Don’s Oval duck and all that

Of the seven ducks Sir Donald Bradman endured in his 52Test career across 80 innings the most significant one was in his final Test innings It was caused by a googly from Englandrsquos Eric Hollies moments after he got a fitting three cheer welcome to the crease by Norman Yardleyrsquos Englishmen at the Oval in 1948Last Monday marked 75 years since this occurrence which threw up cricketrsquos cruel side The gamersquos biggest name was not expected to depart from the international turf in such fashionmdashbowled and that too for a duck Also the zero prevented Bradman from ending up with the 100plus average he so richly deserved and 9994 became part of cricket historyBradmanrsquos duck is brought up in cricket discussions and could also be used as a tool to console someone who is duckstrickenIrving Rosenwater who is credited for writing one of the finest books on Bradman is quoted in Kersi MeherHomjirsquos 1993 book on ducks as saying ldquoIf all the best players in cricket were good enough to avoid ever getting a duck what a boring game cricket would berdquoIn his 1978 book Rosenwater wrote ldquoThe Hollies duckmdashdramatic and decisivemdashis one of historyrsquos most vivid noughts only a little way behind Bradmanrsquos nought at Melbourne in December rsquo32 But Hollies nearly was not on the field at the Oval at allrdquoThe writer then referred to Leslie Duckworthrsquos history of Warwickshire whose then committee convinced Hollies to accept the invitation to travel for the Oval Test While realising that the series was already decided in Australiarsquos favour Hollies didnrsquot believe it was worth missing two county games How Bradman would have wished for Hollies to stick to his decisionOver the years one of the reasons put forward for Bradmanrsquos duck was that he was tearyeyed following the reception given to him by the English team The great Australian denied itldquoGreat exaggerationrdquo he exclaimed even as England batting great Len Hutton who was on the field at the Oval quotes Bradman as saying ldquoItrsquos not easy to bat with tears in your eyesrdquoMeanwhile in Farewell to Cricket Bradman dwelled on the dismissal substantially without being extraordinarily expansive He also threw in a message for cricketers at the end ldquoI dearly wanted to do well It was not to be That reception had stirred my emotions very deeply andmade me anxiousmdasha dangerous state of mind for any batsman to be in I played the first ball from Hollies though not sure I really saw itThe second was a perfect length googly which deceived me I touched it with the inside edge of the bat and the off bail was dislodged So in the midst of my great jubilation at our teamrsquos success I had a rather sad heart about my own farewell as I wended my way pavilionwards In my final matches at Nottingham Leeds Manchester and Lordrsquos I scored centuries so maybe the Oval was just one of those great reminders which are continually being sent to cricketers to keep their feet metaphorically speaking on the groundrdquoNeil Harvey the baby in that Australian team at 19 gives us a peep into what happened in the dressing room when Bradman returned Australia offspinnerturnedauthor Ashley Mallett got him to reveal for the book Neil HarveymdashThe Last Invincible ldquoWhen he reached the dressingroom Bradman sat near his locker and said lsquoWell fancy doing thathelliprsquo rdquo The book also brings to light what Hollies said to teammate Jack Crapp when the crowd clapped for Bradman as he made his way to the pavilion ldquoBest fkg ball Irsquove bowled all season and theyrsquore clapping for himrdquoOn a more serious note Jack Fingleton a former teammate of Bradmanrsquos wrote in Brightly Fades The Don ldquoThe game that had given him so much had denied him at the very last appearancerdquoIn Mumbairsquos Opera House area Dilip Wagle then a 13yearold cricket fanatic kept abreast of what was happening in London via radio commentary as India was one day shy of celebrating the completion of one year of Independence Wagle told me on Tuesday ldquoNo I didnrsquot expect a big score from Bradman I knew that the law of averages would catch uprdquo Bradmanrsquos run of scores leading up the Oval Test was 138 0 38 89 7 30 33 and 173Waglersquos favouriteplayer in the Australian team was charismatic allrounder Keith Miller whom Bradman reckoned was ldquoOne of the most volatile cricketersof any agerdquoAustralia won their fourth Test of the series at the Oval It was a great series for the men from Down Under who were unbeaten right through the tour and were hence known as the InvinciblesLike several tours visiting teams undertook to England the trip did not end with the final TestBradman played six of the seven remaining side games for the Australians and scored four centuriesTalking about centuries the modern player who came closest to BradmanmdashSachin Tendulkarmdashscored his first Test hundred on the same day August 14 that Bradman bid goodbye to Test cricket as pointed out by exIndia player and selector Jatin Paranjape on Twitter recentlyDuck and a hundred being on either side of the spectrum notwithstanding this is a coincidence entrenched in greatnessAnd may cricketrsquos most famous duck continue to be talked about for another 75 yearsmiddayrsquos group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance He tweets ClaytonMurzelloSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper