Vinoo Mankad's All-Round Tour of Australia — 1947-48

Mankad had served Indian cricket since 1937 (Maharashtra, Western India) and had toured England in 1946 with promising figures. His left-arm orthodox spin used flight rather than turn, and he opened the batting and bowling for India at various times.

By the second Test of the tour Bill Brown had a reputation for backing up well outside his crease. Mankad had warned him in the tour match; the second offence he punished without warning, in line with the laws of the time.

Mankad came to Australia at 30, already India's most experienced cricketer after Vijay Merchant's withdrawal. In the first first-class fixture against Western Australia he made a hundred; through November and December his form held even as the Test side foundered.

In the second tour match against an Australian XI in Sydney, Mankad ran out Bill Brown by removing the bails as he completed his delivery stride, with Brown a yard out of his crease. He repeated the dismissal in the second Test at Sydney on 13 December 1947 — the first instance of such a dismissal in a Test. Australian writers, at first critical, gradually accepted Mankad had given Brown earlier warnings; Bradman defended him publicly.

With the bat, Mankad's 116 in the third Test at Melbourne was the backbone of India's 291 first innings; his 111 in the fifth at the same ground was made out of 245. With the ball his 4/19 in the third Test was the only Indian innings analysis that genuinely troubled Bradman's batsmen.

“The laws of cricket make it quite clear what the bowler may do; Mankad has done no more.”

Bradman's defence of Mankad — 'the laws of cricket make it quite clear what the bowler may do' — settled most Australian press hostility. Within Indian cricket Mankad's reputation as a Test-class all-rounder was confirmed; he would go on to be the first Indian to take 100 Test wickets and score 1,000 Test runs.