Third Test, 1932–33 Ashes series

The Third Test of the 1932–33 Ashes series was one of five Tests in a cricket series between Australia and England. The match was played at the Adelaide Oval in Adelaide from 13 to 19 January 1933, with a rest day on 15 January. England won the match by 338 runs to take a series lead of 2 Tests to 1 with 2 Tests to play.

The Test was noted as the one in which the controversy over the use of Bodyline tactics by the English team came to a head. These tactics, employed by the England fast bowlers Harold Larwood and Bill Voce on the direction of their captain, Douglas Jardine, engendered much ill-feeling.

In 1932–33, the English team led by Douglas Jardine toured Australia and won the Ashes in a highly acrimonious series known as the Bodyline series. It has been described as the most controversial period in Australian cricket history, and voted the most important Australian moment by a panel of Australian cricket identities.

The English team used controversial bowling tactics where the English fast bowlers Harold Larwood, Bill Voce and Bill Bowes bowled the cricket ball roughly on the line of leg stump. The deliveries were often short pitched, bouncing as high as the head and torso of the batsman, with four or five fielders close by on the leg side waiting to catch deflections off the bat. The tactics were difficult for batsmen to counter. The only options for a batsman were to duck, carrying the risk of being hit on pitches with irregular bounce, or to play the ball. However, defensive shots risked a catch in the cordon, while hooking carried the danger of being hit in the head at dangerous speeds. The bowling was designed to be intimidatory, causing controversy and ill-feeling among the Australian players and crowds. The primary target of Bodyline was Donald Bradman who had overwhelmed the English bowling in the 1930 Ashes series. Generally regarded as the greatest batsman of all time, Bradman had scored a world record 974 Test runs during that series, a feat which remains unsurpassed. English cricket commentators feared that Bradman would be unstoppable on good Australian batting wickets in 1932–33 and looked for weaknesses.

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