BRADMAN AND HIS BAT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 63, 14 March 1936, Page 4

BRADMAN AND HIS BAT

PROSPECTS AS TEST CAPTAIN. FEATS LIKE PONSFORD’S. A cable message came through from London, some time ago, stating that the Daily Telegraph had said that V. Y. Richardson is expected to captain Australia against England in the “Ashes” series out here next summer. What the London critic thought about Don Bradman as captain and batsman is not apparent. Ali g°ing well in the meantime, every Australian cricketer —probably Victor Richardson included—expects the little champion to take up the Woodfull niuni.m and lead his countrymen against Ergland in December next. Bradman has shown that he knows a thing or two about leadership by the manner in wh.ch he has steered South Australia to supemacy. Un Al arch 2, when Bradman brought his first-class season to a termination, ! by making 369 against Tasmania, he • completed a thousand runs aggregate. : In nine innings he made 1173 runs at I an average of 130.33. The innings in! succession are 15 and 50 against the j M.C.C. team; 117 against New South Wales; 233 against Queensland; 357 1 against Victoria; 31. against Queensland; 0 against New South Wales; 1 against Victoria; and 369 against Tasmania. He twice topped 300 and, in the second case, made a record for South Australia by eclipsing Clexi Hill’s 365 against New South Wales. Besides, he compiled a 200 innings. Exceptional as Bradman’s scoring has been in the series now closed, it has not equalled the best done by W. 11. Ponsford in this matter of colossal innings in a season. In one summer Ponsford made 437, 336 and 202 and 133. That happened in 1927-8, when he scored 1217 runs in eight innings. The season prior to that he scored a century in each of his six matches, the exact innings being 214 and 54 and 108 and 84 v. South Australia; 352 agains-t New South Wales: 151, 12 and 116 against Queensland, and 131 and 7 against The Rest of Australia. In 10 innings he made 1229 runs!