Bradman versus Warne

[b555]

Having watched epic contests between Shane Warne and Sachin Tendulkar - the master bowler of the age versus the champion batsman - I have always wondered how Don Bradman would have dealt with the sublime spin of Warne. How I wish Albert Einstein realised that things could go faster than light, and a time machine was potential reality. Perhaps not in our time. However, in the absence of technology, we can use our imaginations. We can look at old footage of Bradman and film of Warne; we can research and analyse and use part of the large portion of the human mind science tells us we usually don't utilise, to visualise such a contest. Sometimes the unreal melds with the real, but fantasy is fantasy. Or is it? As the clock struck the hour, fans in their thousands poured into the Sydney Cricket Ground to witness first-hand the greatest cricket battle of them all - Bradman versus Warne. Sid Barnes, stalwart of the 1948 Invincibles, and Arthur Morris' opening partner, fell to Warne's second ball, a hard-spun legbreak that left the bowler's hand and curved down the pitch in a lovely arc, fit to send Banjo Paterson into poetic song. As Barnes probed forward, the hissing Warne legbreak ducked swiftly, like a diving Spitfire, and the batsman's failure to cover the length and breadth of spin presented Mark Taylor with a dolly at first slip. Already 50,000 people had packed the SCG, and they rose as one to give the greatest batsman of all time the most magnificent reception. Barnes tried in vain to mention to Bradman that the ball was dipping wickedly and that the legspin magician had it on a string, but The Don was in no mood to talk to anyone about the merits of a bowler for whom he had great respect but dearly wanted to thrash unmercifully. On the 1930 Australia tour of England, the brash 20-year-old batting phenomenon told his team-mates: "Plenty of batsmen watch the bowler's fingers, hoping to detect what sort of ball he's going to deliver, but that's no good to me. Let me see the ball coming and then I'll decide the best place to hit it." Never would he stop on his way to the wicket to hear the out-going batsman describe the amazing swing, cut or spin the bowler had achieved to cause his downfall. Maybe Clarrie Grimmett, the greatest legspinner between the wars, had told Bradman of the Test trial at the SCG in 1925, when Grimmett spun one a good deal to trap Tommy Andrews and then watched the departing batsman and saw how he stopped to chat to the man next in, Alan Kippax. There was Andrews demonstrating with arms outstretched how the ball that got him "spun a mile". Kippax lasted one ball: a fizzing Grimmett topspinner ripped between bat and pad to hit middle stump as Kippax played with his bat away from the pad to counter the excessive turn he expected. The stage was set. Taylor remembered how Sachin Tendulkar attacked Warne in India and succeeded with big hundreds in three innings. Would Bradman go at Warne in similar vein? Bradman took guard, looked about the field, and took up his stance. Warne had a slip, backward point, short cover, extra cover and mid-off. To the on side was a man behind square leg, a very straight midwicket, mid-on, and a man in the deep just in front of square. The crowd fell silent. They knew this contest would provide something special, for both players were at the pinnacle of their powers. While the likes of Victor Trumper came from an era where a batsman, after hitting a century, looked for a worthy opponent to "present" his wicket to, Bradman simply marked guard afresh and went for the next hundred. He was totally ruthless and was said to have targeted bowlers, setting out to destroy them on the field. Once, in a grade match in Adelaide, he went to the wicket late on a Saturday afternoon. The big fast bowler standing at mid-on looked like he might possibly ruffle the champion's feathers if he bowled fast the next over on the green track in bad light. So the Don hit all eight deliveries of his first over just out of reach of mid-on. By the time the over ended and he was expected to bowl to Bradman, the poor man was so exhausted he couldn't scratch himself. Now Bradman was up against Warne, the man he had said in the late 1990s, was "the best thing to happen to Australian cricket in 30 years". Around that time Bradman invited Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne to his Kensington Park home in Adelaide. It was a pleasant change from having busloads of people - even Japanese tourists - turn up unannounced to snap their cameras in a frenzy of celebrity worship. More : http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/548297.html

[adi B]

heck even younis khan is better than bradman :hysterical: