NEW LOOK TOURISTS’ BATTING, BOWLING N.Z. Staggered By Aust’s Fighting Recovery

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31323, 20 March 1967, Page 3

NEW LOOK TOURISTS’ BATTING, BOWLING N.Z. Staggered By Aust’s Fighting Recovery

(B:

R. T. BRITTENDEN)

The somewhat barren ground of the Australians’ tour yielded a bountiful and beautiful crop at Lancaster Park on Saturday. At the end of the second day, New Zealand had a chance of victory, the Australians, apparently, little to hope for but a draw.

But on Saturday the young men of the Australian team batted superbly, to take their side to 450 and thus win a lead of 83; and by close of play New Zealand, five down for 102, was almost on its knees.

A memorable innings by the 20-year-old A. P. Sheahan led the Australians from the wilderness in which they have wandered for weeks. He made 135, batting for more than five hours with practised and mature ease.

Another of only 20, G. R. Davies, was extremely impressive with his 50, and when it seemed that New Zealand could still reach the half-way stage of the match on level terms, the 22-year-old E. Freeman took the' bowling apart with all the vigour and audacity of a Taylor. Then the Australians took an early wicket, and from that point played with the purpose and precision of a team which, after weeks of stumbling rehearsals, has suddenly remembered all its lines. They were delivered with clarity and conviction, to a large and appreciative audience. Philpott bowled his legbreaks with confidence and skill, while another young player, Frost, took two important wickets in a fine display of penetrating fast bowling.

It was a remarkable transformation in a team which had been well beaten at New Plymouth and which had floundered its way to a draw at Dunedin. Conversely, the

New Zealanders suffered considerable loss of face. The bowlers could do little to check the flow of Australian runs on a pitch which seemed absolutely amiable. But when the Australians were in the field, their bowlers, both fast and slow, did far more with the ball than the New Zealand side. There is talk now that the pitch is crumbling. It could hardly have changed character in the interval between innings. New Zealand did not bowl well, or field well, and in the last couple of hours, the batting made the bowling look even better than it was. But this New Zealand team is certainly not without courage, and there could be a substantial recovery, even at this late stage.

It was a delightful day’s cricket for the crowd of 12,000 and it was a delightful day—another of golden sunshine, with just a hint of a breeze. The Australian batting metamorphosis was remarkable. In earlier games, Sheahan had made beautiful strokes when the ball was well up to him, but had shown little ability to discover runs in bowling of a defensive nature. On Saturday, he cast aside all such reservations about his quality, and so, too, did Davies. The previous evening, they had batted with a spinsterish caution, and the way they had been contained argued that the Australians could have

I little hope of victory. But on Saturday, 241 runs I were made, for the last six wickets, in 220 minutes from 62 overs. The scoring rate was given a tremendous impetus by the ebullient Freeman, but both Sheahan and Davies were on top all the time. It was obvious that Favell had decided his side’s only hope of success was in a policy of considered aggression; it could be seen in the eagerness of the batsmen to play strokes from the first over, and in the speed and audacity of the running between wickets.

New Zealand pinned its hopes first on the new ball, available after four overs had been bowled, and when that opportunity went without reward, on the ability of its bowlers to pin the batsmen down and persuade them into error. But the New Zealanders simply could not bowl well enough to contain the batsmen.

Indeed, when Freeman was on the rampage, the New Zealand attack disintegrated. There seemed to be no particular policy in the bowling, and under severe pressure the fielding, too, faltered and failed. New Zealand has already had many excellent days in this series, and a bad one must be forgiven, for New Zealand players are less accustomed than most to the high pressures of retaining control in a succession of three tests, in three weeks.

SCORES HEW ZEALAND First Innings .. 367 Second Innings T. W. Jarvis, c Jarman, b Frost 6 C. T. Dowling, b Philpott .. 37 B. E. Congdon, c Burge, b Philpott .18 B. W. Sinclair, c Jarman, b Frost .. 18 V. Pollard, not out . 12 B. W. Yuile, lbw, b Connolly 5 K. Thomson, not out 0 Extras (byes 2, leg-byes 2, no-balls 2) 6 Total for 5 wickets .. 102 Fall of wickets: One for 10, two for 52, three for 77, four for 87, five for 101.

AUSTRALIA First Innings L. E. Favell, b Yuile 59 K. Cunningham, b Yuile 61 B. C. Booth, lbw, b oMtz . . 5 P. J. Burge, c Harford, b Pollard . 34 P. A. Sheahan, st Harford, b Pollard .135 C. R. Davies, c Harford, b Collinge ..50 B. Jarman, c Harford, b Motz .. 16 P. Philpott, b Taylor .. 18 E. Freeman, b Pollard 47i A. Connolly, run out 0 A. Frost, not out 3| Extras (byes 6, leg-byes 8, no-balls 8) .. 221 Total . 450 Fall of wickets: One for 98, two for 104, three for 159, four for 177, five for 269, six for 290, seven for 354, eight for 424, nine for 439.

- Bowling 0. M. R. W. Frost 9 0 19 2 Connolly 8 2 22 1 Freeman .. 7 0 20 0 Fhilpott .. 13 2 28 2 Cunningham 2 0 7 0

Bowling 0. H R. W. Colling* .. 21 4 80 1 Motz 41 12 99 2 Taylor .. 20 8 66 1 Pollard ... 34.5 8 106 3 Yuli* ... 24 6 77 2