RABONE’S VIEWS OF TOUR

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27309, 27 March 1954, Page 9

RABONE’S VIEWS OF TOUR

FAILURES IN MIDDLE OF BATTING ORDER \

Repeated failures in the middle batting and lack of a leg spin bowler had been the main weaknesses in the New Zealand team during its tour of South Africa, said the captain, G. O. Rabone, in an interview at Christchurch yesterday. The results achieved were disappointing, Rabone said, particularly those in the test matches. He did not think the team had done itself justice, players often failing to show the form of which they were known to be capable. However, in three of the five tests New Zealand had been right in the game, and he felt that one win would not have flattered the team at all.

Referring to New Zealand’s batting, Rabone said the players seemed so often to be set, but got out. In the main, lack of concentration was the cause. In South Africa the bowlers had been able to make the ball move off the pitch sufficiently to demand correct batting, and the New Zealanders fell into error. In Australia, by contrast, there had been three perfect pitches for batting and New Zealand had scored very well. The middle of the order batting failures meant that New Zealand seldom exploited to the full advantages won earlier. The lack of good, accurate, legbreak bowling was due perhaps to the fact that there were few pitches which suited such bowlers, and as New Zealand’s bowling was based upon pace, the spinners in such conditions did not get enough bowling to bring them to their peak when they were needed, Rabone said. The team’s fielding had been patchy and one or two players had lacked speed off the mark, anticipation, and the ability to throw quickly and accurately. On the credit side, there was, among other things, the excellent job done by A. R. MacGibbon as a bowler, and the exceptional good, all-round performance of J. R. Reid. Poor Practice Wickets

Commenting on the arrangements made for the team during the tour, Rabone said the side had been handicapped by the poor practice pitches provided for them. Time and again the batsmen had not been able to bat against the full pace of the New Zealand bowlers because of the risk of serious injury, and that had meant they were ill prepared for the speed of the South African bowler, Neil Adcock, on the Ellis Park pitch, which for the second test was definitely dangerous and unfit for test cricket. “Adcock’s hostile fast bowling on a dangerous wicket did much towards the winning of the test series,” Rabone said. The hospitality of the South Africans had been outstanding, he said. The general match and transport arrangements had been first-class. New Zealand’s performance in Australia made up in some measure for the lack of test success in South Africa, Rabone said. “I would like to say,” he added, “how proud I have been to have the honour of leading this side, on New Zealand’s first tour of South Africa. We have had our disappointments, but there was more than a little compensation in the knowledge that the team was the most popular to have visited the union. That being so, we can say quite justly that the tour was a most successful one.”