Australia Squares Series With 29 Minutes To Spare

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31262, 7 January 1967, Page 15

Australia Squares Series With 29 Minutes To Spare

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright) CAPE TOWN. R. B. Simpson’s much-maligned cricket team stunned South Africa with its six-wicket second test victory at Newlands.

The team, once labelled by some critics as “the worst to have left Australia,” hit back in a tension-packed finish to square the series one-all.

Only 29 minutes remained when I. R. Redpath lofted T. L. Goddard to the leg boundary , for the winning runs. The Springbok bowlers had fought bitterly to stave off defeat in the final four hours in which the Australians were set a target of 179 runs. With W. M. Lawry, Simp-

son, R. M. Cowper and I. Chappell back in the pavilion for 119, and G. Watson with his foot in plaster, it seemed they might succeed. But then the burly T. R. Veivers walked quietly to the crease and promptly hit a ball from McKinnon out of the ground. The Australians never looked back after that. Redpath supplied the iron defence, Veivers the vital note of challenging aggres-

sion, and the Australians pulled off a memorable win. It was a game they always had under control, yet they have proved a team of such strange inconsistencies that it seemed they might let it slip away from them. The fight-back to win this test after the discouraging 233-run defeat at Johannesburg in the first test, represents one of test cricket’s big reversals. MCKENZIE’S ROLE

But the real architect of this victory sat in the pavilion during those tense last few hours. G. D. McKenzie had clean bowled the Springbok tailenders, R. Dumbrill and McKinnon, before lunch to make this win possible. He took eight wickets in the match, bringing his total to 14 in the series so far and to 151 in test cricket. He is carrying the Australian attack on his broad shoulders, and the Springbok batsmen are apprehensive about his sustained pace, his stamina and his climbing bouncer.

The Australian team selectors should have packed him off to Durban to sit by the beach and refresh himself for the crucial third test, which starts on January 20. Instead, McKenzie is to sit about as “thirteenth man” for the Bordergame and will play against Orange Free State. SEVERAL INJURED

The Durban test looks like being won on the massage tables. Both teams have casualties, the Springboks being especially hard hit. Dumbrill and the Australian all-rounder, Watson, can be ruled out, the Pollock brothers have injuries, although they were able to make substantial contributions to the Springbok cause in this Newlands test.