FINE BOWLING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22356, 29 February 1936, Page 15

FINE BOWLING

BAXTER'S EXHIBITION LATER BATSMEN AGGRESSIVE ELMES MISSES CENTURY One of the finest exhibitions of bowl--ing seen at Eden Park for several years was given by Baxter in the early part of New Zealand's innings yesterday morning. Swinging the ball appreciably, he completely beat both Moloney and Whitelaw, his figures at this stage being two for five. Baxter has a nice run up to the wicket and he quickens his pace during the last few yards. He has a very fast rotary arm swing, his action giving pace off the wicket besides making the ball lift. An outstanding feature of his bowling was his late swing, with which he left both Moloney and Whitelaw standing. When used with the shine off the ball, Baxter, not attempting his swing, made far more pace and several batsmen nibbled dangerously at his deliveries just outside the off stump. Baxter maintained a fine length throughout. One of the features of the day was the very accurate bowling of the visiting players in the morning. It is a tribute to their accuracy that both Kerr and Wallace, usually batsmen of an aggressive style, were kept most subdued. Wallace, the Aucklaud colt,, who has been a prolHic scorer this season, was unable to open his account until after 22 minutes' batting. This was due to the steady attack and an excellently placed field. In spite of the fact that Wallace went in at a stage when three wickets were lost for 34, he showed his ability as a batsman by being content to keep the attack at bay. At the same time he lost no op-, portunity to score off the loose deliveries, and five fours were included in his score of 27. Wallace batted for 69 minuto3.

A solid and most valuable innings was played by Kerr for 39. He took 147 minutes to compile his total and hit three fours. Kerr showed unusual restraint, evidently influenced by the state of the game. He was fortunate to be missed at six by Griffith in the first over from Parks. Kerr placed his on shots to advantage, while scoring well on the off side. It was sirprising to see him persevere with his late cut to Langridge, although it brought him no runs. The bowler fed him on this particular stroke and eventually Kerr hit his wicket. At one stage it appeared that Vivian and Kerr would retrieve the bad start made by' the side. Vivian swung dangerously at both Baxter and Parks to off deliveries, but on sighting the ball he played some splendid cover drives. A fine innings was played by Cromb, the New Zealand captain. The position of the game made him subdued at the start, but later he dealt severely at times with the attack and executed some splendid scoring shots. He ran into the fifties by taking three f<3urs in succession off Sims. His innings proved most valuable at a critical stage of the game and was in direct contrast to that in the Plunket Shield match against Auckland at Eden Park during the New Year. Cromb reached 50 in 60 minutes and was at the wickets for 90 minutes. He hit eight fours. Elmes' Uncertain Start After an uncertain start, Elmes, the Otago left-hander, settled down to play aggressive and attractive cricket. Although lifting the ball on occasions, he placed it safely and put plenty of power into his shots. A feature of his innings was his strong driving on either side of the wicket, and this brought, him most of his runs. Ho placed several nice shots to the on side, while pulling several deliveries to the fence. With his score at 99 the batsman became very subdued, and this undoubtedly cost him the coveted honour of reaching the century. Elmes batted for 123 minutes and hit 13 fours. He reached his 50 in 86 minutes. Batting at a critical stage of the innings, Elmes adopted the correct tactics in upsetting the accurate English bowling by generally vigorous methods. For a wicketkeeper, Blandford showed surprising skill in compiling <36. He was particularly strong in his leg shots, gaining several boundaries with well-timed strokes off the slow bowlers. When the occasion demanded he was capable of showing a sound defence. Matheson, early in his innings, luckily edged several deliveries. Both Griffiths and Cowie brightened the play in the later stages, Griffiths hitting the first six of the match. Facing Baxter, Cowie hit three fours and a braco off one over. Bowling of Sims Outside Baxter, who in 23 overs, six maidens, took three wickets for 83 runs, Sims was the most impressive of tho visiting bowlers. A particularly deceptive delivery was one with top spin that came straight through, this causing the downfall of Wallace. Sims, who waa suffering from an injured knee, was limping badly during the afternoon. In 25 overs, five maidens, he took four wickets for 92 runs. A very fine performance was put up by Parks, who in an hour's bowling during the morning had only seven runs scored off him. Ho maintained a consistent length and flighted the ball well. In all he bowled 23 overs, seven maidens, for 61 runs. Ho was unlucky that Kerr was missed in his first over. Langridge also bowled very steadily. He sent down 31 overs, 12 maidens, for 70 runs and one wicket. His clever flighting of the ball frequently had the batsmen worried, and he was unlucky that his figures were not better. Both his average and that of Parks suffered through the aggressiveness of Elmes and Cromb. Human proved a useful change bowler in taking one wicket for 27. Ihe match will be resumed at 11.30 o clock this morning.