2nd Test - Melbourne Cricket Ground

The Match Report - click on the required day for session report.

Day 2 - report
Day 3 - report
Day 4 - final day - report

Day 1 Report & Background information

Up until the first morning's play the Australian captain Woodfull had no idea if he was to play or not due to his lack of form. The Australian board of control were in a panic and no idea on what was the best course of action. The fact that they were considering dropping him seemed unbelievable to most parties involved, all but the selectors it seemed! If they had decided in their wisdom to unceremoniously to drop their captain, I doubt very much if they would have survived the public backlash.

The following is a piece taken from 'The Australasian' indicating that feelings were running high …

'The Board, whose members are unknown when cricket is the subject under discussion, are no doubt doing their best for the game according to their lights, yet there is no affinity between them and the players, and it is no good for the game. As an instance one little act will be sufficient to show the Board's hostility to the players. It is reported that the Board recently decided upon giving a dinner at which the English team were to be invited, invitations not being sent to the Australian team. It seems scarcely credible; and yet it has never been contradicted, to my knowledge. One would like to know the reason for such discrimination. To save the situation, Canon Hughes (President of the Victorian Cricket Association) came to the rescue, the result being that both teams were entertained to dinner on the night of the second day of the match. The Board might have little confidence in the players, but it can be stated without fear of contradiction that the players have less confidence in the Management.'

Together with the Bradman situation of whether he would accept the Boards decision to play and not report on the game, they found themselves on a sticky wicket! It would have been interesting to see how the Australian public would take to Bradman writing about the test match instead of playing at such a difficult time for the home side. However, it does seem as though there were double standards at bay as throughout the series, at least 2 other players were in the habit of broadcasting their views at the end of the day's play. Jardine's thought on the matter ' I may be old-fashioned, but I fail to see what useful purpose can be served by such performances'. If Jardine was around in today's game, I am certain he would re think this comment!

The Board finally decided on three changes for the Second test, namely O'Brien, Ironmonger and Bradman coming in at he expense of Ponsford, Kippax and Nagel. With the choices made, both the Australian batting and bowling line-up were strengthened as a result. England made one change for the Second test, Bowes coming in at the expense of Hedley Verity. The change justified by Jardine due to the help expected for the fast bowlers.

The First Day

Once again Woodfull won the toss and elected to bat, Larwood bowling with the slope and win opened with Voce. Unusually for Woodfull on going in to bat with Fingleton (Ponsford dropped) he decided not to take the first ball - a possible indication of the stress and anxiety he was under during the troubled times. Larwood unable to find any assistance in his first over switched to Leg Theory in his second and by the 3rd over, the bowling attack were suffering with the ball as the seam had come undone.

As we are aware in more modern times, if a ball has to be replaced, one similar in condition is used. However in the 30's this was a new rule and one that had to be accepted by the Board of control. This rule was not helped by the fact that there were few balls around that were only a couple of overs old, therefore a new ball was used. One of the umpires left the field to check on the legality of this situation and during his absence Woodfull remarked to Jardine that he thought it unfair that a brand new ball was to be used. As a matter of calming the situation Jardine offered a compromise to the Australian captain, allowing him to knock the ball about until he was satisfied with it's condition!

With play resumed, Larwood ended his spell without taking a wicket and Australia looked comfortable on an easy track. Jardine called up Allen as a first change and he wasted no time in clean bowling Woodfull with the score on 29. Nawab of Pataudi was instrumental in the second dismissal, running out O'Brien with the score on 67 who in turn showed poor judgement on his run. Bradman looking better from his self imposed rest walked out and took guard as the packed Melbourne crowd looked on. Bowes came in and what can only be described as a rash shot for a batsman of Bradman's quality, the crowd fell silent as he attempted to hook a fully pitched ball . The rest seemed to have affected his judgement and his timing, Bradman was left ruing the decision as he looked down to see his stumps in a heap on the floor.

The wicket was lifeless and with Larwood struggling with his feet (due to the boots), the English attack was finding conditions harder to cope with than they had hoped. The crowd set upon Larwood with great delight on seeing the great Nottinghamshire bowler in agony. McCabe struggled and was not a patch on the cricketer from the first Test at Sydney and pushed a loose ball to Jardine (gully) off Voce for 32 runs. With only an hour left in the days play, Fingleton (83) fell to Allen (clean bowled) and Australia were looking weak at 5 for 156. Oldfield and Richardson put on 32 runs for the 6th wicket when Voce broke the partnership, this time thanks to Hammond's catch at backward square leg. Just on the stroke of time, Voce claimed another victim (Grimmett) clean bowling him for 0, and with it came the end of the days playon a wicket deemed unfit to play Test cricket on by the visitors.