Don Bradman

Sydney Cricket Ground, Driver Ave, Moore Park, NSW, Australia

Last updated 8/27/2026

Don Bradman played for Australia from 1928 to 1948 and finished his Test career with a batting average of 99.94, a number so far ahead of every other batsman in cricket history — the next closest all-time Test average sits more than 30 points lower — that statisticians regularly cite it as the single most dominant record in any major sport. His famous final Test innings, in 1948 against England, needed just four runs to finish his career average at a clean 100; he was bowled for a duck, second ball, meaning the final average of 99.94 has become as much a piece of cricket folklore as any of his actual scores. Bradman scored 29 Test centuries in just 52 matches, a rate of centuries per match that no other prolific Test batsman has matched, and England's cricket establishment was so concerned by his dominance during the 1932-33 Ashes series that it developed "Bodyline," a deliberately intimidating short-pitched bowling tactic aimed at his body, specifically to try to contain him. Bradman's dominance is frequently used as a cross-sport statistical reference point — his average sits roughly four standard deviations above the mean for elite Test batsmen, a gap that sports statisticians say has no real parallel among the greatest performers in other major sports, baseball included.

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