5 best Test innings of Sir Donald Bradman

Very rarely do you feel a chill down your spine as an anlayst. But when it’s time to pay tribute to Sir Donand Bradman on what would have been his 106th birthday, yours hands automatically begin to tremble. The truth is no one is even competent enough to judge the greatness of this man. Nonetheless, I try to present his 5 greatest knocks, in a career filled with not only legendary but also fairy tales.Brief IntroductionNot that he needs one, but Bradman was born on 27 August 1908 in Cootamundra, New South Wales, a day the English Team would surely want to wipe off from the calendar. And why wouldn’t they? He plundered, harassed, humiliated, mocked and destroyed them time and again with his peerless strokeplay. Making his debut in 1928 as a 20-year-old, he played for 20 years, ending arguably the most illustrious cricket career till date on 1948. He lost some of his prime years due to the second world war

#5 299* v South Africa, 1932

Not one of Bradman’s fluent best, but certainly his grittiest. South Africa won the toss and chose to bat first. They ended the first day at 265/7 and eventually went on to score 308. Australia ended the day at 302/4, thanks largely to Woodfull and Bradman.

The next day, as wickets tumbled around him like nine pins, he held on his own and played out of his skin. There were times when he was very uneasy; in one particular hour he scored just 25 runs, just about survived a few LBW appeals and close catches, but he was adamant on not throwing it away, again summoning vast powers of concentration. It eventually bore fruit as the conditions got better and he reached 299. But unfortunately, the last man Thurlow was run out in Bradman’s quest for the 300th run, thus ending one of the greatest innings one shy of another triple hundred.

How difficult to bat it was on this wicket can be understood by the fact that no other batsman managed to cross even 100.

Mitchell and Christy showed some resistance for South Africa, but it was just a question of completing formalities for Australia, which they did, Claire Grimmett accounting for 7 of those wickets. Australia needed 70 for victory in the second essay, and they strolled their way towards it.