#OTD in 1908: Sir Donald Bradman was born in New South Wales

Donald Bradman (PC: Twitter)

On this day in 1908, the greatest batter to grace the cricket field, Sir Donald Bradman was born in Cootamundra, New South Wales (NSW). 

He holds an average of 99.94 in the Test format, which is the highest by any batter in the history of the game. 

Bradman's meteoric rise in international cricket

Bradman in his early years (PC: Twitter)

At an age of 19, Bradman made his first-class debut for NSW and surprised everyone by hitting a hundred. 

The skilful batter decided to move to Sydney, to enhance his chances of earning a national call-up.  With knocks of 87 and 132 against the England Touring team, he was named in the Australia squad for the red-ball series. 

The NSW-batter wreaked havoc in his next series by hitting 974 runs in seven innings, with a top score of 334. Interestingly, it is still the highest aggregate score by a batter in a five-test match series. 

Consistency helps Bradman to end as all-time great

Bradman was the crowd favourite (PC: Twitter)

In his first stint as a captain in 1936/37 Ashes, Bradman led from the front by slamming 810 runs in nine innings. His leadership skills helped Australia to make an astounding comeback from 0-2 to 3-2 to win the series. More than 950,000 spectators marked their attendance in the entire series. 

After the hiatus of eight years due to World War II, Bradman returned with 680 runs in eight innings at a prolific average of 97.14 in the 1946/47 Ashes. 

Although Bradman ended his career with a duck in August 1948, he left a legacy by slamming 6996 runs in 80 innings at an average of 99.94, with 29 centuries. 

Also Read: #OTD in 2016: KL Rahul hit his highest T20I score in a record-breaking game