NEW ZEALAND 80 FOR ONE IN TEST

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 26984, 9 March 1953, Page 8

NEW ZEALAND 80 FOR ONE IN TEST

CRICKET

South Africa Declares At 524 For Eight D. J. McGLEW MAKES RECORD SCORE OF 255 (From Out Own Reporter) WELLINGTON, March 8. Only skilful, determined batting, sustained over a long period, can save New Zealand from defeat in the first test against the South Africans. On Saturday, South Africa took its score to 524 for eight wickets before declaring, and at the close of play New Zealand had made 80 for one wicket, but still required 295 runs to avoid a follow on. The pitch is still good for many runs, but in the last hour of play yesterday, the South African off-spin bowler. H. -L Tayfield, was able to make the ball turn, and occasionally it lifted. By tomorrow afternoon, no doubt, Tayfield will be huffing and puffing at the New Zealand batting structure in real earnest. Saturday was a day dizzy with statistics. The South African viee-captain, D. J. McGlew, took his score from 151 to 255, and was still unbeaten. He set a new South African record, beating E. A. Rowan’s 236 against England at Leeds in 1951. With A. R. A. Murray, who scored his second consecutive century in New Zealand, McGlew added 246 runs for the seventh wicket, only 19 runs short of the New Zealand record established by J. L. Powell and N. Dorreen for Canterbury against Otago in 1929-30. McGlew’s innings was the second highest ever played at the Basin Reserve, the best being J. R. Reid’s 283 in a Plunket Shield match last summer, and second in tests to W. R. Hammond’s 336 not out in 1933. South Africa’s score was the fourth of 500 or more made against New Zealand in test cricket, the best being 560 for eight wickets by England in 1933.

The New Zealand wicket-keeper, F. L. H. Mooney, with two catches and a stumping in the South African innings, brought his total ef test dismissals to 18—a New Zealand record.

A crowd of about 14,000 enjoyed the warm, still weather, the enterprising batting of the South Africans, and the determined fight put up by B. Sutcliffe and J. G. Leggat at the end of the day. The gate takings were £2317, making a total of £3372 for:

two days. McGlew’s was a remarkable innings, but it will be remembered more for < the batsman’s deft footwork and his speed between the wickets than for the strokes he produced, adequate and profitable though they were. He batted for 530 minutes in all, and for every one of them he was eager for runs. The speed of his footwork made a mockery of length bowling, and by going yards down the pitch to smother what little spin the New' Zealand bowlers were able to give the ball, he was able to find gaps in • the field with an unerring eye. I McGlew earned the warmest admit-! ation for his concentration and determination, and for his resource in finding methods of keeping the score moving. If he did have to play forward defensively, his bat and body were almost horizontal. The many sprinted singles he ran demanded that fieldsmen be brought in closer, but if they advanced a yard or two. he got the ball through them for threes and fours. McGlew Less Impressive

or twice, but in the main it was merely hopeful, accurate bowling. Blair began badly in his first few overs, but he settled down again, and he unlucky not to win the distinction of taking five wickets in his first test innings. In spite of- the mounting score he kept at the batsmen w’ith real resolution. Fisher, without the usual Basin Reserve breezes, was badly handicapped, and although he. too. fought hard to keep the batsmen in check, he looked very straightforward. Reid was perhaps the best of the New Zealand bowlers, and although the captain. W. M. Wallace, was obviously conscious of the need to keep him rested for his batting, he might well have been used for more than 12 overs during the day. He was the least expensive of the New Zealand bowlers: he made the batsmen play him; he managed to make the ball move away from the bat occasionally; and he searched eagerly for a footmark from which he might turn the ball back. In this he was not successful, but he did make several balls fly fast and high outside the stumps. Ragged Fielding The New Zealand fielding again looked ragged. Leggat, after hours of doing- his job efficiently, and even silencing his critics by making two or three really gooa saves, had his poor throw badly exposed when the batsmen ran five runs.

L. S. M. Miller had another bad day —outfields in international teams should not let the ball go through their legs or fail to make every effort to catch a ball falling in front of them—and he would probably be much more use to New Zealand nearer the wicket.

