OVER 300 TO WIN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 3, 5 January 1937, Page 13

OVER 300 TO WIN.

i ONLY ACCOMPLISHED TWICE. I "IMPOSSIBLE" TASK FOR ENGLAND J On 33 previous occasions in the 137 Anglo-Australian Teste a team had been net the task of making more than 300 runs in the fourth inningu to win the match, but only twice was the effort successful. The first was when Australia scored 315 for six wickets at Adelaide in 1901-02 (Clem Hill making 97, after 98 and 99 in hw two preceding Test innings against Archie MacLaren's team), and the second when Percy Chapman's side ran up 332 for seven wickets against Australia, at Melbourne, in (H. Sutcliffe 135). The record score in a fourth innings was 411, by England at Sydney in 1924-23, when Arthur Gilligan's eleven was set 605 to win. This is the only Anglo-Australian Test fourth innings to exceed 400. It was in the last-mentioned game that Australia made 450 and 452, the only occasion on which a team has reached 400 in both innings of a Test. England made 298 in the first knock, leaving the Australians victorious by 193 runs. As Australia was 318 on at the end of yesterday's play at Melbourne, and still had five wickets in hand —all good batsmen —it is obvious that England is in an utterly "impossible" position.