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Steve Smith probably didn’t realise it at the time, but by batting on yesterday at the WACA before declaring at 9-662, it was Australia’s highest Ashes total at home in history.
It left behind the 1946 baggy greens’ total of 8 (dec) for 659 in the record book.
It’s worth revisiting that innings and 33-run win by Don Bradman’s team in the build-up to the 1948 Invincibles tour of 31 first class games and three others for 25 wins and nine draws.
The Australians on duty at the SCG in December 1946 were Sid Barnes, Arthur Morris, Lindsay Hassett, Bradman, Keith Miller, Colin McCool, Don Tallon, George Tribe, and Ernie Toshack, with Fred Freer replacing the injured Ray Lindwall.
England’s line-up was Len Hutton, Cyril Washbrook, Bill Edrich, Denis Compton, Walter Hammond (c), Jack Ikin, Norman Yardley, Peter Smith, Godfrey Evans, Alec Bedser, and Doug Wright.
But the Test was made famous by Sid Barnes deliberately getting out on 234 so he wouldn’t score more than his captain.
Barnes, always the very likeable larrikin, faced 667 deliveries for his 234 with 17 boundaries, compared to The Don’s 234 off 396 deliveries with 24 fours.
They dominated the 659 total with no other Australian batsman cracking 50, with Miller’s 40 the closest.
England’s bowlers copped a hammering – Bedser 1-153 off 46, Smith 2-172 off 37, and Wright 1-169 off 46, with the most successful bowler Edrich’s 3-79 off 26.
With England dismissed for 255 and 371, only Edrich stood tall, top scoring in both innings with 71 and 119, with Ikin’s 60 in the first dig, and Compton’s 54 in the second the next best.
Offie Ian Johnson was Australia’s best bowler in England’s first dig with 6-42 off 30.1, while leggie Colin McCool took over in the second with 5-129 off 32.4.
The other interesting selection was Fred Freer, a fast-medium bowler who turned 31 on his debut that turned out to be his only cap.
He bowled the vastly experienced Washbrook for his first Test wicket, and added the scalps of Compton, caught by Bradman, and bowling Ikin in the second for figures of 1-25 and 2-49.
But all the talk was about Sid Barnes, who was constantly in trouble with officials.
In the next Test at the MCG, Barnes hurdled the turnstiles when the green coats wouldn’t let him in because he forgot his player’s pass.
Because of his head-to-heads with officialdom, he only played 13 Tests but averaged 63.05 with three tons and five half-centuries.
He was never dropped for lack of performances with the bat, only his disdain for authority.
He played 110 Sheffield Shield games for NSW to average 54.11, with 26 tons and 37 half-centuries.
To this day, one of Australia’s all-rounder legends Alan Davidson rates Sid Barnes as the second best batsman of all time behind The Don.
Trading on his track record after he retired, Barnes wrote a long-term weekly column for the Daily Telegraph titled ‘Like it, or Lump it’. It read as the column name suggests, full of controversy, week after week.
But that was the way Sid Barnes ticked, admired by his peers, loathed by officialdom who rebuked him for deliberately getting out at the SCG.
There’s no record of how Sid reacted to the criticism, but it would be a fair bet he told them to get stuffed, or the equivalent.