England 903/7 dec beat Australia by an innings and 579 runs

CRICKET: The name Don Bradman cannot be left out when speaking about cricket. He was such a fine batsman and his name figures in many past milestones in the game. He set the tempo of cricket in the thirties.

He slammed the then world record individual score of 334 playing for Australia against England at Headingley, Leeds, in July 1930, and achieved the astronomical figures of 974 runs in seven innings for an average of 139.14.

In 1934, at Manchester, England declared at 627 for nine in their first innings in the third Test at the Oval, in the fifth Test, the Australians piled on 701 and 327 to win by 562 runs.

Finally in 1938, the domination of the batsmen went beyond all reasonable proportions. In the first Test at Trent Bridge, a massive total of 1,496 runs was scored for the loss of only 24 wickets, and seven individual centuries were scored. There was never any hope of positive result.

Yet the most sensational scoring of all was still to come - in the fifth Test at the Oval, when England, one down in the rubber, declared at the record Testscore of 903 for 7, and dominated so completely that they defeated the Australians by the incredible margin of an innings and 579 runs.

Yet it hardly promised to be a history making Test at the start.

Wally Hammond won the toss for England for the fourth successive time and elected to bat. Len Hatton and Maurice Leylard added 382 runs for the second wicket and that partnership lasted almost six and a half hours. Len Hutton made 364 and Leyland 187 and their partnership for the second wicket realised 382 runs. Australia were out for 201 and following on, 702 runs behind could scrape together only 123 runs in the second innings and England won the match by the massive margin of an innings and 579 runs.

England 1st innings 
L. Hutton c Hassett b O'Reilly 		364 
W.J. Edrich lbw b O'Reilly 		 12 
M. Leyard run out 			187 
W.R. Hammond lbw b Fleetwood Smith 	 59 
E. Paynter lbw b O'Reilly 		 00 
D.C.S. Compton b Waite 			 01 
J. Hardstaff Jnr. not out 		169 
A. Wood c and b Barnes 			 53 
H. Verity not out 			 08 
EXTRAS (B-22, LB-19, W-1, NB-8) 	 50 
TOTAL (for 7 wkts - 333.2 overs) 	903 
FALL OF WICKETS:1-29, 2-411, 3-546, 4-547, 5-555, 6-770, 7-876 
BOWLING: Waite 72-16-150-1, McCabe 38-8-85-0, O'Reilly 85-26-178-3, 
	Fleetwood Smith 87-11-298-1, Barns 38-3-84-1, Hassett 13-2-52-0, Bradman 
	2.2-1-6-0 A.C. de S.