Australia Dominates After Indians' Plucky Fight

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31584, 23 January 1968, Page 13

Australia Dominates After Indians' Plucky Fight

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

BRISBANE. Australia strengthened its grip on the third test match against India yesterday at the Brisbane Cricket Ground. In spite of a,plucky fight by the late-order Indian batsmen, the Australians finished the third day in a formidable position.

Dismissing India for 269 in the tourists’ first innings Australia gained a 100-run lead. At stumps Australia had scored 162 runs for the loss of three wickets. This gave it an over-all lead of 262 runs with seven sec-ond-innings wickets standing and two full days remaining. The pitch showed signs late yesterday of taking considerable turn when the Indian left-hander, K. Surti, produced a magnificent ball that spun , sharply to bowl the Austra- ' Han left-hander, R. Cowper, j Earlier, Surti had dismissed ( the Australian captain, W. Lawry, caught behind the wickets, for 45. India’s position would have j been stronger but for an . error in Bedi’s final over when F. Engineer dropped a low edged catch behind the. i stumps. The Australian top scorer was I. Redpath who made 79 and shared an enterprising opening partnership of 116 with Lawry. The Australians showed they could afford to stand R. Simpson on the sideline with Lawry and Redpath rattling up their partnership in only 107 minutes. , Earlier the Australians had had to fight unexpectedly hard to finish the Indian first innings. The tourists resumed at six for 169 but it was 100 runs later before the Australians captured their last wicket. ;

The tour reinforcement, M. Jaisimha, delayed the Australians with a fine innings of 74. He looked in command until he tried to loft Cowper into the unguarded outfield and was caught by Lawry. R. Nadkarni and E. Prasanna played solidly in defence and the Australians toiled for three hours before they ended the innings. Cowper did the damage, claiming three of the four wickets that fell. Fine Player Jaisimha displayed cool concentration and a splendid range of strokes, and the wonder is how he came to be omitted from the original touring party. In the last session the versatile Surti spun the ball so sharply that the Australian batsmen were in all sorts of difficulties.

After Cowper's dismissal P. Sheahan and I. Chappell played out the final 20 minutes without adding another run. The Australians, with a lot of batting strength left, must feel they can push to a 400run lead at least. This would set India a Her-

culian task to save the match on the final day. INDIA First Innings F. Engineer c Gleeson b Freeman 2 Abid Alt c Redpath b Freeman 2 A. Wadekar c Jarman b Renneberg .. 1 R. Surti c Cowper b Chappell . 52 Nawab of Pataudi lbw b Freeman . 74 M. Jaisimha c Lawry b Cowper .74 C. Borde c and b Connolly 12 R. Nadkarni b Cowper .. 17 E. Prasanna c Walters b Cowper 24 B. Bedi not out 2 U. Kulkarni c Cowper b Connolly 7 Extras (byes 6, legbyes 4, no-balls 2) .. 12 Total .. 279

Bowling.—D. Renneberg, 10, 1, 40. 1; E. Freeman. 21, 1, 50, 3; D. Walters, 6, 0. 22, 0; A. Connolly, 15, 4, 43, 2; J. Gleeson, 15, 7, 20, 0: R. Cowper,,ls. 5, 31, 3; I. Chappell. 18. 4, 55, 1. AUSTRALIA First Innings 379 Second Innings I. Redpath lbw b Prasanna 79 W. Lawry c Engineer b Surti .. 45 R. Cowper b Surti .25 P. Sheahan not out .. 8 I. Chappell not out 0 Extras (leg-byes 4, noball 1) 5 Total for three wkts 102 Fall of wickets: One for 116 two for 136, three for 162. Bowling:—Kulkarni, 4,0, 22, 0; Surti, 11, 3, 40, 2; Abid Alt, 1,0, 6,0; Prasanna, 17, 6. 56 6 : I B *2l’ o’’ *' U ' Nadkarn1 ’