PHILPOTT KEY PLAYER

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30946, 30 December 1965, Page 11

PHILPOTT KEY PLAYER

(From W. J O’REILLY. N.Z.P.A special correspondent.]

MELBOURNE.

Two Australians, P. J. Philpott and W. M. Lawry, stand squarely between England and any slight chance of victory in t h e second test, which starts at Melbourne today.

Unless England’s batsmen have found some counter to Philpott’s leg-spinners their chances of winning can be written off as negligible. It was painful to see at Brisbane men with splendid batting reputations making despairingly futile attempts to cover the leg-spinning ball safely. Menace of Lawry It is safe to assume that the little Australian bowler will be a predominantly important factor in an Australian victory. Lawry, in slightly lesser degree, represents a menace to English hopes. To date, apart from two disputed decisions which actually cut no ice at all now, England has held no answer at all for the run-hungry Australian opener’s policy of scoring solidly through the offside field with his powerful driving. Australia’s is certainly no world-beating team. There are suspicious soft-spots in the batting list which should buttress up the confidence of England’s bowlers. B. C. Booth and R. M. Cowper are both struggling hard

for respectable form and the tail is long and frightening. The bowling, without N. J. Hawke, should really gladden the hearts of batsmen unaffected by systematic melancholia in opposition to legspin.

T. R. Veivers, whose offspinners were given such a lacing by first J. H. Edrich and then J. M. Parks in Brisbane, is back again, either to square the account or to put on another Roman holiday. R. B. Simpson’s return and the prestige value of G. D. McKenzie’s new-ball bowling make the Australian team stronger than it was in Brisbane.

Simpson, Australia's best batsman against off-spin, should do well. England's pace bowling will have no chance of unsettling him. M. C. Cowdrey’s re-entry will strengthen England's batting morale, if nothing else. When the team was being chosen for the first test one wondered whether Cowdrey would make the grade. His form had been so poor: finally ill health settled that problem.

England will be looking confidently to Cowdrey to set the batting plan and the practical example to be followed in handling Philpott D. Brown’s absence la disastrous: he was England’s best bowler in Brisbane. Since then he has joined the growing number of the walking wounded.

Given fine weather, and regardless of the luck of the toss, I expect Australia to win this second test comfortably.