Don Bradman and His 100 Runs In Just 3 Overs

Sir Don Bradman once scored 100 runs from just 3 overs back in 1931 in a match between Blackheath and Lithgow. Playing for Blackheath, the 23-year-old completed his century in just 18 minutes in the days when an over constituted of 8 deliveries.

The match, which surfaced in the Blue Mountains region of New South Wales, saw Bradman getting his century in quick time smacking the first over for 38 runs. But what came next was something extraordinary that hadn’t been seen until then.

Sir Don Bradman Scores 100 runs from 3 overs

A local bowler named

Bill Black came into bowl. Sir Don Bradman was reminded by the Lithgow wicket-keeper Leo Waters that Black had dismissed the Australian Test batsman a few weeks before. Bradman, perhaps irritated by Waters’s comments, went after Black, smashing him for 33 runs in an over. The over reading 66424461.

The next over was bowled by Horrie Baker. And Australia’s number three was again on strike as he had scored a single off the last ball of the previous over. Sir Don Bradman improved on Black’s over. He scored 40 runs (64466464) against a hapless Baker who looked like he didn’t have a clue what had hit him.

Black was back on to bowl the next over. And Wendell Bill, an accomplished first-class cricketer himself, turned the strike over to Don with a single. Bradman hit the next two deliveries into the stands, where a massive crowd enjoyed watching in awe. He knocked the next ball around for a single. On the other way Bill did the needful again by giving Bradman the strike immediately. Bradman struck 2 fours and 1 six to complete Black’s misery. Black ended with figures reading 2-0-62-0, having seen his second over go for 16611446.

In total, 102 runs were scored from 3 overs, with 100 of those runs coming from the bat of Bradman. He later got dismissed for 256, a knock that saw 29 fours and 14 sixes.

“Happened by accident”

Speaking about the knock many decades later, the greatest batsmen in the history of the game aired his opinion. He said that the event was unplanned and he surprised himself.

“It’s important, I think, to emphasize that the thing was not planned. It happened purely by accident and everyone was surprised at the outcome, no one more than I. Wendell Bill became one of my staunchest friends, and in later years he said he got more notoriety out of the two singles he scored in those three overs than anything else he ever did in his life,” Bradman said.

Considering the record’s greatness, the cricket fraternity ought to know about it. But considering the lack of video evidence, it is a feat that is remembered largely only by cricket historians.