111 years ago on 27th August 1908, a boy was born in a nursing home on 89 Adams Street, Cootamundra, 320km south-west of Sydney. His father named him Donald, later became the greatest batsman of all time, Sir Donald Bradman. On his birthday, let’s check out his records and stories from his cricketing and non-cricketing days.
Bradman started his career in 1928 against England at Brisbane, where he scored 18 and 1, was later dropped for the next test match.
No player has even close to an average of 99.94 in Tests and 95.14 in First-Class cricket. The greatness of Sir Don Bradman was his consistency and scoring daddy hundreds. He scored a hundred in every 2.75 innings.
Sir Don Bradman’s Test Hundreds: 112, 123, 131, 254, 334, 232, 223, 152, 226, 112, 167, 299*, 103, 304, 244, 270, 212, 169, 144*, 102*, 103, 187, 234, 185, 132, 127*, 201, 138, 173*.
Records
- Most double-centuries – 12
- Most double-centuries in a series – 3 (1930)
- Most runs scored in a single-days play – 309 Headingley, 1930
- Highest 50/100 run conversion rate – 69.05%
- Only Test batsman to have scored more than 5,000 runs against an opponent (5,028 against England)
- Six times scored 100 runs in an interval (once pre-lunch, twice lunch-tea, three times tea-stumps).
- The highest Test batting average for a 5-Test series; 201.5 v. South Africa (1931-32).
- 7 times scored 500 or more runs in a Test series (Equal with Lara)
- 5th wicket partnership (with Sid Barnes 1946-47) 405
- The record for the highest partnership for any wicket by Australia against all countries was established by Don Bradman and Bill Ponsford at The Oval in 1934 (451 for the second wicket).
Facts
- Bradman was never stumped in Test matches.
- Sir Don never played for any county team. He is the only player to score 100 First Class Hundreds without playing for a county.
- Bradman is the only Aussie who has twice scored a century and a duck in the same Test.
- As a teenager, he would hit a golf ball with a stump into the brick base of the family water tank to develop hand-eye coordination.
- Knighted in 1949. The only Australian cricketer ever to receive a knighthood and the first Test cricketer so honored.
- In 2000 he was voted the greatest cricketer of the 20th century by Wisden Cricket Almanack. This decision was unanimous amongst the 100 judges.
- Voted the greatest male athlete of the past 200 years by the Australian Confederation of Sport in 1988.
- Bradman’s average in Test matches reached 50 with his 3rd innings and stayed above 50 for the rest of his career
- Against India, Don Bradman averaged 178.75 in 6 innings. His average against all countries in 80 innings was 99.94
- He had joined the army in 1940 as a Lieutenant. He was discharged in 1941 after suffering from fibrositis thrice.
- The government of Australia recognized the greatness of Sir Donald Bradman and issued a postal stamp in his respect. On August 27, 2008, the birth anniversary of Don Bradman, the government had minted the gold currencies of worth $ 5.
