I won’t go into great depth for the 30th November “On This Day”. I’ve put together part of my epic plan for another piece, previewing tomorrow, as an On This Day special, and so energy is a bit scarce. But the 30th November is a very important date in the cricket calendar because it marked the debut of a very special player.

Yes, on this day Don Bradman made his debut (in 1928).

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/62562.html

He didn’t get to bat until the 3rd December, as England batted most of the first two days and the third was a rest day. He made 18 in the 1st innings, dismissed by Maurice Tate, and 1 in the second, by Jack White. England ended up winning a close, hard fought contest by 675 runs!

UPDATE – I forgot it was also Bert Ironmonger’s debut. Cricinfo suggests he was 45 years old when he made his debut. But if his birthday was in April 1882, and the match was played in November 1928, that makes 46, doesn’t it?

If yesterday’s On This Day reflected a truly awful day at the WACA, then today’s version is much more upbeat. We journey back 30 years to the “Can’t Bat, Can’t Bowl, Can’t Field” tour, and Day 2 at the Perth cauldron. England had had a magnificent Day 1 to reinforce their 1-0 lead in the series. Resuming at 272/2, with Broad Senior on 146 and Mike Gatting on 11, England looked poised for a mammoth score. But not all went according to plan early on. Gatting went with three runs added to his and the start of play score, and although Gower and Broad put on a 58 run stand for the 4^th wicket, both Broad (164) and then Ian Botham (0) went in quick succession.

Enter Clifton James Richards, Surrey legend, and second test cap man. This was to be his day, as he and David Gower took the Aussies apart on a sound batting deck. The partnership was to tally 207 runs, when Gower was dismissed for another brilliant century (136), and Jack Richards was the last man out for 133, as England declared on 592/8. England then had time to bowl a few overs at the home side, and Dilley sorted out David Boon for 2, to leave them 19/1.

The match would subsequently be drawn, as Australia passed the follow-on score, England batted quite curiously on Day 4, and never looked like having enough time to bowl the hosts out on Day 5.

The Almanack reports on Day 2 as follows:

Australia lost their faint chance of recovering lost ground on the second morning when, shortly after Gatting had cut C. D. Matthews to gully, Broad was dropped by Ritchie at third slip in Lawson’s best spell of the innings. Broad added only 15 more before Reid had him caught at the wicket, his innings having spanned 435 minutes and included 25 fours; but by then Gower, given the easiest of starts by C. D. Matthews with two loose balls on his legs, was in full stride with 35, pulling and off-driving with severity and perfect timing. After Botham, pushing on the off-side, had been caught off Reid at second slip, Richards in his second Test played with the such assurance that Gower was content to let him dominate a sixth-wicket stand of 207, during which Richards became the first Surrey player since J. H. Edrich to make a hundred for England in a Test. They had been together 212 minutes when Gower (277 minutes, nineteen fours) was caught at cover after completing his sixth hundred against Australia and his second at Perth. Half an hour later, with a declaration imminent, Richards (sixteen fours) was caught at mid-off, 2 runs short of the highest score by an England wicket-keeper against Australia – A. P. E. Knott’s 135 at Trent Bridge in 1977. Australia’s attack, with the exception of Reid, was short of both accuracy and penetration, Richards relishing especially the off-spin of G. R. J. Matthews in a four-hour innings well attuned to England’s aims.

They were fun days…. Tomorrow we go back into time. A fair old way back, but a very significant one.

All the above and more can be found here..

There are first days, there are bad first days, and then there are really, really bad first days. Taking you back to this day in 1998, England had a weapons grade awful first day at the WACA in Perth. Having got out of jail with the rain in Brisbane, England travelled across country and promptly collapsed in a heap on the first day of the Second Test.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63815.html

I think I’ve said this a few times on this segment, but you really do wonder what BOC would have been like on days like these! England lost the toss and Mark Taylor stuck us in to bat. 39 0vers later, England were dismissed for 112. These were pre- the pace like fire days of Brett Lee, but the Aussie attack of McGrath, Gillespie and the relatively unheralded Damien Fleming ran riot. We didn’t have to worry about, Warne, because he was injured (and brought back for the most blatant homer wicket in recent Ashes history at Sydney – they have no right to moan about The Oval in 2009, but Australian media stars do).

Butcher started the collapse, and within another seven and a bit overs, Atherton and Hussain had joined him. Stewart top scored with 38, but was fourth out at 62. Most others perished in a feeble manner as Fleming took 5/46.

Australia didn’t exactly take pity on England, finishing the day on 150 for 3. Taylor made 61, Slater 34 and England looked for mercy. This was the day one Alex Tudor made his test debut, and he would make his impact the following day. It would matter little. England lost by 7 wickets in three days.

Personally, I remember waking up and seeing the Aussies were batting and thought that we had been given a chasing seeing as Slats and Tubs were at the crease. Then I saw the graphic with England: 112. Joy. We were quite used to it in those days.

