers of late 90s and early 2000s era like Wasim Akram, Curtly Ambrose, Shoaib Akhtar, Glenn McGrath.
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