Batting successes must comfort cricket selectors

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31881, 8 January 1969, Page 9

Batting successes must comfort cricket selectors

lyiTH a test series and a tour just ahead, it must be a source of considerable comfort to the New Zealand selectors to note how many batsmen in the Piunket Shield matches have found convincing form. Most selectors would agree that it is far better to have a choice of form batsmen, rather than to hope that previous experience can be balanced against current failure. For all that, the period of batting plenty in shield games so far will present problems, for competition for test places is going to be very keen indeed. It is satisfactory to find that most of the batsmen who appeared for New Zealand against India last summer are making runs. The Auckland team has batted only twice, and all its batsmen have made good scores. M. G. Burgess has made 57 and 103 and is a certain test choice. But Auckland provides several former test players who have started the season well enough to suggest that they will be challenging for places. Auckland, of course, has met two of the weaker teams, Northern Districts and Otago. But its performances have been convincing. R. W. Morgan, a tourist in 1965, has made 45 and 39, and bowled most usefully. G. E. Vivian has taken 10 wickets for only 87, and has played innings of 50 and 34—-an exciting young cricketer who cannot be ignored. J. T. Sparling’s innings have brought him 109 for once out; T. W. Jarvis has scored 51 and 15 (run out). Moreover, he has held eight slip catches, and must again be a firm candidate for test selection. S. R. Speed, a possible New Zealand wicket-keeper, has also batted usefully. Best of Canterbury’s batsmen has been B. F. Hasting,s a fine strokemaker, who has been on the fringe of national selection in several seasons. His form this summer has been most convincing, and with a shade of luck he could be averaging even better than his present 70.2. G. T. Dowling has made a century, J. W. Burtt has strung together a succession of useful scores and B. R. Taylor is batting and bowling better than he was a few weeks

ago. Only K. Thomson, of last season's test players, is short ot runs. Central Districts has a very successful opening pair in M. L. Ryan and P. J. Coutts. Already Courts has scored two centuries, and Ryan has an average of almost 50. B. E. Congdon made a good start, but has had a couple of failures in his last matches. M. J. F. Shrimpton has come back into consideration spectacularly—3o, 71, and 133. If he is not likely to get a test place yet, K. J. Wadsworth is another Central batsman who could be a tour candidate. B. W. Yuile

has had only one innings—--63 not out—and V. Pollard has had three successes, and is averaging 76. The position of G. M. Turner, of Otago, is not clear. It is obvious that he would be an asset to New Zealand, but whether he can make himself available, or wishes to, remains to be seen. His splendid form has brought him 307 runs in five completed innings. For the same side, W. J. Mitchell has played two good innings, and G. D. Alabaster has made 170 for four times out. Wellington’s batting is headed by B. A. G. Murray, whose double century

against Otago is the basis of his 59.6 average. B. W. Sinclair (39.5) has been in satisfa’ctory form. It is a corollary that while the runs have been flowing, the bowlers have not enjoyed such prosperity. Of the- test players of last summer, G. A. Bartlett and J. C. Alabaster are not playing, and R. O. Collinge withdrew after one match because of injury. Taylor’s figures are modest. R. C. Motz has very useful ones, and Yuile has taken seven for 94. But Pollard has not succeeded —2 for 131 and the bowling challenges are coming from R. S. Cunls (11 for 151), H. J. Howarth (6 for 91), Sparling (6 for 112), B, Andrews (13 for 201) and particularly from J. M. Mclntyre, whose 16 for 234 puts him closer to test consideration than he has been before. Seven shield matches are still to be completed, but already it seems that 1969 may be—at least in New Zealand’s domestic cricket—the Year of the Bat.