Rain Halts Austs Victory Attempt

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30619, 9 December 1964, Page 23

Rain Halts Austs Victory Attempt

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) MELBOURNE, December 8. Rain stopped Australia’s bid to win the first test against Pakistan on the final day at Melbourne today. Australia, requiring 166 runs in 127 minutes, had scored 88 for two in 71 minutes when rain stopped play. The match was drawn.

Australia had earlier fallen behind the clock, mainly due to the Pakistan bowling rate, the bad light and a continuous drizzle of rain.

Only four overs were bowled in the first 27 minutes. At one stage, with the field in position to start an over, Farooq, the bowler, ■was at long-on doing up his bootlaces. Australia lost the wickets of its openers in the attempt. R. B. Simpson nibbled at a ball in Arif’s first over and was caught behind. Lawry Run Out Then W. M. Lawry, in trying for an impossible run after the ball had rolled off B. Shepherd’s bat down the pitch, could not regain his ground before the bowler threw down the stumps. In the adverse conditions. Shepherd batted magnificently. He never stopped trying to hit the cover off the ball and must have greatly improved his chances of inclusion in the team to tour the West Indies. When rain stopped play, Shepherd, 43 not out, had been at the wicket for 57 minutes, hitting seven fours, while T. R. Veivers had batted 17 minutes for 16 runs. Hanif Just Fails The Pakistan captain, Hanif Mohammad, earlier had headed a dour fight to save the match when the tourists resumed at 120 for three. Batting soundly, he received

strong support from his middle and lower batsmen. All hopes of saving the game, however, appeared to vanish half-an-hour before SCOREBOARD PAKISTAN First Innings .. 237 Second Innings Mohammad Ilyas, lbw, b McKenzie 3 Arif Butt, c Jarman, b McKenzie .. 12 Saeed Ahmad, c Chappell, b McKenzie .. 24 laved Burki, b Hawke .. 47 I anif Mohammad, st Jarman, b Veivers .. 93 Nasimul Ghani, b Sincock .. 10 Abdul Kadir, c Jarman, b Hawke .. . 35 Asif Iqbal, c Jarman, b Hawke .. .15 Intikhab Alam, c Simpson, b Hawke . 61 Afaq Husain, not out .. 13 Farooq Hamid, b McKenzie 3 Extras (b. 5, l.b. 2, w. 2, n.b. 1) ..10 Total ..326 Fall of wickets: one for 6, two for 37, three for 46, four for 131, five for 151, six for 198, seven for 229, eight for 267. nine for 323. Bowling

AUSTRALIA First Innings .. 448 Second Innings R. B. Simpson, c Hanif, b Arif Butt 1 W. M. Lawry, run out .. 19 B. Shepherd, not out .. 43 T. R. Veivers, not out .. 16 Extras (b. 2, l.b. 4, w. 2, n.b. 1) 9 Total (for two wickets) 88 Fall of wickets: one for 12, two for 55.

lunch when Hanif, who looked certain to score a century in each innings, was out for 93. Had Hanif been able to get seven more runs he would have become only the fourth player in test history to achieve the feat twice. The only players to have done so are H. Sutcliffe (England) and the West Indians, C. Walcott and G. Headley. Hanif scored 111 and 104 in a test against England at Dacca in 1961-62. Forced on Defence Following his 104 in the first innings, Hanif’s brilliant batting was well worthy of another century which might well have come but for the early dismissal of Javed Burki this morning. This forced Hanif to become a little defensive to try to hold the side together and his innings of 93 occupied 190 minutes and included 12 fours.

0. M. R. W. McKenzie .. 24.4 1 74 4 Hawke .. 21 2 62 4 Sincock ..28 5 102 1 Veivers .. 12 4 37 1 Chappell .11 2 31 0

Bowling 0. M. R. W. Farooq 4 0 25 0 Arif .. 5 0 29 1 Asif .. 2 0 25 0