Declared at 903

England chose to bat at The Oval on 20 August 1938 and were 347 for one at the close, Hutton 160 not out, Maurice Leyland 156. After the rest day they were 634 for five, Hutton 300. On the third day Hutton was out for 364 at 770 and Hammond declared at 903 for seven. Australia were all out for 201 and 123, and the card’s result line reads England won by an innings and 579 runs.

Nine hundred and three

Hutton batted 797 minutes and faced 847 balls, with 35 fours, and was caught by Lindsay Hassett off Bill O’Reilly. Leyland made 187 and was run out, the second wicket having put on 382. Joe Hardstaff made 169 not out, Hammond 59, Arthur Wood 53 on debut. Extras were 50. The innings took 335.2 overs.

The bowling: Chuck Fleetwood-Smith 87 overs for 298 and one wicket. O’Reilly 85 overs, 26 maidens, three for 178. Mervyn Waite 72 for 150. Stan McCabe 38 for 85 without a wicket. Seven bowlers, including Don Bradman for 2.2 overs, which was as far as he got.

Full scorecard: England v Australia, 5th Test, The Oval, 20–24 August 1938 →

Absent hurt, twice

Australia’s two innings each end with the same two lines: Bradman, absent hurt; Jack Fingleton, absent hurt. Nine men batted in each. Bill Brown made 69 in the first, Bill Bowes took five for 49, and Australia followed on 702 behind. Ben Barnett made 46 in the second, Farnes took four for 63, and the match ended on the fourth afternoon with the last two wickets never able to fall.

The declaration

The card lists the match as a 0-day match, which is its way of saying timeless. There was no draw to avoid and no clock to beat. A declaration in a timeless Test is a captain deciding he has enough, and Hammond decided it at 903, with three wickets in hand and Hardstaff 169 not out.

The question the card leaves is what the declaration was waiting for. Hutton had passed 334, which was Bradman’s Ashes record, on the third day, and was out at 364 in the 335th over.

The declaration came 133 runs later. The card cannot say whether the innings was closed because the record was safe, or because 903 was enough, or because Bradman, who bowled 2.2 overs in the innings and never batted, was hurt and the opposition was down to nine fit men. It can only show that all three were true by the time it was.

What the number became

Nine hundred and three stood as the highest total in Test cricket for fifty-nine years, until Sri Lanka passed it at Colombo in 1997, also by declaration, also in a match that could not be won. Hutton’s 364 stood as the highest individual score for twenty, until Garfield Sobers made 365 not out in 1958.

The card’s series line reads four-match series drawn 1-1, one abandoned, which is the 1938 series with the Old Trafford Test washed out. Sid Barnes was on debut for Australia and bowled 38 overs; Wood, on debut for England, made 53 and took two catches. The umpires were Fanny Walden and Frank Chester. It is Test number 266.

What the card holds

A 364 from 847 balls. A second-wicket stand of 382 on the first day and a bit. An innings of 903 for seven in 335.2 overs, declared. Four lines reading absent hurt, two per innings. A margin of an innings and 579. And a close-of-play sequence, 347 for one, 634 for five, 117 for three, end of match, that describes a Test in which one side batted once and won by more than the other side made in two goes.

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No. 13 in Declared, a series of 15.

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