When Don Bradman scored 100 runs in just 3 overs

Sir Don Bradman

Sir Don Bradman is said to have scored 100 runs from just 3 overs back in 1931 in a match between Blackheath and Lithgow. Playing for Blackheath, the then 23-year-old completed his century in just 18 minutes in the days when an over constituted of 8 deliveries.

The match, which was held in the Blue Mountains region of New South Wales, saw Bradman get to his century in quick time having hit the first over he faced for 38 runs. But what came next was something extraordinary that hadn’t been seen until then.

100 runs from 3 overs

A local bowler named Bill Black came into bowl and Bradman was reminded by the Lithgow wicket-keeper Leo Waters that Black had dismissed the Australian Test batsman a few weeks before. Bradman, perhaps irritated by Waters’s comments, went after Black, smashing him for 33 runs in an over. The over read – 66424461.

The next over was bowled by Horrie Baker and Australia’s number three was again on strike as he had scored a single off the last ball of the previous over. Bradman improved on Black’s over as he scored 40 runs (64466464) against a hapless Baker who looked like he didn’t have a clue what had hit him.

Black was back on to bowl the next over and Wendell Bill, an accomplished first-class cricketer himself, turned the strike over to Don with a single off the first delivery. Bradman hit the next two deliveries into the stands, where a massive crowd were left watching in awe. He knocked the next ball around for a single and Bill did the needful again by giving Bradman the strike immediately. Bradman struck 2 fours and 1 six to complete Black’s misery. Black ended with figures reading 2-0-62-0, having seen his second over go for 16611446.

In total, 102 runs were scored from 3 overs, with 100 of those runs coming from the bat of Bradman. He was later dismissed for 256, a knock that saw 29 fours and 14 sixes.

“Happened by accident”

Speaking about the knock many decades later, the man considered to be the greatest batsmen in the history of the game said that the event was not planned and he, himself, was taken aback by what had happened at the time.

The Blackheath Cricket Team (via Bradman Foundation)

"It's important, I think, to emphasise that the thing was not planned. It happened purely by accident and everyone was surprised at the outcome, no one more than I. Wendell Bill became one of my staunchest friends, and in later years he said he got more notoriety out of the two singles he scored in those three overs than anything else he ever did in his life," Bradman said.

Considering the greatness of the record, one thinks that it should be rather well known to the cricket public, but considering the lack of video evidence, it is a feat that is remembered largely only by cricket historians.