Controversies in 1946

4 incidents documented

Bradman Stands Firm on 28 — The Brisbane Bump-Ball Controversy, 1946

Australia v England

1946-11-29

On the first day of the 1946-47 Ashes, Don Bradman — making his Test return after eight years and visibly out of touch on 28 — chopped a ball from Bill Voce that flew chest-high to Jack Ikin at second slip. England appealed for the catch; umpire George Borwick gave it not out, ruling the ball had bumped from the ground. Bradman did not walk. He went on to make 187, England were beaten by an innings and 332, and Hammond's relationship with the Australian captain never recovered. The wicket-that-never-was framed the entire series.

#bradman#ashes#1946-47

⭐Serious

Brisbane Sticky Wicket — England Bowled Out for 141 and 172, Dec 1946

Australia v England

1946-12-04

Australia's first Test match after the war, at the Gabba in late November 1946, ended in an innings-and-332-run hammering of England — the largest defeat in Ashes history. A pre-monsoon thunderstorm on the third evening turned the wicket into a glue-pot, and Keith Miller (7 for 60) and Ernie Toshack (6 for 82) made it unplayable for an England side already wrung out from chasing Bradman's 187 and Hassett's 128 in a total of 645. The match is also remembered for the bump-ball decision that kept Bradman in on 28 — itself filed under a separate iconic-moment entry — and for Miller's emergence as a Test cricketer of the highest class.

#ashes#1946#brisbane

⭐Serious

Barnes 234, Bradman 234 — The Identical-Score 405 at Sydney, December 1946

Australia v England

1946-12-17

On 17 December 1946 at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Sid Barnes and Don Bradman put together 405 for the fifth wicket against England — and were both out for exactly 234, an identical-score coincidence Barnes later admitted was deliberate. The stand remains the world Test record for the fifth wicket, was at the time the highest partnership for any wicket in Ashes cricket, and helped Australia to an innings win that effectively decided the post-war series.

#sid-barnes#bradman#scg

⭐Moderate

Ray Lindwall's Test Debut — Wellington, March 1946

Australia v New Zealand

1946-03-29

Ray Lindwall — recently demobilised from the Australian Army's New Guinea campaign — took the new ball in his Test debut at the Basin Reserve, Wellington, on 29 March 1946. He took 1/13 and 1/16 in a match completed in two days as New Zealand were dismissed for 42 and 54. Decades later the ICC retrospectively granted the fixture full Test status (March 1948 ratification), confirming Lindwall's first cap in the same match in which Bill O'Reilly bowled the last over of his Test career.

#lindwall#test-debut#australia