A New Year's Eve thunderstorm soaked the MCG pitch. Bradman won the toss on the morning of 1 January 1937 and batted; both captains expected the wicket to remain dangerously sticky for one or two sessions before drying. Australia lost three quick wickets — Fingleton, Brown and McCabe — for 17. Bradman, watching from the rooms, decided to reverse his order: O'Reilly went in at four, Sievers at five, Ward at six, and Bradman did not appear until 130 for 5 the following morning, after the worst of the surface had passed.
When he came in the pitch was still misbehaving but no longer treacherous. Bradman batted with Jack Fingleton, who had returned to score 136. Their sixth-wicket stand was 346, then a record. Bradman made 270 in 458 minutes from 375 balls, with 22 fours. England, set 689 for victory after Australia's 564 and a follow-on, had no chance; Australia won by 365 runs.
The captaincy decision — to bat himself at No. 7 — drew murmuring at the time, but the result silenced it. The innings is the textbook study in reading a sticky pitch, and is part of the trilogy (with 254 at Lord's 1930 and 334 at Headingley 1930) on which Bradman's 'great innings' reputation rests.