THE AUSTRALIAN CRICKETERS.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 11352, 15 August 1902, Page 4

THE AUSTRALIAN CRICKETERS.

The fifth test match has resulted, after an exciting contest, in a well-earned viotory for England by the narrow margin of one wicket. It was an excellent finish to an interesting series of "interoatio—tls," and no one will grudga the English team their victory in the final game. : With them success has come too late to affect the contest for "the ashes," but the plucky n_nner in which they stuck to their task doss credit alike to their determination and their skill. As for the Australians, there can be little bitterness in a defeat which, so narrowly escaped being a victory, and which, moreover, has already been redeemed in the long list of successes whioh now stand to their credit. In the test- matches alone the Australian team has scored two victories to England's one, while their record for the tour, out of 24 matches played, includes sixteen wins and only two defeats. And this performance, it must be remembered, has been accomplished on English wickets in one of the rainiest seasons that England has experienced for years. The run-getting qualities exhibited during the present tour under the most adverse conditions by players accustomed to the long, dry summers and " billiard-table " wickets of Australia, have been the most extraordinary feature of the tour. Not only have they shown themselves more than a match for most of the opposing teams on bad and indifferent wickets, but the tour has been prolific in brilliant scores, both individual and combined. On results alone the present team has already dene slightly better than the one which toured Engiland in 1899, and as seven matches remain to be decided, the chances are that several more victories will yet be added to what is undoubtedly I a brilliant record.