Bradman bat fetches $18,000

The bat Don Bradman used during one of his final first-class centuries on Australian soil has been bought for $18,000.

The bat was sold to a British collector bidding by phone at an auction in Sydney over the weekend. It had been expected to fetch $20,000.

Bradman used the bat for an Australian XI against Western Australia at the Waca in March 1948. The match was staged before his 1948 Invincibles side boarded the boat to England and Bradman made 115.

It was not, however, his last hundred in Australia. That came nine months later, for Bradman's XI against Hassett's XI, when he came out of retirement to hit 123 at the MCG.