Turner has learnt to place his shots

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31908, 8 February 1969, Page 11

Turner has learnt to place his shots

'THE most important lesson he had learned in his two seasons-in England had been the need to play in the V, and from there to work the bail wide of fieldsmen, said the Worcestershire and Otago batsman, G, M, Turner, who is in Christchurch playing in the national Rothmans under-23 tournament. One of the most noticeable features of Turner’s successful batting in this tournament has been his use of the wrists to turn the ball into gaps. Turner says that learning to play straight and achieving the ability to time of rolling of the wrists was probably the most practical advance he had made in his batting. In England, he said, he would hardly use the cut, except perhaps to a slow bowler, because in county cricket the seam bowlers bowled straight at the batsmen consistently, leaving no room for the cut. Like most New Zealand batsmen, he had had a tendency to hit across the line in search of runs if he had been pegged down, said Turner, but the sweep shot was rarely seen from good batsmen in England. Cricketers in New Zealand will recall how costly the sweep was to New Zealand batting in England in 1965, and in the home series against India last summer. In England, said Turner, there was not much-future for the right-hand leg spip-

ner unless he was a really good one but the county teams nearly all had good left-arm orthodox spinners and off-spinners. But because of the conditions, and the fact that pitches for; couffiy-matches were generally'prepared with a view to an outright result being achieved, county—and touring—teams had to be strong in seam bowling. With so much rain, the pitches were often green, and the atmosphere heavy, and it was difficult to get into the seam bowlers to hit them through the covers, because the ball was likely to nip back and “get through the gate.” He had found that the best method, for him, was to get on to the front foot as much as possible, to reduce the room given the ball for movement. The basis of batting in England seemed to be off the front foot, although of course it really depended on the individual. A newcomer to first-class cricket could leam much, Turner said, simply because there were so many batsmen with good techniques to watch and study. Actually seeing what to do was better than reading books or listening to coaches. “You meet off-spinners x>n a turning wicket,” said Turner. "You have to develop a technique to stay in against him. Here in New Zealand, it happens so seldom, and it is therefore difficult to develop such a technique.” ’

Turner thought that England’s test teams against New Zealand this year would not contain many players with whom the tourists would-be unfamiliar. K. Elgtcher, <t 24, was Englands up-and-coming youngstar; players readied test standard later in England, because they were hardly ever accepted on the basis of one season’s performance. They had to produce results over a longer period tn win nrAnrntinn