MUCH IMPROVED PERFORMANCE BY N.Z. IN THIRD TEST

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27914, 10 March 1956, Page 3

MUCH IMPROVED PERFORMANCE BY N.Z. IN THIRD TEST

I 'HERE was concrete evidence in the third test match against the W est Indies at the Basin Reserve this week that New Zealand cricket is not in quite the state of chaos some of its keenest followers fear it is in. The est Indies won easily and deservedly hut the New Zealand team gave a much more stout-hearted performance, both in batting and bowling, than in the first two tests and the only regret is that most of the better performances came from players of mature years.

New Zealand cricketers tend to clutch at straws, but there were signs that the trough of ineptitude has been left behind. It w r as most encouraging to watch New Zealand batsmen fighting hard, concentrating for long periods, and giving a few hints that the West Indies bowling might be fallible. It was stern stuff, but the New Zealanders, by and large, acquitted themselves well.

Similarly, the bowling stood up well and the policy of denying the batsmen runs consistently was proven worthwhile, even if the West Indies for the fourth time reached a score of more than 400.

It was worth while because the West Indies score might well have been halved if Weekes had been caught, and very substantially reduced if Binns had been run out. These were chances the average teacher would expect his school team to accept. and the fact that the West Indies reached so large a total was not the fault of the bowling, for when Atkinson was hitting fiercely he frequently sliced the ball beyond the reach of fieldsmen. There were some dismal failures in the New Zealand batting, but D. D. Taylor, J. E. F. Beck. A. R. Mac Gibbon. S. C. Guillen, and S. N. McGregor all produced batting of fine temper, worthy of test cricket. Taylor was in superb form, never playing an indiscreet stroke, but offering encouragement as well as runs to his side with his conscientious defence and his readiness to hit the really bad ball hard. There might have been some who expected New Zealand to flog their way through their difficulties, but the better course was adopted with considerable success. This was still a very heavy defeat, but each of the several occasions on which the West Indies attack was really held up was a pointer to better performances at Auckland Taylor was 33 just before the game began, and many of the others are now well into the thirties,

so that New Zealand still has only Beck as a young player in form. If the 1958 tour of England takes place—doubt has been expressed that it will—New Zealand may have to rely on a fairly mature team. Taylor’s transformation to the batsman of 10 years ago could not have been more opportune for New Zealand. After his early successes Taylor fell away, and in England he was not a success in county cricket. Last season he averaged something under 17 for firstclass matches, but this season he has been getting runs regularly and well. At Wellington he looked head and shoulders above any of the other New Zealand batsmen. Mac Gibbon proved himself worthy of the number three position in the batting order with some sound defence, and McGregor at last showed the improvement his side needed so badly. Tor much of the West Indies first innings the New Zealand bowling was very accurate, so -much so that at least three of the wickets fell because batsmen made mistakes in trying to rid themselves of their fetters. The worst features of New Zealand’s displays were the running between the wickets, which was often alarming in its fits and starts, and the fielding. There were good reasons why some of the ground work should look bad —in places the Basin Reserve is like a scenic railway—but the very maturity and experience which are so valuable to the batting and bowling are weakening the fielding. But this was a much better match for New Zealand than the first two. Defeat by nine wickets could hardly breed satisfaction, but it did give grounds for some hope.