S. Africa Battles To Avoid Follow-on

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30634, 28 December 1964, Page 3

S. Africa Battles To Avoid Follow-on

(N.Z.P A.- Reuter—Copyright) JOHANNESBURG, December 27. South Africa spent the entire third day of the second test against England at the Wanderers’ Ground here yesterday battling to avoid the follow-on.

At close of play it was within 71 runs of its target with half its wickets intact. It had scored 261 for five in reply to England's mammoth 531.

A crowd of 30,000, the biggest to see a single day’s play on the tour so far, watched an absorbing day’s cricket as the England bowlers toiled on a placid pitch.

A. J. Pithey held the South African innings together with a patient innings of 80 not out in four hours and a quarter, his highest in test matches.

Pithey showed flashes of enterprise which were rewarded with nine fours.

The opener, E. J. Barlow, showed some of the outstanding qualities which made him South Africa’s outstanding batsman in Australia earlier this year, hitting a 71 which included 11 boundaries. Barlow was at the wicket for nearly three hours.

T. L. Goddard, the captain, batting with a bandaged arm after being hit by the ball on Thursday, made 40, and with Barlow gave South Africa the satisfactory start of an opening stand of 78 in 128 minutes.

South Africa is well placed to avoid an innings defeat, but with two days still to play it still has a long way to go in its fight to save the match.

The off-spinner, F. J. Titmus, broke the Springbok opening stand and went on to take the first three wickets to fall in a marathon un-

changed spell of 26 overs (eight maidens) for 49 runs.

He was unable to spin the ball sharply, but had all the batsmen except Pithey tied down with his clever variations of pace and flight. Although he met with no success, the Gloucestershire off-spinner, D. A. Allen, was the perfect foil to Titmus. He had the batsmen bogged down for long periods and the fact that he conceded only 31 runs off 27 overs reflects his immaculate length.

The brightest patch in the batting came immediately after lunch when Barlow and Pithey launched an attack on the leg-spinners, K. F. Barrington and R. Barber, 50 runs coming in 30 minutes. After the dismissal of Barlow, the Springbok scoring rate dropped to a crawl, and at times a section of the crowd slow-clapped the batsmen.

Slow Start K. C. Bland, after spending more than an hour on his first 11 runs, got going with strokes all round the wicket against the new ball attack of J. S. Price and I. R. ThomsonAlthough he made only 29 runs in 98 minutes, it was a valuable knock in the circumstances. The left-hander, R. G. Pollock, began with three sparkling fours, all off Titmus, but then became a victim of the off-spinner for the fourth time in five innings. R. A. McLean began shakily against Price, and although he made good cover drives and hooks in general, batted unconvincingly. M. J. K. Smith once again

showed himself as an astute captain with clever field placing and the intelligent way he handled his bowling. He applied pressure with each new batsman at the crease and only during one brief period did he have to lift the pressure. That was when Pithey and Barlow added 61 in 50 minutes in the second wicket stand. Price and Thomson did well with the new ball, but received little help from the wicket.

Thomson, who was able to swing the ball into the bat, caused the batsmen some concern at times, and Price, who claimed Bland’s valuable wicket, gained a little lift at times and bowled well except in his third spell, when his direction wavered and he was punished-