On the final day of the Headingley Test of 1948, Australia were set 404 in 345 minutes on a worn fifth-day pitch — a target no side in the history of Test cricket had ever chased. Bradman (173 not out) and Arthur Morris (182) put on 301 in 217 minutes, often against three England spinners and two erratic part-timers used because Yardley wanted a result. Australia won by seven wickets with 12 minutes to spare. It remained the highest successful fourth-innings chase in Test cricket for 28 years and was Bradman's last Test century.
Australia were 2-0 up in the series with two to play. England had pushed hard at Headingley with a first-innings 496 (Washbrook, Edrich) and replied to Australia's 458 (Harvey 112 on debut, Loxton 93) with a positive declaration. Yardley had assumed the worn pitch would do enough to make a chase impossible.
Bradman went into the Headingley Test having already played in Ashes hundreds at Worcester and Trent Bridge on the tour. Morris had a Test century (105) at Lord's. Both men were in the form of their lives. Yardley's declaration, leaving Australia 404 in 345 minutes, was framed by an over rate that Yardley pushed beyond 21 an hour — relying on spin to do the work.
England, set up by Cyril Washbrook (143) and a Compton century, declared their second innings closed at 365/8 on the morning of the fifth day, leaving Australia 404 to win in 345 minutes. The Headingley pitch was worn and dusty, and most observers — including the radio commentary team of John Arlott and Rex Alston — assumed England were playing for the draw and a result favourable to themselves through the spin of Jim Laker, Denis Compton and Yardley.
Norman Yardley's tactic was to push the over rate hard and use spinners almost from the start. With nightwatchman not used and Bill Brown gone for 0, Bradman walked in at 1/0 and Arthur Morris settled at the other end. The Headingley wicket turned, but slowly, and the Australian pair simply attacked. Morris drove handsomely; Bradman, in what would prove to be his last great Test innings, used his feet to the spinners with the certainty of a much younger man.
The pair added 301 in 217 minutes, scoring at over 80 runs per hour. Morris fell for 182 with 47 needed; Bradman, on 173 not out, hit the winning runs with 12 minutes to spare. The chase of 404 stood as the highest successful Test fourth-innings target until the West Indies passed it in 1976; even now it is one of only a handful of 400-plus chases in Test history.
Laker, who finished with 0/93, called it 'the most painful day of my career'. Wisden 1949 wrote: 'It was almost certainly the greatest Test match of recent years, and Bradman's batting on the last day was as great as anything he had done in his life.'
England declare at 365/8, setting Australia 404 in 345 mins
Bill Brown bowled Bedser 0 — Australia 1/0
Bradman in at 1/0; Morris settled at the other end
Bradman-Morris add 301 in 217 minutes
Compton dropped two stumping chances off Bradman
Morris c Pollard b Yardley 182 (Aus 358/2)
Bradman 173* hits the winning runs with 12 minutes to spare
Australia win by seven wickets — record fourth-innings chase
22 Jul 1948
England 496 in first innings (Washbrook 143, Edrich 111)
24 Jul 1948
Australia 458 (Harvey 112 on debut, Loxton 93)
26 Jul 1948
England 365/8 dec second innings
27 Jul morning
Australia set 404 in 345 minutes
27 Jul afternoon
Bradman-Morris add 301 in 217 mins
27 Jul, 12 mins to spare
Bradman 173* hits the winning runs
“It was almost certainly the greatest Test match of recent years, and Bradman's batting on the last day was as great as anything he had done in his life.”
“The most painful day of my career.”
Australia took an unassailable 3-0 series lead. The chase stood as a Test record until West Indies chased 406 against India at Port-of-Spain in April 1976. It is still the highest successful chase in an Ashes Test.
Bradman's 173* was his last Test century. He made 0 in his next and final Test innings at The Oval.
The greatest fourth-innings chase Test cricket had ever seen, and Bradman's last Test hundred. The Invincibles aura made flesh: there was no target they did not believe they could reach.
The 404 chase is etched into Headingley folklore. The ground's Bradman Suite is named for the innings; the Yorkshire CCC museum at Headingley still displays the Bradman scorecard. Successive English captains have cited the day as the cautionary tale against optimistic declarations.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.