In. spite of the steady stream of runs he gave his team, McGlew yesteraay was not quite as impressive as he had been on Friday, when he had maae 173. He deflected a ball from J. H-,**® I** 1 ** to . F - E Fisher at second slip, but a difficult chance was dropped. A Utile later, Fisher won McGlew’s firm friendship by dropping him again, this time at leg slip off R. W. Blair. McGlew was then at 199, and 50 runs later, he might have been caught off T. B. Burtt. He hit the ball high over the head of Reid at cover, and Reid, turning to attempt the catch, lost his balance and fell. In spite of these lapses. McGlew will be remembered. Small, fair, and with a most determined jut of the chin, he is one of tiie most likeable members oF a likeable team. He has an ungraceful st vie—his stance at the wicket is cramped and two-eyed, but he watches the oai. with the intensity of the Ancient Mariner keeping the wedding guest in detention. Using a bat that might, from its colour, have been his since boyhood. McGlew made many of his runs with drives, chiefly wide of mid-on, but occasionally, w hen the ball was short, he hit it through the covers with a ferociously resounding clout rather than an orthodox square cut. His only really graceful stroke was his flick off the hip when the short ball did not get up enough to allow the hook Murray’s Innings Murray's assistance in laying waste to the New Zealand bowling was considerable. He began the morning by scoring quite briskly and he reached 50 in SI minutes, but after that he found it increasingly difficult to get on top. and the second half of his century kept him at work for 143 minutes. Murray the batsman is not. quite like a golfer with only a driver and a putt er; but his strokes are few. The ones he has are good ones, however. His straight aits past the bowler were Edwardian, and his back foot forcing strokes were a delight to the eye and ear. Erect and soldierly, Murray helped McGlew to carry through South Africa’s counter-attack like a military operation planned to the last detail. and if their advance was seldom spectacular. it was relentless. Murray made no visible error, nor did he look like making one He was criticised by some of the spectators for lingering in the nervous nineties, but his critics might have soent their time more reasonably acknowledging the merit of some stout-hearted New Zealand bowling. Murray ran well in. company with McGlew. Several fours and a five were taken without the assistance of overthrows, and it was all vastly entertaining. From these two runs came throughout the morning at slightly better than a run a minute, in spite of a good snell by A. M. Moir: and they took 12 off the last over before lunch, bowled by Burtt. After lunch, they were less demanding, but it was a vicious pull for four off Burtt that took McGlew past Rowan's record. Murray went forward to drive Burtt when the score was 484. and he was stumped efficiently by Mooney. P. N. F. Mansell batted for only nve minutes, but it was glorious brevity. He square-cut Moir for four—perhaps f he most handsome stroke played by any cf the South Africans—and then he turned Moir backward of square quietly and easily, and five runs were taken. McGlew sprinting from end to end with the expedition of a man trying to put out a fire with cupfuls of water taken from a tayfield was quite as violent as his 27 runs in 18 minutes would suggest. He hit Burtt for six with an on-drive, and then picked up a ball dropped well clear of the off stump, and deposited it safeiv over the fence at mid-wicket. Blair wrung a maiden out of him. and it was no mean feat. McGlew. unbeaten with 255. was given a reception at the declaration. which was almost moving in its warmth. New Zealand Bowling Of the New’ Zealand bowlers little need be said. They all struggled hard to keep the batsmen subdued, and in this they were successful. It was not until the last 20 minutes of a very long inning* that the bowling began to look threadbare, and then, in the language of the military camp, the batsmen “tore strips off it.” Moir began the day in a reformed mood. He pitched his leg breaks on t good length, and he made them turr enough to beat the bat three or foui times. He had a long spell of 12 overs but towards the end of it he locked a: If he needed a rest. Later in the da? he was again punished heavily. His con trol of length was often at fault, but hi had to cope with a particularly quick footed batsman, and one who might h such form have mastered any other bowle cf Moir’s type. Burtt, denied any assistance from th pitch, wheeled away from one end dili gently, and did his best to counter Me Claw’s speed of foot by dropping hi length whenever the batsmen came ou at him. He made the ball turn one

I Others also threw weakly and wildly, and only Reid and Sutcliffe, in the covers, looked like class fieldsmen. Both did magnificent work, and Reid, with Mooney, ran Mansell out. Reid gathered in tne ball brilliantly, and although his return was low and perhaps three feet wide or the stumps, the ball travelled at extraordinary speed, and Mooney did well to gather it in and break the wicket. The South Africans in the field made the New Zealanders look like the competitors in the married women's race at

