Stodgy English Batsmen Left Bowlers Huge Task

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30028, 12 January 1963, Page 12

Stodgy English Batsmen Left Bowlers Huge Task

(Specially written for the NJSJ’JI. by W. J. O'REILLY)

SYDNEY, January 11. In four hours of meaningless! y obstinate bat* ting, with the emphasis solely upon defence, England surrendered the initiative in the third cricket test and at the end of the first day's play appeared to have placed itself in line for defeat. It will need some extraordinary effort from its bowling to make amends. Winning the toss, England batted on a harmless pitch which offered none of the thrills which had been expected during the opening session. Not once during the day did the pitch play any part in the success of the Australian bowling which was rewarded more because of steadiness than for any other reason.

Pullar, the left-handed opener, started confidently, middling the ball truly and placing it carefully to take early singles. Not once did he mistime or mishit any shots m countering the new bail period But having played safely through that he bogged down for some mysterious reason and finished in a hopelessly muddled state at strokelessness

Nothing In Bowling When a batsman goes as cold as Pullar did one generally finds a good reason for it in the quality of the attack. There is nothing that sends a batsman into the doldrums quicker than accurate, hostile bowling. But no charge like that could be levelled at the Australian bowlers who struggled along hopefully concentrating upon fundamentals of length, direction, and change of pace to prevent the bat from taking the control expected of it on an easy-paced P»tta Even Dexter, who batted 82 minutes for 33 runs, showed little of his previous desire to get on with the scoring He struggled unsuccessfully to get his timing working correctly, and when be went to a clumsily mishit square cut off Benaud. one found it hard to realise that the man who has punished Australian bowlers so thoroughly this season, bad made his entrance

Confident Strokes Take Cowdrey, tor instance Throughout his long innings he stroked the ball so confidently no bowler looked to have the least chance of beattog him Yet he too failed to get on with the scoring At one particularly somnolent period Pullar and Cowdrev batted for 30 minutes without scoring. Those tactics might be hard to reason out—if there could have been a reason other than tactical — cured bow that, if the Australians are able to level the score by winning this match, it was lost during the first four hours . bowling put up a <dend»d

and exit. Once the pattern of stodginess was well and truly set the later batsmen found it, as is usually the case, almost impossible to change the tempo

performance. In two particular instances of dismissals Benaud’s resiliency to captaincy and tactics were worth noting. In the first case he brought O’Neill almost to touching distance of Sheppard at short square leg for Davidson's bowling. This seemed to be serving notice that the bowler was going to bounce one dr two. Sheppard, probably making a mental note not to fall for that trap, promptly chased an outswtoger and was caught at second slip. Delayed New BaU

In the other he kept Simpson on for an extra over after the new ball was due. To do this he had to persuade Davidson to take a warm-up over with the old ball—and it was easy to see his powers of persuasion being thoroughly tested in doing so. In that over Simpson, who had already colie- ed the wickets of Pullar and Cowdrey added Parfitt

That in each case was excellent captaincy. Davidson emphasised it by turning on an inspired exhibition of big “indip" swing bowling to land Barrington and Murray with successive balls when Benaud finally took pity and threw him the new ball.

Simpson's was an outstanding bowling effort Not that he bowled with any particular show of hostility but he got the ball into the right places for men like Pullar and Cowdrey to get themselves into trouble and he seemed to mesmerise Parfitt into a state of helplessness against the spin.

McKenzie was the unluckiest bowler imaginable, and had two catches dropped. But that had no effect upon the vigour and enthusiasm he put into the session with die second new ball The West Australian has built up a fine reputation as a courageous support for Davidson with the new ball

The Australians finished the day to an excellent position. When Benaud lost the toss you can bet his most optimistic flight of fancy would not have had him thinking England would lose seven wickets for 256 on such a good wicket.

Guest, Australia’s new pace bowler, had trouble most of the t le in controlling direction and failed to get any noticeably swing. But it was not an easy day for bowlers, to spite of the success achieved. Self-tßffieted Wounds England's wounds were mostly self-inflicted. It badly needed that inspiration that Dexter’s usual batting methods provide for the team. Not once did it look like a team which went flat out to

demand victory to Melbourne. It lost toe initiative early aad never made any serious attempt to regain it England. I am sure, will be sorry now it did not include a second spin bowler, D. A. Allen, to place of Coldwell. The difficulty Guest had on this pitch win have been sufficient to convince toe side

that Coldwell’s prospects can hardly be bright Spinners might be going at a premium in the final stages of this match. One Englishman who added to his laurels with the bat was Titmus who, finding himself the standard bearer when the tail-enders appeared on the scene, laid out himself so vigorously that he won the admiration of toe vast crowd for a fine show of courage. He set up an example which some of Australia’s down-the-list batsmen might well try to emulate.

Trueman will need to bowl just as well as he did in Melbourne to give England a chance. If Statham decides that this is the time to let himself go, too, the match could still hold some lively interest for England.