On this day: Sir Don Bradman gets to his 100th first-class ton
India toured Australia in the 1947-48 season for a 5-match Test series but spent nearly four months playing against the state teams. Their tour began with drawn games against Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria respectively. Later, they toured Sydney to take on New South Wales which the home team won by an innings margin. The Indian team were next slated to face the Australian XI led by Sir Donald Bradman who was stranded on 99 centuries in first-class cricket.
Indians posted 326 in the first innings after electing to bat first thanks to a 97-run partnership for the 10th wicket between G Kishenchand (75*) and JK Irani (43). Earlier, the visitors suffered a 7-wicket collapse as they went down from 161/2 to 229/9. They later got both the openers of Australian XI for just 31 runs on the board before Bradman took charge. On 15th November 1947 (the 2nd day of the game), the Australian skipper produced a gem of a knock that was spread across 177 minutes.
Don Bradman struck 172 while batting at No.3 with help of 18 fours and a six which put the Australian team on the top. He put on 262 for the 3rd wicket with Keith Miller (86) as the deficit came under 50 runs with 8 wickets in hand. Bradman fell in the bowling of Vijay Hazare at the score of 283 and four runs later, Miller was cleaned up by Vinoo Mankad. Later, the Australian XI collapsed from 346/4 to 380/10 and had lost eight wickets for 97 runs from Bradman’s dismissal.
#OnThisDay in 1947, Don Bradman hit his 100th First Class hundred pic.twitter.com/RfSZDLm0fg
— ICC (@ICC) November 15, 2015
Milestone knock in vain:
After conceding a 54-run lead to the home team, the Indians piled on 304/9 in the second essay. They declared the inning to set a target of 251 in front of the Australian XI team. The 4th innings was all about the all-rounder Vinoo Mankad who ran through the home team’s batting with an 8-wicket haul adding to his two wickets in the first innings. Bradman was dismissed for only 26 runs this time around as the Australian XI were bundled out for just 203 and conceded a 47-run win to the visiting Indians.
This was Indian team’s maiden win on their Australian tour but went on to suffer a 0-4 defeat in the 5-match Test series. The 172-run knock turned out to be just the 8th century in FC cricket of Bradman which ended up on the losing side. The great man went on to make another 17 tons in this format but none resulted in a defeat. Of the 25 players who have scored as many as 100 first-class tons till date, the only player whose 100th FC ton resulted in a defeat was Bradman.
The start of ‘Mankad’:
Vinoo Mankad, who claimed eight wickets in the second innings, also added the wicket of Bill Brown by running him out while backing up at the non-striker’s end. The runout was possibly the start of an Australian XI’s collapse. A repeat of this dismissal was witnessed at the Sydney Cricket Ground again during the 2nd game of the Test series. Amidst a lot of talks over Mankad’s sportsmanship, the Australian captain Sir Donald Bradman stood on Vinoo’s side and defended the Indian team’s actions who apparently warned Bill Brown before running him out.