a staff picnic. The South Africans were much better than they were at Christchurch. They ran fast, and their re* turns, made at terrific speed, came in hard and low over the stumps. New Zealand, beginning its innings half an hour before tea. had first to overcome the psychological handicap of its opponents’ huge score. Often a team loses wickets after hours of fielding merely because it is jaded; and it is on such occasions that one mishap leads to another and ultimate collapse. Sutcliffe Returns to Form This time the New Zealand opening Sutcliffe and Leggat, looked as though they were determined to emulate the feat of the South Africans themselves, when they beat Australia in the fifth test after chasing a score of more than Sutcliffe was a much better player than he was at Dunedin. He could hardly ■ avoid that. Yesterday he was dropped at three—it was a very difficult chance to W. R. Endean at leg slip off E. Fuller—i and later he hit Tayfield high over the head of Murray at deep and wide mid-on, and was almost caught; but otherwise he batted with the mature grace that is Sutcliffe at his best He played Tayfield with every indication of confidence and. like McGlew. he was not afraid of moving down the pitch. As soon as Tayfield dropped the ball shorter. Sutcliffe went back on his stumps to pull or square cut. and he looked the fine batsman New Zealand knows, not the uneasy, out-of-form player of the Otago match. ■Sutcliffe’s square cuts were made beautifully, but they brought him very few runs because of the tightly-packed offside field. There was some good cricket In the last over of the day. Sutcliffe was then on 49, and the South African fieldsmen crowded hungrily about him. Twice in the over he found himself able to hit Tayfield, and twice he swept him away grandly for fours. Sutcliffe has nerve and cricket sense, as well as a bat that holds all cricket's enchantments. Leggat. who failed by only seven minutes to see out the day with Sutcliffe, did an excellent job. He has often been criticised—sometimes with justice—for his slow scoring. Yesterday he was again [slow, but it was not through any un- ' willingness to make the effort. It was good to see Leggat using his ; feet, playing decisive forward strokes, ini stead of allowing the ball to hit the bat. ; Several times he moved well up the pitch j to hit Mansell on the full, and he made « • violent but beautifully-timed square cut, which gave him four runs off Fuller. His I was a really good innings. He was a j little lucky when, as he was attempting a ! hook off Fuller, the ball got up further | than he had apparently expected. He hit lit high and close in on the leg side, but j McGlew, in spite of a desperate bid, could ' not get beneath it.

Leggat Dismissed On the other hand, Leggat was perhaps unfortunate to get such a good ball from Tayfield as the one which dismissed him. It * turned in at him and rose really sharply. Leggat played a dead bat stroke, but the ball ran across it and Fuller, who was at short backward square leg. dived ath’etically and caught it at full stretch. Eighty-three minutes for 22 runs is anything but quick scoring, but Leggat deserved considerable credit for his determination in defence, his safe running between the wickets, and his willingness to look for runs against bowling of unusual accuracy. Fisher, promoted from the tail end to hold the horse’s head, was nervous and vulnerable, but he survived, and New Zealand had come out of the last two hours with considerable credit. Tayfield will be the real problem for the NewZealand batsmen, although J. C. Watkins, moving the ball either way and giving away runs grudgingly, will be hard to master. Sutcliffe, with 57 not out, has now made eight scores of 50 or more in 16 test innings. He is. moreover, poised to scale some real mathematical heights. Sutcliffe needs but 14 more runs to break R. C. Blunt’s record aggregate for a New Zealander of 7769; Blunt played 204 innings, and Sutcliffe is in his one hundred and twenty-ninth. His total this season—766—is only 32 behind Ills own -ecord for a New Zealander; if he scores a total o‘f 131 runs in the two tests and in the final trial match, he will have : beaten the record of 839 for a New Zealand season established by V. T. Trumper , in 1913-14. Trumper clayed in eight matches, and Sutcliffe, if he takes part in . the trial, will also have had eight games i this season. It is to be hoped that Sutt diffe reaches these marks, not so much * for the sake of new records, "but because

New Zealand needs runs from him in the tests, and needs them badly. SOUTH AFRICA First Innings D. J. McGlew, not out .. 255 .1. H. B. Waite, c Mooney, b Blair .. 35 J. C. Watkins, c Reid, b Blair .. 14 K. J. Funston, b Fisher .. .. 2 W. R. Endean, c Mooney, b Blair .. 41 R. A. McLean, b Blair .. .. 5 E. Cheetham. b Burtt .. 17 A. R. A. Murray, st Mooney, b Burtt 109 P. N. Mansell, run out .. .. 10 H. J. Tayfield, not out ..21 Extras (byes 5, leg-byes 4) 9 Total for eight wickets (dec,) 524 Fall of wickets: one for 82, two for 92. three for 177, four for 187, Ove for 189, six for 238, seven for 484, eight for 494.

NEW ZEALAND First Innings B. Sutcliffe, not out .. .. 57 J. G. Leggat, c Fuller, b Tayfield .. 22 F. E. Fisher, not out .. 0 Extras (no ball) .. .. .. 1 Total ’ for one wicket .. 80 Fall of wickets: one for 71.

BOWEING O. M. R. W. R. W. Blair ..36 4 98 4 F. E. Fisher ..34 6 78 1 J. R. Reid ..24 8 36 0 T. B. Burtt 44 7 140 2 A. M. Moir ..35 4 159 0 B. Sutcliffe .10 4 0

BOWLING O. M. R. W. E. R. H. Fuller 5 1 10 0 J. C. Watkins .. 12 8 7 0 H. J. Tayfleld 18 5 25 1 P. N. Mansell 10 1 27 0