Batting Sound In Women's Cricket

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29101, 13 January 1960, Page 9

Batting Sound In Women's Cricket

'THE batting of the Canterbury women’s cricket team in the Hallyburton-Johnstone Shield series at Wellington last week was sound, but too many runs were scored by the opposing sides. Nevertheless, Canterbury finished runner-up in the series, and moved up a position on lasl year’s ladder. In Canterbury’s first match Auckland overcame its slow start and ended with 330 for eight declared. This was a big score to chase and Canterbury did well in scoring 240. Collapsed In the Otago game Canterbury, batting first, scored 228 and although Otago was in the comparatively strong position of 82 for two overnight, it collapsed in the morning for Canterbury to enforce the fol]ow-on.

This was the turning point of the game, for although Otago batted better in the second innings it had a deficit of 114 to make up and Canterbury, in its second innings, had just enough time to score the necessary runs for the outright win. Wellington, by winning the toss, and batting on a perfect batsman's wicket, set the stage for victory with its mammoth score of 404 for eight declared. Although Canterbury once again made more than 200 it was not enough to avert the follow-on, and the experienced and accurate Wellington bowlers and fieldsmen did the rest, although Wellington only won outright with five minutes to spare. Best Batsman Easily the best Canterbury batsman was the captain, P. Moore, who made scores of 81, 99, 45 not out and 115 and 11. She hit all the bowling hard and was rarely troubled by pace or spin. E. Dickinson began well in the early games, but she could not get among the Wellington bowlers and was out for 0 and 2. Two new caps, A. Malins and B. Turner, showed good form, and J. Howarth scored well in her early innings. L. Todd was very consistent and her scores of 32. 34 not out and 42 not out were valuable knocks for Canterbury. The most consistent of the moderately successful Canterbury bowlers was P. Moore with two for 48, five for 12 and three for 46. In the match against Wellington. however, she had far too many runs scored from her bowling. Fielding The Canterbury ground fielding was good for most of the series, although some of the anticipation and catching in the slips was below that necessary in a representative side. The outfield was hard and very fast, and if a ball was hit even slightly beyond a fieldsman it was invariably a four.

Canterbury’s catching, especially against Wellington, was not good and too many easy ones were dropped close to the ground.

Altogether only six opposing batsmen were caught by Canterbury fielders. But it was noticeable that many Canterbury batsmen were caught at silly mid-on and silly mid-off by playing defensive shots at fast, rising balls.