22 yards

Don Bradman, 270 vs England, Ashes 3rd Test (1937)

This particular match will go down in the annals of test cricket as one of the most tactical ones of all time. Don Bradman had newly been appointed captain of the Australian team and it seemed to have affected his batting. To give some preface to this match Australia were 2-0 down in the series, losing the first one by 322 runs and the second one by an innings and 22 runs. Bradman had scored two ducks in the previous two tests. Twice had the entire team of Australia been bowled out for a score in the 80s. Voce and Verity were tearing apart the Australian batsmen. Bradman's captaincy and support from the team was being questioned by everyone. In the face of it all Australia started the third test match in a do or die situation. Over 350000 people came in to watch over 5 days which is a record attendance figure to this date.

Australia won the toss and Bradman chose to bat in what were decent batting conditions. But the English bowlers were in relentless form and reduced Australia to 181/6 with Bradman scoring a mere 13 runs. Then it started to rain heavily and play ended for the first day. The second day wet pitch was a torture to bat on. Bradman let the tail wag for 30 minutes and then declared at 200/9 so that the bowlers could take a crack at the English batsmen in the best conditions. England struggled on the wild pitch that many described as the worst they had ever seen. They faltered along to 76/7 when Don Bradman unleashed his first tactical move. He asked his bowlers to not get the batsmen out so fast since that meant they had to face the English bowlers. The next day was a Sunday and a rest day so there was time for the pitch to ease out till Monday.

Bradman was discreet about his motive. He did not want his opposite number Allen to know what he was doing lest he'd declare and send the Aussies in. The English bowlers were confident that no Australian batsman could last more than 10 minutes on that pitch and therefore England finally declared at 76/9 a huge 124 runs short.

Bradman then resorted to wasting a bit of time before he unleashed his second tactical move. He reversed his batting order and sent the tailenders in to bat first. On that pitch your batting skills didn't really matter. You just had to stick in there and leave as many balls as possible. At the end of day 2 Australia had only lost one wicket.

On day 3 the pitch was much better but the English bowlers still posed a huge threat. After sending in more sacrificial batsmen Australia had been reduced to 102/5 and that was when Bradman walked in. Coming in at no 7 he din't have too many partners to bat with, had to face a hungry English bowling attack and the ire of the media which had started calling him a coward for hiding behind tailenders. It also din't help that it kept raining time and again which meant that he had to bat on a wet wicket that he wanted to avoid in the first place. He fell sick too and was down with influenza. Yet he labored on on with inhuman precision and went on to score 270 batting for a total of 7 hours and 38 minutes which was his longest innings. That score essentially pushed England out of the contest and Australia won that test by 365 runs. Such was the effect of that innings that it buoyed the Australians and they went on to win the series 3-2. Bradman scored 212 in the 4th test and 169 in the 5th. This has been the only instance in history where a team that was 2-0 down in a 5 match series went on to win it.

Rahul Dravid took a single off the first  ball of a new spell by Glenn McGrath and watched from the non-striker’s  end as Mohammad Kaif battled for survival over the next five deliveries.

It was October of 2004. The city of oranges was in full bloom,  celebrating the end of a hot summer and licking its lips at the prospect  of a citrusy winter. At the VCA stadium, India,  led by Dravid, was trying to save the “final frontier” on an unusually  green pitch from a marauding Australian team that had already won the  first Test in Bangalore.

Tottering at 75-4 in reply to Australia’s first innings 398, the hosts  had reached a point on the second day of the match where the Kaif-Dravid  partnership was 

the only thing that could, perhaps, save them from  imminent defeat.

At the end of that rare mid-afternoon over from McGrath, the batsmen met  for a conference in the middle of the pitch. “He’s bowling out of his  skin,” Dravid said, and Kaif, having faced five unplayable deliveries,  smiled back in agreement.

“It’s going to be tough,” he continued, “but we have a chance if we can see off this spell. Otherwise it’s all over.”

Kaif said he would do his best, but Dravid told him that he had a better  plan: For the rest of McGrath’s spell, Kaif would stay at the other end  against Warne, while Dravid would take on the might of the Australian  fast bowler playing his 100th Test. 

This, Dravid hastily explained, was not a reflection on Kaif’s calibre  especially since he had been in good form over the last couple of  months. It was just something that he, being the more experienced  player, needed to do at this pivotal moment of the match.

“It’s settled then,” Dravid said, waving away any polite opposition that  Kaif may have had. “No more singles until McGrath is in the attack.  Forget about the scoreboard. You stay put at your end. I will see him  off from this side.”

Dravid scampered across to the business end off the second ball of Warne’s next over and resolutely marked his guard.

Over the next 18 deliveries, McGrath and Dravid were engaged in a kind  of battle that defines Test cricket. McGrath tried everything to entice  Dravid into playing a false stroke, to get him to fish outside off, to  york him, and to take him by surprise with a short ball. Dravid,  stubborn and determined, soaked in the pressure, lunging forward to pat  away deliveries directed at his stumps, and refusing to go near anything  more than an inch outside off.

“It was a spell of bowling that is best watched from the non-striker’s  end,” Kaif said later. “I can’t think of any other batsman who would’ve  volunteered, let alone insisted, to do what Rahul was doing.”

India scored six runs in the next five overs (a two and a four off Kaif’s bat  against Warne) as Dravid cocooned himself from temptation. In the  commentary box, the experts criticised him for going into a shell, for  being over-defensive, for appearing to be clueless against quality  bowling on a seaming track. They didn’t realise that Dravid had assessed  the situation and chosen to face the firing squad alone.

This cat-and-mouse game went on for the next twenty minutes. Two more  overs, Dravid told Kaif at the end of McGrath’s third, and we’ll be home  dry. “He’s starting to get tired now.”

Kaif patted out another maiden, and Dravid negotiated the first five  deliveries of McGrath’s next over without mishap. But McGrath, by now  aware of what was going on, got a ball to leave Dravid ever so slightly,  and kiss the edge before flying straight to Warne in the slip cordon.

The scoreboard recorded an innocuous 140-ball, 173-minute 21 against Dravid’s name. India lost the match two days later.

In the end, it was a small, almost insignificant knock: a tick in the  failures column for a batsman who has succeeded against fiery spells all  over the world. But it showed that he always, unfailingly, even during  his forgotten innings, put the team before himself. More than his  ability, or his records, it was this that made Rahul Dravid special.