ENGLAND WINS THE RUBBER.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 5, 7 January 1929, Page 6

ENGLAND WINS THE RUBBER.

Low's cartoon of 1926 is recalled to-day— the tails of the lions in Trafalgar Square erect and a citizen with quite a wrong sense of values venturing to ask whether there is anything else in the news but cricket. Three Test matches have been won in succession, and the "ashes" are England's. This resounding series of successes, by far the greatest since pre-war days, should remove the last traces of the inferiority complex from English cricket, and help to restore a proper sense of proportion in certain quarters where there have been signs of hysteria. This last victory was very meritorious. It is always difficult to score over 300 runs in a fourth innings, and in this case England began the task on a wicket damaged by rain. Hobbs and Sutcliffe again batted wonderfully, but it is as certain as anything can be in cricket, that against old-time bowlers who really knew how to take advantage of a bad wicket England would not have been in so strong a position on Friday evening. The Australian tendency to make cricket purely a fine-weather, fast-wicket game is having serious results. For the rest, it may be hoped that now the rubber is won, both sides, and especially the Englishmen, will play in a more care-free manner in the remaining matches. The batting in this match has been slow beyond precedent and almost beyond belief. The daily average was nearer two hundred than three, yet about the same timo over 400 was scored in one day in a Plunket Shield