out of partners, as had happened at Brisbane. He decided on the latter and by forcing the pace struck out at Bill Johnston (4/26) and was caught at square leg for 40, which caused a deathly silence across the 50,000 strong crowd. As in the first innings Brian Close was soon out (lbw to Johnston for 1), Brown was bowled by Lindwall, who then removed Evans "with a ball which pitched outside the off stump, came in at a crazy angle and knocked back the off stump without leaving the turf by a centimetre". Gilbert Parkhouse, who batted manfully for 102 minutes and when he was out for 28 England were 134/9 and still needed 45 to win. Alec Bedser (14 not out) had nothing to lose and struck out with the bat before Doug Wright (2) succumbed to Johnston and England were out for 150. Result The remarkable part about the finish of this game was that Hassett and his fellow-Australians left the ground in complete silence. There was not the slightest evidence of jubilation at Australia's second victory of the rubber. Everybody, it seemed, wanted England to win. Jack Fingleton Australia won the Second Test at Melbourne by 28 runs to take a 2–0 lead in the series. It was the closest result in an Ashes Test since England's 12 run win at Adelaide in 1928–29. Once again the dismal performance of the Australian batsmen and the tight finish rebounded to England's credit. The all-round performance of Freddie Brown, who top-scored with 62 and took his best Test return of 4/26, proved that he wasn't a passenger in the England team. The Australians had the more consistent batting and a strong bowling attack, but it was Len Hutton's dismissal in the first innings that most saw as the deciding point of the Test. Third Test – Sydney Preliminaries Because of a traffic jam I was outside the ground on the first day of the Test when the captains tossed. There was a terrific roar. "I take it," said the traffic policeman as I passed him, "that Brown has won the toss. Good on him. He deserves it." Jack Fingleton England now had to win the final three Tests if they wanted to regain the Ashes, for which the only precedent was when Don Bradman made three big centuries in the 1936–37 Ashes series to win 3–2 after being