AUSTRALIA'S GRIP.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 49, 27 February 1937, Page 8

AUSTRALIA'S GRIP.

Australia is definitely on top for the moment in the final and "rubber" game of the 1937 series of cricket Tests against England, on which hangs the fate of the "Ashes." The Australian score on the first day of 342 runs for three wickets, with Bradman 165 not out, portends an almost hopeless stern chase for England. And it might have been so different with just a little luck. What a day of vexation it must have been for the English team, and especially their captain, Allen, who had the opportunity to corner his opponents and let it slip from his grasp! Two Australian wickets were down for 60, and a few runs later Bradman's chief aide offered a chance of three for less than 80—and it was missed, not to be repeated till the tally was over 300. All who know cricket realise that such incidents make the fascination of the game. They can imagine, too, what a shock that early "life" by McCabe must have been to the great cricket-fevered crowd of spectators at the Melbourne ground, and to the Australian captain, Bradman. The superb aplomb with whieh McCabe, making glorious atonement, and Bradman, ever-daring yet impeccable, immediately snatched the initiative in the Englishmen's moment of disappointment by a surprise two-handed attack that hammered the bowling into comparative futility, was the great highlight of the day. That partnership, which looks like paving the way to an Australian victory, was historic for another Bradman reeord —the occasion on which Bradman equalled Jack Hobbs' feat of making twelve hundreds in Test matches. Commenting on the day's play, the well-known South Australian cricket eaptain of two or three years ago, Mr. Vic Richardson, after prophesying a great first innings score by Australia, declared that "only a miracle can save England." Such miracles have happened in Test erieket qnite^^nmaber^otetuneß.