Hi there everyone. Behind me that's the
Adelaide Oval, and I'm here today to
watch a day of Test cricket. And while
I'm here I want to tell you a story.
It's a numberphile-y type story about a
cricketer who was, pretty much without
doubt, the greatest player of all time.
And his name was Don Bradman.
Now the story of his career is often told
through remarkable numbers, really big
ones; yet the most important number, the
one that brought his career to a
bittersweet end is the number zero.
Now you see Bradman was born in 1908 and he
played 52 Test matches for Australia. In
addition to leading the Australian team
to many famous wins, Bradman's personal
career was also exceptional.
[Archive] 'Engand have never won a test on this ground yet. And
it doesn't look like they're gonna win
this one the way Bradman is betting.'
You see, each time a cricketer goes out to
bat they contribute a personal score to
the team's overall total. Now to fully
appreciate this story you're going to
have to understand that if a batsman's
individual tally in one innings reaches
50, a half-century, that's pretty special;
the crowd will give them a cheer.
[Archive] 'He competed his fifty much to the
delight of the crowd.'
But reaching 100, a century, is the Holy Grail.
That'll usually get a standing ovation,
the batsman acknowledging the crowd with
a raised bat. Here's a century at the
Adelaide Oval today.
And here's Don Bradman recognising a
century he once scored - look at that: Bat
in the air.
[Archive] 'Don reaches 99 and we can imagine the
excitement among spectators;
then he does it.'
[Loud Cheers]
Now over the course of
their career a cricketer also has a
batting average. That's perhaps the best
yardstick of their success. And it's easy
to calculate: add together all those
personal totals they make in each
innings and divide by the number of
times the batsman's out. Now here are
some of the best batsmen of all time, you
might not recognise them all but take my
word for it. These are the ones with some
of the highest averages and you can see
they generally average between 50 and 60.
That's considered pretty exceptional,
they're getting a half-century on
average every time they bat. So now what
was Don Bradman's average? - And I try and get
as many runs as I possibly can. And if in
getting those runs I should happen to
break any record, well naturally I'm very
pleased but I do not deliberately set
out to try and break records. - Brady: Well, over
his 20-year career, interrupted by World
War II, Bradman accrued a series of
remarkable scores, and his average soared.
[Archive] 'That's his 200, well done.'
You can see his average
there on the right, going up and down. You
can see it passes a hundred on a few
occasions. [Archive] 'The Don reaches his double
century. Barnes already having got his.'
Brady: And going into his final test here's the situation:
Bradman had scored six thousand nine
hundred and ninety six runs and had been
dismissed 69 times. His average,
incredibly, over 100. Now remember most
cricketers dream of scoring a single
century in their career - Don Bradman was
about to retire averaging a century at
the highest level of the game. And here
he is going out to bat in his final
match in 1948. [Archive] 'Enter Don Bradman who got
a great ovation.'
Bradman needing just four runs before
getting out, that'll take him to 7,000
runs overall; divided by 70 times out
that's a hundred as an average. Four
measly runs! For a man who averages a
hundred per innings. Four runs can easily
be scored with a single swipe of the
cricket bat. Now knowing it's his last
innings Bradman was given three cheers
by his English opponents, very sportsman-like.
[Archive] 'Hollies bowling and Don playing
perhaps his last Test innings here.'
No score here from his first ball, but
that's okay. But his second ball sees the
unthinkable...out for zero. Known in cricket as a duck.
[Archive] 'Well it isn't often you get a big
hand when you make a duck, but this was different.'
Bradman's average had dipped to 99.94,
where it would stay frozen for all
time! Tantalisingly close to 100. It's
gone into cricketing folklore and almost
seems fitting that a player considered
so invincible ended just short of
something that would have been so
perfect. Now you may wonder, why didn't
Bradman postpone his retirement - try to
remedy this? But Australia's next match
was over a year away, Bradman was now 40
years old. And of course he was now in a
position where he would need to score
104 in his next innings. And
that would have been a tougher ask. Now
to this day no one has come close to
Bradman's average. He's so far above
his peers that many consider him the
most dominant athlete of any sport; but
it's this image of a kind of failure in
his final innings that is among the most
enduring. Seeing him so fallible; it just
goes to show nobody's perfect,
not even Don Bradman.
[Music]