1948 Ashes series
The 1948 Ashes series was that year's edition of the long-standing cricket rivalry between England and Australia. Starting on 10 June 1948, England and Australia played five Tests. Australia had not lost a Test since the Second World War and were strong favourites. Their captain Don Bradman had publicly expressed his ambition of going through the tour without defeat, and Australia won 10 of their 12 lead-up matches, eight by an innings. The England team, however, had several notable players themselves, including Len Hutton, Denis Compton and Alec Bedser. Nevertheless, the final result was a 4–0 series win for Australia, with the Third Test being drawn. They thus retained The Ashes. The Australians remained undefeated for their entire tour of England, earning them the sobriquet of The Invincibles.
The First Test set the trend for the series as England's batsmen struggled against the Australian pace attack and, despite attempting to stifle the Australian scoring with leg theory, fell to an eventual defeat. Failure to contain the Australian batsmen, particularly Bradman himself, plagued the English bowlers, while their batsmen were prone to struggling and collapsing on key occasions, with rain petering the Third Test into a draw. The series saw a number of notable cricketing feats, including a 301-run partnership between Bradman and Arthur Morris, aided by many dropped catches and missed stumpings, during the Fourth Test, and Australia's heaviest win of the series in the Fifth Test, where England were bowled out for 52 in half a day. Australia then made 389, with Bradman making a famous duck in his final innings. England were then bowled out for 188 to lose by an innings and 149 runs in less than three days' playing time.
Test representatives
Match details
First Test, 10–15 June
Since the Second World War, Australia had played 11 Tests and had been unbeaten. In early 1946, they defeated New Zealand in a one-off Test by an innings. The following season, in 1946–47, they won the five-Test series against England 3–0, and followed this with a 4–0 series win over India in the following season. Australia were regarded as an extremely strong team in the lead-up to the tour of England, and Bradman publicly expressed his desire to achieve the unprecedented feat of going through the five-month tour without defeat. Prior to the First Test, Australia had played 12 first-class matches, winning ten and drawing two. Eight of the victories were by an innings, and another was by eight wickets. One of the drawn matches, against Lancashire was rain-affected with the first day washed out entirely.It was thought that Bradman would play Ring, but he changed his mind on the first morning of the First Test when rain was forecast. Johnston was played in the hope of exploiting a wet wicket. Yardley won the toss and elected to bat. England lost leg spinner Wright before the match due to lumbago.
The first innings of the First Test set the pattern of the series as the England top-order struggled against Australia's pace attack. Only twenty minutes of play was possible before the lunch break on the first day due to inclement weather, but it was enough for Miller to bowl Hutton with a faster ball. During the interval, heavy rain fell, making the ball skid through upon resumption. Washbrook was out after the luncheon interval, caught on the run by Brown at fine leg after attempting to hook Lindwall. At 15/2, Compton came to the crease, and together with Edrich, they took the score to 46 before left arm paceman Johnston bowled the latter. Two balls later, Johnston removed Hardstaff without scoring, caught by Miller in slips, an effort described by Wisden as "dazzling". Two runs later, Compton was bowled attempting a leg sweep from the bowling of Miller and half the English team were out with only 48 runs on the board. Lindwall was forced to leave the field mid-innings due to a groin injury and did not bowl again in the match. Johnston bowled Barnett for eight and when Evans and Yardley were both dismissed with the score on 74, England was facing the prospect of setting a new record for the lowest Test innings score at Trent Bridge, the current record being 112. Laker and Bedser, both from Surrey, scored more than half of England's total, adding 89 runs in only 73 minutes. Laker's innings was highlighted by hooking, while Bedser defended stoutly and drove in front of the wicket. Bedser was removed by Johnston and Miller had Laker caught behind two runs later, ending England's innings at 165. Laker top-scored with 63 in 101 minutes, with six boundaries. Johnston ended with 5/36, a display characterised with accuracy and variations in pace and swing. Miller took 3/38 and a catch.
Australia had less than 15 minutes of batting before the scheduled close of play. Barnes made an unsuccessful appeal against the light after the first ball of the innings, which was a wide by Edrich. Morris and Barnes successfully negotiated the new ball by Edrich and Bedser to reach stumps with 17 without loss. Ideal batting conditions and clear weather greeted the players on the second day. Barnes and Morris took the score to 73 before Morris was bowled by Laker's off spin. Bradman came in and the score progressed to 121 when Barnes cut Laker onto the thigh of wicket-keeper Evans. The ball bounced away and the gloveman turned around and took a one-handed diving catch to dismiss Barnes for 62. Miller came in and was dismissed for a duck without further addition to Australia's total. He failed to pick Laker's arm ball, which went straight on, clipped the outside edge and was taken at slip by Edrich.
