Across 13 hours and 20 minutes at The Oval in August 1938, the 22-year-old Yorkshire opener Len Hutton scored 364 — surpassing Bradman's 334 as the highest individual Test score and remaining the record for almost 20 years. England declared on 903 for 7; Australia, with Bradman injured and unable to bat, lost by an innings and 579 runs, the largest defeat in Test cricket. Hutton's mark is still the England record 87 years on.
The 1938 Ashes had been drawn at Trent Bridge, Lord's and Old Trafford (rain washed out Old Trafford entirely without a ball bowled). England had won at Headingley by losing five wickets while chasing 105. Australia led 1-0 in the only matches that finished. The Oval was a timeless Test, played to a finish.
England won the toss and batted. Bill Edrich nicked off cheaply; Hutton came in at 29/1. By stumps on day one he was 160 not out, with Leyland 156 not out alongside him.
Hutton walked out on the morning of 20 August with the series tied 1-1 and the Ashes (still held by Australia from 1936-37) impossible for England to win in the conventional sense; only an outright Oval victory in this timeless Test would draw the series. He stayed at the crease across parts of three days. England added 411 for the second wicket with Maurice Leyland (187), then 215 for the sixth wicket with Joe Hardstaff Jr (169 not out).
The innings was an exercise in concentration rather than dazzle. Hutton hit 35 fours and no sixes; he gave essentially no chances. He passed Bradman's 334 to a roar from a packed Oval. Bradman, fielding at the time, walked over to shake his hand — a gesture caught on newsreel and remembered as a model of grace in defeat. Soon afterwards Bradman, bowling himself out of necessity, sprained his ankle in a foothold and was carried off; he could not bat in either innings.
England declared at 903 for 7. Australia, with neither Bradman nor Jack Fingleton (also injured) available to bat, were dismissed for 201 and 123. The margin — innings and 579 — remains the largest in Test history. Hutton's 364 took 847 balls; the strike rate of 43 looks slow now but was steady accumulation in the timeless-Test context, where finishing the innings mattered more than scoring quickly.
The record stood until Garry Sobers's 365 not out against Pakistan at Sabina Park in 1958. The England record still stands. Bradman, asked years later about the moment Hutton passed him, said: 'I was glad to be the first to congratulate him.'
Day 1 stumps: Hutton 160*, Leyland 156*; England 347/1.
Day 2: 411 partnership for second wicket with Leyland (187).
215 partnership for 6th wicket with Hardstaff Jr (169*).
Day 3: Hutton passes Bradman's 334 record to a roaring Oval.
Bradman fields, walks over to shake Hutton's hand.
Hutton out 364 caught O'Reilly bowled Fleetwood-Smith.
England declare 903/7 — then a Test record total.
Bradman injures ankle bowling; cannot bat. Australia 201 a.o.; 123 a.o.
20 Aug 1938
Test begins; England 347/1 by close, Hutton 160*.
22 Aug
Partnerships of 411 with Leyland and 215 with Hardstaff.
23 Aug morning
Hutton passes Bradman's 334 world record.
23 Aug p.m.
Hutton out 364; England 903/7 declared.
24 Aug
Bradman injured fielding; Australia 201 a.o.
24 Aug
Australia follow on, 123 a.o.; lose by innings & 579.
“I was glad to be the first to congratulate him.”
“It was an innings made out of patience and a young man's nerves.”
Australia retained the Ashes 1-1 (drawn series, holders keep). Hutton, suddenly the most famous young cricketer in England, was reportedly mobbed every time he left the Oval; he later wrote that the attention had felt 'unreal, almost embarrassing.' Bradman recovered from his ankle, made his peace with the missed chance to bat, and returned in 1946-47 to score another 6,996 Test runs.
The 903 for 7 stood as the highest Test innings total until 1997 (Sri Lanka 952/6 v India). The 579-run margin of victory has not been beaten in over 85 years.
The longest Test innings of the 1930s, the largest victory in Test history, and a record that remains England's nearly nine decades on.
Hutton's 364 sits in cricket's permanent canon. The Oval Pavilion records it on the honours board; the bat is in the MCC Museum at Lord's. Hutton went on to captain England, become the first professional appointed to lead the Test side (1953-55), and to lift the Ashes in 1953. The world record passed to Sobers in 1958, to Brian Lara (375 in 1994 and 400* in 2004) and to Matthew Hayden (380 in 2003) — but the England record has never moved.
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.