Name:

O'Reilly, William J

Nickname:

Bill, Tiger

Date of Birth:

20 Dec 1905

Gender:

Male

Place of Birth:

White Cliffs, NSW

Career:

Test: 1932 - 1946

Teams:

Australia (Country)
NSW (Regional)

Richie Benaud Picks his Best Players

Bill O'Reilly: Attacking leg spinning genius

Born : 20 December 1905 at White Cliffs, New South Wales, Australia
Died : 6 October 1992 at Sutherland, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

A feisty character, known as 'Tiger', Bill O'Reilly was one of the great leg-spinners. He bowled his leg-spinners, googlies and top-spinners at an unusually fast pace for a spinner.

Despite their long simmering personal animosity to each other, Sir Don Bradman regarded Tiger as the finest bowler he saw.

Tiger and Clarrie Grimmett were the most successful wrist-spinning pair in cricket history. In the 15 matches they played together they totalled 169 wickets between them, 88 for Grimmett and 81 for O'Reilly.

Tiger retired at the end of the 1934 Ashes tour to concentrate on teaching, a job at Sydney Grammar School enabled O'Reilly to continue his cricket career. He returned to play a key role in Australia's memorable 1936-37 Ashes triumph when they came back from 0-2 down to win the series 3-2.

In his only post-war Test in 1946, O'Reilly took 5-14 and 3-19 as New Zealand were dismissed for 42 and 54 at Wellington as Australia's total of 199-8 declared was enough to secure an innings victory.

He was a hard-hitting lower-order batsman who thumped a fifty in just 31 minutes against South Africa at Johannesburg in 1936 That 1935/36 series in South Africa was his best with the ball, taking 27 wickets at an average of 17.03.

After his playing days he spent many years working in the media as writer and commentator and was a man of strong opinions.

Source: CricketCrowd Staff Reporter;