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The First Test of the 1948 Ashes series was one of five Tests in a cricket series between Australia and England. The match was played at Trent Bridge in Nottingham from 10 to 15 June with a rest day on 13 June. Australia won the match by eight wickets to take a 1–0 series lead. The Australians started the match as firm favourites, having won the previous series against England 3–0; in the lead-up to the 1948 series, they had won 10 of their 12 tour matches in England, mostly by large margins. This included a crushing innings defeat in a match over the Marylebone Cricket Club—a team consisting almost entirely of Test-capped and current England players. England captain Norman Yardley won the toss and elected to bat on a cloudy day. After the first morning was interrupted by inclement weather, the Australian fast bowlers quickly made inroads into the English batting. Despite the loss of leading Australian paceman Ray Lindwall with a groin injury, the hosts had difficulty against his colleagues and fell to be 74 runs for the loss of eight wickets (74/8). However, a rearguard action by tail-enders Alec Bedser and Jim Laker saw England reach 165, Bill Johnston taking five wickets for 36 runs (5/36) for Australia, while compatriot Keith Miller took 3/38. Laker top-scored for the hosts with 63. The tourists then reached 17 without loss by stumps. On the second day, Yardley attempted to slow the Australian batsmen by employing leg theory, a defensive strategy that sought more to contain the opposition than to attack. As England had batted poorly in the first innings, allowing Australia to take the lead quickly, the home team sought to slow the tourists' momentum and force a drawn match. Despite the tactics, Australia reached 293/4 at the end of the day's play, captain Donald Bradman having registered his 28th Test century. Although Bradman and his batsmen made gestures indicating frustration at England's stifling tactics, they remained patient as there was still much time left in the match for them to convert their dominance into a victory. The next morning, Bradman departed for 138, the first in a series of dismissals in the leg trap, but his vice-captain Lindsay Hassett continued, making 137 and putting on a century partnership with Lindwall as Australia were eventually out for 509, giving them a 344-run first innings lead. Laker was the leading bowler, taking 4/138. England reached 121/2 by stumps on the third day, which ended with a hostile crowd reaction to Miller, who bowled a large amount of bouncers at Len Hutton and Denis Compton. After the rest day, play resumed in poor visibility, with frequent interruptions due to rain and bad light. England's batsmen progressed steadily as Australia struggled in Lindwall's absence, which forced his fellow bowlers to bear a greater workload. Hutton made 74 and Compton batted through the entire day to be unbeaten on 154, with England one run ahead at the close of play, on 345/6. Compton's innings in the difficult conditions was highly praised and his team still had a chance of hanging on for a draw if the lower order could bat for a large part of the final day. The next day, Australia prised out the remaining wickets and England were dismissed for 441, with Compton out for 184 after falling on his stumps. Miller and Johnston had both taken four wickets. Australia then made the 98 runs required for victory with the loss of two wickets; opener Sid Barnes made his second half-century for the match in the pursuit. == Background == Prior to the First Test, Australia had played 12 first-class matches since arriving in England and starting their campaign in late-April, winning ten and drawing two.〔 Eight of the victories were by an innings, and another was by eight wickets.〔 One of the drawn matches, against Lancashire, was rain-affected, with the first day washed out entirely.〔(【引用サイトリンク】Lancashire v Australians )〕 One of the tour matches was against the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), which fielded a team composed almost entirely of Test players.〔(【引用サイトリンク】MCC v Australians )〕 In what was effectively a dress rehearsal for the Tests, Australia fielded their full-strength team and won by an innings.〔Perry (2005), p. 228.〕 The difference in Australia's team for the First Test was the omission of leg spinner Colin McCool,〔〔 who had been struggling from a torn callus on his spinning finger, which prevented him from bowling long spells. It was thought that Bradman would play another leg spinner—Doug Ring—in McCool's place, but the Australian captain changed his mind on the first morning when rain was forecast. Bill Johnston was played in the hope of exploiting a wet wicket.〔Fingleton, p. 82.〕 In previous rain-affected matches on the tour, Johnston had been highly effective, taking match figures of 10/40 and 11/117 against Yorkshire and Hampshire respectively.〔(【引用サイトリンク】Yorkshire v Australians )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】Hampshire v Australians )〕〔Fingleton, p. 54.〕 Bill Brown, the reserve opener, played out of position in the middle-order, as he had against Worcestershire and the MCC.〔〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】Worcestershire v Australians )〕 Aside from Brown and Johnston's inclusion, Australia's team was the same as that which started the previous Ashes series in 1946–47, which they won 3–0.〔〔Perry (2005), p. 186.〕 England lost their leg spinner Doug Wright before the match to lumbago,〔 so the off spin of Jim Laker was brought in at late notice.〔 Laker had struggled when he had played for Surrey and the MCC against Australia in the lead-up matches, taking 1/137 and 3/127 respectively.〔〔 In the MCC match, the Australians had attacked him, taking nine sixes from his bowling in one 82-minute passage of play.〔Fingleton, p. 73.〕 Of the team that took to the field for the MCC, Len Hutton, Bill Edrich, Denis Compton, captain Norman Yardley, Laker and Jack Young were also selected for the First Test.〔〔 Hutton scored 52 and 64 in the MCC match but nobody else managed to pass 26 in either innings. Young had bowled 55.2 overs in Australia's only innings, taking 4/155.〔 Opener Jack Robertson was left out after scoring six and a duck, and Cyril Washbrook, who had played against Australia in the 1946–47 series,〔 partnered Hutton.〔〔 Joe Hardstaff junior had scored 107 for Nottinghamshire, the only century made against Australia in the lead-up matches,〔〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】Nottinghamshire v Australians )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】Sussex v Australians )〕〔Fingleton, p. 77.〕 earning himself Test selection.〔 Paceman Alec Bedser did not play in the MCC match,〔 but had been a regular during England's last series against Australia in 1946–47, and had taken 4/104 for Surrey in their match against the tourists.〔(【引用サイトリンク】Surrey v Australians )〕 Godfrey Evans, who kept wickets in the previous Ashes series, also gained Test selection.〔〔Perry (2005), pp. 175–189.〕 According to former England bowler Bill Bowes, England went into the match with the intention of securing a draw through the selection of defensive bowlers. The home team's bowlers would tie down the Australians, forcing the batsmen to take risks to score runs and thereby increasing the chances of dismissal; however, if rain produced a sticky wicket, the England attack might be able to dismiss Australia relatively easily.〔Bowes, p. 189.〕 As such, England filled their team with batsmen and only played three frontline bowlers, Laker, Bedser and Young, and relied on Yardley, Edrich and Charlie Barnett to support them with their occasion seam bowling. It was speculated that England would use only two specialist bowlers; the all-rounder George Pope was in the squad and it was thought he would be used in place of one of the bowlers,〔 but in the end, he was omitted, as was Reg Simpson. The latter had made 74 and 70 for Nottinghamshire against Australia and had impressed observers with his display, and was made twelfth man.〔〔 Before the start of the match, much of the attention was placed on the weather forecast and the prospects of rain. In their 12 tour matches leading up to the Tests, Australia had been almost completely untroubled by the opposition except in the two matches against Yorkshire and Hampshire on rain-affected pitches. In these two matches they came close to defeat after heavy batting collapses before recovering to victory. It was thus thought that the toss could be of great importance, especially if the team batting first had accumulated a substantial total by the time rain came.〔O'Reilly, pp. 30–31.〕 The match was the first Ashes Test to be played on English soil since the end of World War II.〔Arlott, p. 30.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「First Test, 1948 Ashes series」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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