Choice Of Spin Or Pace Delays Team Selection

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31320, 16 March 1967, Page 19

Choice Of Spin Or Pace Delays Team Selection

(By R. T. BRITTENDEN)

More runs at a faster rate may be expected in the third test between the touring Australians and New Zealand, starting today, than were scored in the earlier games at New Plymouth and Dunedin.

Lancaster Park is bearing more grass than either of the pitches in die earlier games, and while the seam bowlers on both sides inay find they can move the ball a little right through the match, the slow bowlers may be without the assistance which made V. Pollard and B. W. Yuille such dominating figures in the preceding matches.

There may still be a temptation for New Zealand to play all four of its fast bowlers, but the probability is that R. O. CoDinge will come into the side, and R. S. Cunis made twelfth man. The side will hot be announced until this morning. The Australian team selection, contrary to earlier practice, will also be made final just before the game begins. Perhaps the Australians may also be thinking in terms of playing three pace bowlers. But if a place is to be made for the valuable all-rounder, P. I. Philpott, who would strengthen the batting and fielding considerably, it would then have to be at the exclusion of the left-hander, R. Bitmead. Bitmead bowled most economically at Dunedin, but on a pitch the New Zealand spinners used well, he did not look very dangerous.

The Australians are one down in the series, and will no doubt seek to attack. If

Philpott and Bitmead are both included in the XI, there would be room for only two of the pace bowlers; a shortening of the batting list, in a side which has yet to score 200 against New Zealand, would be dangerous. This should be a fine match and one which could conceivably decide the rubber. The Australians will almost certainly do better in Christchurch than in the first two games, and will be making an all-out effort to square accounts. But the New Zealanders have shown much competence and have won invaluable confidence. And in the side, R. C. Motz looms large. The pitch looks very similar to the one on which Canterbury beat the Australians. In that match, Motz took 10 wickeits, and the tourists have every reason to regard him with respect. On pre-tour reputation, the Australians would be expected to have the upper hand. On form, the New Zealanders have an advantage. There have been convincing innings from G. T. Dowling, B. E. Congdon, T. W.

Jarvis, and Pollard, in particular. B. W. Sinclair, an outstanding batsman, will surely find the Lancaster Park pitch one on which to play the long innings for which he is overdue.

And there is B. R. Taylor, at whom the Australian captain, L. E. Favell, must sometimes wonder who to bowl. He has hit them all, with great regularity. The Australian top batting on the other hand, has failed; but it has tremendous potential, and there could be some solid scoring in this game. New Zealand’s pace bowling should prove superior to that of the Australians on a fast pitch, although the tremendous efforts made for the tourists by A. Connolly could again be of vital importance. Both sides practised yesterday. The forecast for today is fine and cloudy weather, with fine weather tomorrow.

The Australians were guests of the Canterbury Cricket Supporters’ Club last evening, along with the New Zealand team, the Canterbury eleven, and the North Canterbury side that won the Hawke Cup. “The cricket you Australians have played, and we have played, is some of the best I have seen,” said Mr S. G. Lester, the president of the supporters’ club. “This rejuvenation lies in the hands of the players; no alterations to the rules could do that.”

Favell, the Australian captain, in a short, amusing speech, said he had only one complaint: “The New Zealand captain doesn’t know how to toss”; a reference to Sinclair having won both tosses in the current series. Sinclair, Mr F. J. Bryant, the Australian team manager, and the tourists’ vice-captain, B. C. Booth, also spoke. £1699 GATE (N.Z. Press Association) The second test at Dunedin had an attendance of 7170. The gate receipts were £1699 ss.