Herbert Sutcliffe

Herbert Sutcliffe (born November 24, 1894, Summerbridge, Harrogate, Yorkshire, England; died January 22 1978, Cross Hills, Yorkshire, England) was arguably the greatest opening batsman in cricket history and undoubtedly one of the greatest players of any type the game has known. His Test batting average of 60.73 is the fourth highest of any player, and only Don Bradman's is more than a fraction higher. Uniquely, his average never dropped below 60 throughout his entire Test career — Javed Miandad is the only other man whose average never dropped below 50 in a career of at least 20 innings. Sutcliffe's first-class career batting average of 51.95 (according to Wisden, though Cricinfo claim 52.02) is bettered among batsmen who finished their careers with over 30,000 runs only by Hammond.

Incomparable Greatness

1927 was a routine year by the standards Sutcliffe had already attained, but the following year saw him embark on what, given the conditions he often faced, could be seen as the finest batting in the history of the game. During the five years 1928 to 1932, his batting figures read:

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• 181 matches for 254 innings in which he was not out 36 times;
• 15529 runs
• for a total average of 70.35.

In the Third Test of 1928/1929 Sutcliffe's batting, on a wicket from which the ball would rise straight up even from a medium-pace bowler, reached a skill not even seen at the Oval three years earlier: he made 135 when England were expected to be all out for less than 100, and England won with much the worst of the pitch. In 1929 Sutcliffe hit four hundreds against South Africa, and the following year headed the first-class batting averages for (amazingly) the first time. In a summer of hot, thundery weather that produced some exceptionally bad pitches, Sutcliffe averaged 64.22 in all matches and 87.61 for four Tests (he missed the second due to injury and this probably cost England the Ashes).

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All this, though, paled into insignificance compared with Sutcliffe's form in the following two summers of dreadful weather and pitches favourable to slow bowling. Sutcliffe then seemed impossible to bowl to: despite his limited range of strokes, he was so full of determination that no bowler knew what to do against him. In 1931, he scored four centuries in consecutive innings and averaged an unbelievable 97 an innings in one of the worst summers on record, whilst the following year he became the second batsman after "Ranji" to score 1000 runs in two months. That year, he and Maurice Leyland hit Kenneth Farnes, one of the fastest bowlers of the 1930s, for 75 runs from four overs in one of the most remarkable displays of pulling and hooking. His batting, and the bowling of Bowes and Verity, allowed Yorkshire to win fifteen of their last sixteen games — all but four by an innings — and it seemed a question of "how far" when Sutcliffe toured Australia for the third time that winter.

Related Topics:
"Ranji" - Maurice Leyland - Kenneth Farnes - Bowes - Verity

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