Bradman’s 18 minutes of carnage

Cricket is blessed to have seen one of the greatest athletes of all time – Sir Donald Bradman. The more I read about this legend the more I get astonished by his achievements. Bradman has not only defined batsmanship but also has set such high standards that his name could replace the word ‘pinnacle’ in the cricket dictionary.

The records created by Bradman are very hard to break for any modern day cricketer even though the playing conditions nowadays are more batsmen friendly then they were two decades ago. Some of his records can be considered beyond reach like his test average or his rate of scoring test centuries (29 hundreds in just 52 tests). Although, I do believe in the cliché “nothing is impossible”, but its expecting too much from a player to have a career like Bradman’s especially, in an era of excessive cricket.

Bradman had a transmission gear in his batting arsenal which he could change whenever the situation demanded. Bradman showed how his style of play could be truly ruthless and murderous for his opposition when he scored more than 300 runs in a single day of a test match. Another such incident of his apocalypse was witnessed by the people of the Blue Mountain town in Australia in the year 1931. The match was played between Blackheath and Lithgow to commemorate the opening of a concrete pitch. Bradman, during the course of his innings, felt the need to go after the bowling and he said to his partner Wendell Bill that “I think I’ll have a go”.

The next 18 minutes witnessed an awestruck admiration from the crowd, teammates and his opponents. He went on to score 100 runs in the span of just three overs. It was an onslaught on the bowlers Bill Black and Horrie Baker who gave away 62 runs in two overs and 40 runs in one over respectively. In this innings Bradman scored 256 runs including 14 sixes and 29 fours.

Although, it is also important to mention here that one over in Australia at that time meant eight legal deliveries but I think that it makes much of a difference to his magnificent feat.

Those three over’s recorded figures of 6, 6, 4, 2, 4, 4, 6, 1 : 6, 4, 4, 6, 6, 4, 6, 4 : 1, 6, 6, 1, 1,4, 4, 6

Even with the advent of T20 cricket his feat seems to be insurmountable, considering, the fastest 100 runs scored by a player in T20 cricket is 34 deliveries by Andrew Symmonds which in itself seems annihilating.