ALL SQUARE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 149, 26 June 1934, Page 6

ALL SQUARE.

Rain has again changed the face of history. But for the rain that fell before Waterloo JSfapoleon would have opened the battle earlier and Blucher's intervention would have come relatively later. At the end of play at Lord's on Saturday the Australians were working themselves into a position at least of safety, but rain fell in the interval, and when the game was resumed eighteen wickets fell in one day, and England won by more than an innings. Thus is man the victim of what he calls chance. In such a case the advantage of winning the toss is obvious, but it is possible to exaggerate its importance. England deserves credit for opening with a score of 440, especially after half the wickets had fallen for less than 200, and for having bowlers who can take full advantage of a drying wicket. In playing" on wet wickets England has more experience than Australia, and more than once in recent years it has been remarked that Australian bowlers are not so adept as they used to be in making the most of weather opportunities. However, new men have come on, and no doubt the English team is relieved at not having had to face O'Reilly in a second innings on a wicket damaged by rain. England has enjoyed the luck this time, but in the long run this advantage is evened out, and it is all in the game. To so arrange that wickets should never be anything but hard and true, would be to reduce the sporting element in the game and rob it of much of its delightful variety and uncertainty. There is also the poor bowler to consider. He has been flogged for years until he is a mass of bruises; over and over again he has been butchered to make holidays for record-breaking batsmen and applauding crowds. Body-line bowling was an answer to mammoth scoring. Is the bowler to be deprived altogether of the assistance of the weather? Is he never to be a wolf among sheep ?