Laker to this point had taken 3/22 from 12.4 overs. All the while, Australia had been scoring slowly, as they would throughout the day. Yardley set a defensive field, employing leg theory to slow the scoring. Brown came in at No. 5, but he had played most of his career as an opening batsman. Yardley took Laker out of the attack and took the second new ball. Bradman struck his first boundary in over 80 minutes but the run rate remained low. Australia passed England's total before Yardley brought himself on to bowl, trapping Brown leg before wicket in his first over. Hassett came in at 185/4 and Australia batted to stumps on the second day without further loss, ending at 293/4, a lead of 128. Bradman reached his 28th Test century in over 210 minutes, with the last 29 runs taking 70 minutes. It was one of his slower innings as Yardley focused on stopping runs rather than taking wickets.
On the third morning, Bradman resumed on 130, before progressing to 132 and becoming the first player to pass 1,000 runs for the English season. His innings was soon terminated at 138 when he leg glanced an inswinger from Bedser to Hutton at short fine leg. Bradman had batted for 290 minutes and Johnson replaced him with Australia at 305/5. Johnson made 21 before being bowled by Laker, and Tallon took 39 minutes to compile 10 before hitting a return catch to the left arm orthodox spin of Young. The scoring was slow during this passage of play—Young delivered 11 consecutive maiden overs and his 26-over spell conceded only 14 runs. Lindwall came out to bat at 365/7 without a runner and he added 107 runs with Hassett for the eighth wicket. Hassett reached his century and proceeded to 137 in almost six hours of batting, striking 20 fours and a six. The partnership was terminated when Bedser struck Hassett's off stump. Lindwall was caught by Evans down the leg side four runs later, but Australia's last-wicket pair of Johnston and Toshack wagged a further 33 runs in only 18 minutes before Bedser trapped Toshack lbw to end the innings on 509, leaving the tourists with a 344-run lead. Australia had batted for 216.2 overs, the longest innings in terms of overs and the highest total in the series. Yardley placed the majority of the bowling load on his spinners, with Young and Laker bowling 60 and 55 overs respectively. Bedser bowled 44.2 overs, taking 3/113.
At the start of England's second innings, Miller removed Washbrook for one from a top-edged hook shot. Edrich was then caught behind attempting a cut from the off spin of Johnson, leaving England 39/2. This brought together England's leading batsmen, Hutton and Compton, who took the score to 121 without further loss by stumps on the third day. Miller battled with Hutton and Compton through the afternoon, delivering five bouncers in the last over of the day. One of these struck Hutton high on his left arm. The batsmen survived, but Miller received a hostile reaction from the crowd. Nevertheless, the English had the better of the late afternoon period, scoring 82 runs together in 70 minutes, including one 14-run over bowled by Miller where Hutton struck consecutive boundaries. The third day was followed by a rest day on Sunday and play resumed on the fourth morning, a Monday. The Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club secretary, H. A. Brown, broadcast an appeal to the gallery to refrain from their heckling of Miller on the third day.
Hutton resumed on 63 and he and Compton progressed before the light deteriorated. An unsuccessful appeal against the light was quickly followed by a thunderstorm, which stopped proceedings. Shortly after the resumption, Miller bowled Hutton with an off cutter in the dark conditions, ending a 111-run partnership at 150/3. The innings was then interrupted by poor light and upon the resumption, poor visibility intervened for a second time with Compton on 97. After 55 minutes of delay, the umpires called for the resumption. Wisden opined that "rarely can a Test Match have been played under such appalling conditions as on this day". Hardstaff supported Compton in a partnership of 93 before being removed by Toshack, and Barnett was removed by Johnston for six with the score having progressed a further 17 runs to 264/5. Compton brought up his third consecutive century at Trent Bridge, aided by a 57-run partnership with his captain before Johnston held a return catch to dismiss Yardley for 22. England reached stumps at 345/6, just one run ahead of Australia, with Compton on 154 and Evans on 10.
Compton and Evans continued to resist the Australians on the final morning, which was briefly interrupted twice by rain. Miller bowled a fast bouncer at Compton, who moved into position to hook before changing his mind and attempting to evade the ball. He lost balance and fell onto his wicket. He was out hit wicket for 184. He had batted for 413 minutes and hit 19 fours. Wisden opined that "No praise could be too high for the manner in which Compton carried the side's responsibilities and defied a first-class attack in such trying circumstances". Compton's fall at 405/7 exposed the bowlers and Australia quickly finished off the innings within half an hour. Miller bowled Laker, Evans reached 50 and was caught behind from Johnston, who then castled Young. England finished at 441 after 183 overs, leaving Australia a target of 98. Lindwall's absence meant that the remaining four frontline bowlers had to bowl more than 32 overs each—Johnston bowled 59 and ended with 4/147 while Miller took 4/125 from 44 overs. Australia progressed steadily to 38 before Bedser bowled Morris for nine and then dismissed Bradman for a duck, again caught by Hutton at short fine leg. This left Australia 48/2. However, Hassett joined Barnes and they reached the target without further loss. Barnes ended on 64 with 11 boundaries, being prolific on the square cut. Barnes tied the scores with a boundary, but ran off the field with a souvenir stump believing that the match was over. He returned to the field when he noticed the crowd reaction and Hassett hit the winning run.