SECOND TEST AT AUCKLAND

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 26986, 11 March 1953, Page 10

SECOND TEST AT AUCKLAND

Selectors Announce Teams FOUR N.Z. PLAYERS DROPPED (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON. March 10. The selectors, Messrs J. L. Kerr, W. M. Wallace, B. Sutcliffe, and Dr. K. F. M. Uttley, have chosen the following 12 as the New Zealand cricket team for the second test against South Africa at Auckland, beginning on Friday:— W. M. Wallace, captain (Auckland). G. O. Rabone (Auckland). B. Sutcliffe (Otago;. A. R. Mac Gibbon (Canterbury). M. E. Chapple (Canterbury). M. Poore (Canterbury). E. M. Meuli (Central Districts). L. S. M. Miller (Central Districts). J. R. Reid (Wellington). F. L. H. Mooney (Wellington). E. W. Dempster (Wellington). K. W. Blair (Wellington). The South African team will be chosen from the following:— J. E. Cheetham. D. G. McGlew. J. H. B. Waite. J. C. Watkins. K. J. Funston. W. R. Endeau. R. McLean. A. R. A. Murray. P. N. F. ManselL H. J. Tayfield. E. R. H. Fuller. M. G. Melle. It is difficult to understand whether the selectors are using the match as a trial or whether they want New Zealand to make the best possible showing in view of the need to publicise next season’s tour of South Africa, says R.T.B. in a message from Wellington. It may be that they have tried to do both these things at once. The omission of J. G. Leggat, T. B. Burtt, A. M. Moir, and F. E. Fisher has some peculiar features. Leggat is the unluckiest, for today he batted very well against good bowling, and looked the safest and soundest of the New Zealand players. The inclusion of G. O. Rabone points to the fielding of the best possible team, but the retention of J. R. Reid, who in the first test was completely out of form, will be questioned. Burtt loses his place for the first time in 11 consecutive tests, and he, too, is unlucky. At Wellington he bowled steadily on a pitch which could not have suited him less, and the only leg spin the new team can offer is that of E._ W. Dempster, who was not available for representative matches this season and who will find it difficult leaving club games for the hothouse atmosphere of a test match. The New Players The dropping of Moir aftd the inclusion of A. R. Mac Gibbon was not unexpected. It was generally felt that New Zealand should have only one spin bowler at the Basin Reserve to allow another fast bowler a place, and Mac Gibbon has only to repeat his earlier Auckland form to make a vast difference to New Zealand’s chances. M. E. Chapple won a place with his 165 and 88 against the South Africans at Christchurch, and his resourceful batting may be of real value. Dempster is a fine cricketer who fights hard all the way, and this is an attribute New Zealand often lacked at Wellington. It seems clear that the four players dropped have been excluded because none of them is really good in the field. Mac Gibbon, Chapple, Rabone, and Dempster are certainly an improvement on that score, and the team should be a particularly active one. Rabone, with his slip fielding, may allow a good fieldsman to be sent into the deep, where in the Wellington match L. S. M. Miller was not at home.

If he plays in the second test. Miller would be better suited with a position in the covers, but his batting in the first test was unimpressive, and if M. B. Poore is to be given a game Miller might be made twelfth man. On paper the second test team has bat- | ting almost all the way through—Maci Gibbon may well find himself at No. 10— ! three quick bowlers, two off-spinners, I and a left-hand leg spinner. This is an ! embarrassing amount of bowling for any 1 captain, and it is a strange team which includes five all-rounders or near allrounders, excluding Chapple and Sutcliffe. The selection does give every indication that New Zealand in the second test will look like an international team. That will at least be a start.