Bradman's 19th death anniversary: 5 records of the legend that may never be broken

Cricket legend Sir Don Bradman died on February 25, 2001, after losing the battle to pneumonia, aged 92. Even though he is gone, there are a few batting records of his that may live forever keeping his legacy alive for many years to come.

Born in Cootamundra in New South Wales, Australia, Bradman was the first superstar of cricket. He went on to become the best batter of his era that saw a busy 'Don' setting and breaking records. His decorated career spanned across two decades in which he went on to score 29 hundreds in just 52 Tests.

Bradman made his Test debut in a home series against England with his first Australia appearance coming on November 30, 1928, in Brisbane. It was not a memorable debut for the future batting legend. He managed to score only 18 in his first innings followed by a five-ball-one in the next innings. He announced his arrival in the second Test, which was played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). In the first innings, he scored a half-century before he recorded his maiden Test hundred in the next innings but unfortunately that came in a losing cause.

The Aussie great was a part of only two Australian sides that lost the Ashes – 1928-29, his debut series, which England won 4-1 and 1932-33 when Douglas Jardine used his 'Bodyline' tactic to stop the opposition batsmen from scoring freely.

As a tribute to one of the greatest-ever sportsman the world saw, here are five Sir Donald George Bradman records that many never be broken:

99.94 – When you talk about Bradman's records, his average of 99.94 comes to mind instantly. The average effectively means he scored 100 every innings and this itself is an overwhelming fact. In the current modern cricket era, the cricketers who are closest to Bradman's this particular record is his compatriots, Steven Smith (63.43) and Marnus Labuchagne (62.84).

5028 – Bradman scored as many as 5,028 runs against England in 37 Tests. Till date, this is the record of most runs scored by a batsman against a single opposition. Bradman, in this list, is ahead of England's Jack Hobbs (3636 runs vs Australia) and India's Sachin Tendulkar (3630 vs Australia). Among the current cricketers, Steve Smith with 2,800 runs in Ashes is the race leader. However, even if he goes on to score 700 runs in each of the next three Ashes he won't be able to touch Bradman's record.

19 – After the stat mentioned above, it is quite obvious that Bradman also holds the record for the most number of centuries against a single opponent side. In this list, India's Sunil Gavaskar comes second having registered 13 centuries against West Indies ahead of former Aussie captain Smith, who has 11 hundreds against England.

74.5 – During Bradman's playing time, cricket had only a limited number of Test-playing nations but that did not stop him from excelling against each of them. He averaged 74.5 or more against England, India, West Indies and South Africa.

Fastest to several records – Considering his mind-boggling average of 99.94, one can guess that he was fastest to 1,000 Test runs. He took 13 innings to reach the landmark. But, that did not satisfy him as the Aussie got better with every game and went on to become the fastest to reach the following:

2,000 runs - 22 innings, 3,000 runs - 33 innings, 4,000 runs - 48 innings, 5,000 runs - 56 innings and 6,000 runs - 68 innings.