Malcolm Hilton

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Malcolm Hilton
England (ENG)
Malcolm Hilton
Batting style Right-hand bat
Bowling type Slow left-arm orthodox
Tests First-class
Matches 4 270
Runs scored 37 3416
Batting average 7.40 12.11
100s/50s -/- 1/6
Top score 15 100*
Balls bowled 1244 55360
Wickets 14 1006
Bowling average 34.07 19.42
5 wickets in innings 1 51
10 wickets in match - 8
Best bowling 5/61 8/19
Catches/stumpings 1/- 202/-

Test debut: 12 August 1950
Last Test: 6 February 1952
Source: [1]

Malcolm Jameson Hilton, born August 2, 1928 and died July 8, 1990, was a cricketer who played for Lancashire and England.

Hilton was a slow left-arm spin bowler who came to prominence at the age of 19 by dismissing Donald Bradman twice in Lancashire's match with the Australians in May 1948. His first 10 wickets were Test batsmen. In his first regular season of first-class cricket, 1950, he was called up for the final Test match against the West Indies but was not successful. Further Tests followed over the next two years, and he took nine wickets in the match against India at Kanpur, leading England to victory alongside his off-spinning Lancastrian colleague Roy Tattersall.

But Hilton's career was blighted by a periodic and inexplicable loss of control that afflicted him first in 1953 and then returned, more devastatingly, after 1958. In good times, he and Tattersall formed a spin partnership thought by many to be the equal of that of Jim Laker and Tony Lock for Surrey, and in 1956 Hilton was third in the national averages. After 1958, though, he took just 25 wickets in three seasons and left county cricket to go into the Lancashire League.

Hilton was a robust lower-order batsman who scored a century against Northamptonshire in 1955 and a fine fielder. His younger brother Jim played a few times for Lancashire and a bit more often for Somerset. At Weston-super-Mare in 1956, Malcolm Hilton took 14 Somerset wickets and Jim Hilton responded with eight Lancashire batsmen.

Hilton was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1957.