Pitch Made For Batsmen

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30900, 5 November 1965, Page 14

Pitch Made For Batsmen

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

PERTH. Another magnificent batting pitch has ensured big scoring when M.C.C. meets a combined XI in the game beginning at Perth today.

The pitch, black and shiny, and as hard as concrete, has not been hampered in preparation by the recent Western AustraliaM.C.C. match on the same ground. It was kept covered with a coir mat throughout this game. So good was the pitch for the last match that the two skippers, M. J. K. Smith and B. Shepherd, were forced to make three closures in their respective bids for victory. Brown May Play D. Brown, the fourth of the M.C.C. pace bowlers, will play has first game today, provided he suffers no recurrence of his shoulder strain. Brown bowled at a lively pace in the nets yesterday, several times forcing batsmen to fend away balls rising towards their ribs. After the M.C.C. had finished its practice, the Eastern States players, P. Burge (Queensland) and R. Cowper (Victoria), batted impressively, hitting the ball with great power. Burge, as usual, was particularly severe with his driving and on a number of occasions scattered watchers in line with the open net. He will appreciate the fast pitch, and so will Cowper, whose last experience in firstclass cricket was on the quick West Indian batting pitches. Both men have the added weight on their shoulders in this match of knowing that their names are being canvassed for the Australian captaincy. The champion New Zealand softball team, Hutt Valley, was beaten, 7-1 by a visiting American squad at Hutt last night.