On balance, England will be pleased by their efforts today. If yesterday was a case of throwing away an advantage through carelessness, today was about grabbing opportunities when they arose. Good Test matches are about ebb and flow, and today was a perfect example, with India dominant for the first half, England fighting back superbly, only for India to put themselves in a good position by the close.

Any hopes England could extend their innings vanished the moment Adil Rashid was dismissed. 283 all out is enough to be in the game, but no more than that. All those saying that the toss determined the outcome of the previous match forgot to mention that the toss only becomes critical if a team takes advantage of it. England didn’t, and ended up on the backfoot as a result.

With India 148-2 in reply, and Pujara and Kohli well set, it appeared that England were about to pay the price for their profligacy. A brilliant catch by Woakes to dismiss Pujara from a Rashid long hop, a timely googly from the same bowler to dismiss the luckless Rahane for a globe, and a magnificent piece of fielding by Jos Buttler to remove Nair and England were right back in it, indeed they were if anything on top and hopeful of a surprising first innings lead.

That really proved to be as good as it got though. Removing Kohli was a bonus, but Ashwin and Jadeja’s unbroken 67 run stand has got the hosts within 12 of England, and with two such dangerous players in, it could yet be an uphill task from here.

Throughout this series England have been playing catch up cricket, clawing their way back into the game by undoing the self-inflicted damage of the day before. Today was no different, for the pitch looks good, and Ashwin in particular looked in trouble whatever.

Yet there is an opportunity here. If England can get reasonably quick wickets and face no more than a small deficit, then if they bat well second time around – and they need to bat far, far better than they have so far – then there is ample time to bat at their leisure, wait for the pitch to deteriorate and get themselves into a strong position. It is all ifs. India will feel they are capable of a decent lead and bowling England out cheaply, and it’s hard to disagree that is a serious possibility.

But the point is that England have a chance of winning this Test. It’s up to them whether they take it, but there should be no hard luck stories or complaints about getting a raw deal. England have had the advantage here; so far they haven’t made use of it. So far.

A decent day today for the visitors. A decent one tomorrow will do nicely.

Day three comments below

Yeah. We can all do the Ashes for these dates now until the middle of January, but  let’s look at something a little more obscure today. On this day 90 years ago, Leo O’Connor took a Queensland state team on to the field for the first time in Sheffield Shield Cricket against New South Wales at the Exhibition Ground.

Scorecard

Queensland would lose what looks from the scorecard to have been a cracking game of cricket. New South Wales posted 280 and conceded a first innings lead to the home side, only to fight back with 475 in their second innings, and Kippax completing a century in both innings. I note that the supremely talented Archie Jackson (born in Scotland) made 85 in the second dig – he’s a cricketer that has always intrigued me, dying so young, but so talented.

Queensland chasing 400 to win, got to 391, and skipper O’Connor led from the front with 196 before being run out eight runs short of winning the match. There’s a piece on Cricinfo about the game.

Despite the occasional absence of the later Australian international star left-arm bowler, Percy Hornibrook, the Eleven was a strong one. O’Connor immediately performed magnificently as wicketkeeper while only a classic 127 innings by NSW captain Alan Kippax saved his side, who totalled 280. O’Connor opened the innings and saw schoolteacher Cecil Thompson score Queensland’s first Shield century in the first innings and the remarkable allrounder Ron Oxenham push on with a fine match record of 62 and 57 while also taking 7 for 132. A great NSW recovery was led by Kippax with another century and the home State was set 522 to win in the final innings.

Undaunted, Queensland set about the task. Three batsmen, including Thompson, went cheaply and then Oxenham helped his captain in a long partnership. O’Connor showed all his dour fighting spirit and concentration and, after Oxenham’s dismissal, battled on grimly with Brisbane medico Dr Alec Mayes to reduce the gap from 22 to 14 runs. Last man in, H. D. (Bill) Noyes, defended strongly as O’Connor slowly reduced the margin by deftly placed on-side shots-a necessity occasioned by all fieldsmen being placed on the off side to contain the flashing cover shots. Noyes desperately survived the last four balls of an over from Ray McNamee to give O’Connor the strike.

Unfortunately, the famous run-out story has to be recalled. O’Connor – batting with great confidence and with 196 runs against his name – was facing the bowling and on sure placement shots had reduced the runs needed for victory to eight; he had instructed Noyes to run on the last ball of the over. O’Connor steered the ball slowly just to the off side and ran with the ball . . . then tragedy struck as Noyes forgot to do so in the excitement of the occasion! A desperate O’Connor raced back to his crease from more than halfway up the wicket but, alas, just failed to make ground ahead of the throw of Gordon Amos.

“Some people blamed me for that mistake,” said a thoughtful Leo O’Connor, “but, after all, I had scored 196, in first and last out, and Alan Kippax later expressed his opinion that, in any case, I had even then beaten Amos’ throw home!”

Read the full article here.

It would take Queensland a long time to win the Sheffield Shield, but it seems good to commemorate their start in state competition 90 years on…