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Watch unique colour footage of Don Bradman batting at the Sydney cricket ground. This is so far, the only known colour footage of the legendary batsman.
Sir Donald Bradman is considered by many to be the greatest to have ever wielded a cricket bat. Unfortunately, he played in an era without the technological evidences of today. This has meant that most of us have only witnessed his batting in grainy videos or through anecdotes.
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However, a unique colour footage of the legendary batsmen has been released by the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA). The video shows Bradman walk in to bat at the Sydney Cricket Ground for his penultimate first-class innings.
Watch unique colour footage of Don Bradman batting at the Sydney Cricket Ground
Bradman last played for Australia against England in 1948. Post his retirement, he played in three testimonial matches. His own testimonial match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in December 1948. The match ended in a tie with Bradman scoring his last first-class century.
The Kippax-Oldfield testimonial match at the SCG in February 1949 was the second. His final first-class match in a Sheffield Shield game in Adelaide for South Australia against Victoria.
This footage has been taken from the second of the three testimonials. He scored a brisk 53 off 66 balls in front of a bustling crowd of about 41,000 that filled the SCG on a sunny Saturday to watch Bradman play his last game at the ground.
Bradman’s career spanned over almost 20 years. He played 52 test matches for Australia where he scored 6996 runs at an incredbible average of 99.94! A feat that is yet to be emulated even after more than 70 years!
He was knighted for his services to cricket.
To this day, he is considered the pinnacle of batsmanship. And a generation can thank the NFSA for shedding light on the extremely rare footage.
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