BATTING COLLAPSE; SEVEN OUT FOR 93 Australia Has Firm Grip On 5th Test And Trophy

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31915, 17 February 1969, Page 20

BATTING COLLAPSE; SEVEN OUT FOR 93 Australia Has Firm Grip On 5th Test And Trophy

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright) SYDNEY. A sensational collapse, in which seven wickets fell for 93 runs yesterday, has almost ended the West Indies’ hopes of retaining the Sir Frank Worrell Trophy in the five-test series against Australia.

The West Indians, who came to Australia to defend the trophy—the symbol of cricket supremacy between the two countries—needed to win this fifth test to square the series.

However, after yesterday’s dismal batting slump on a perfect pitch, the tourists will certainly return home empty handed.

And the batting collapse will probably severely affect the attendance on the remaining three days of this test, thereby giving the West Indians little hope of making a financial profit on their tour. Century Stand The West Indians were depending on a bumper attendance throughout this fifth test to have a chance of breaking even financially. After the best start to any innings on this tour—by either the West Indies or Australia—the tourists collapsed against an accurate

but far from hostile attack. The Australian tail-end batsmen, B. Taber, J. Gleeson, and A. Connolly, showed there was no real terror in the pitch when they defied the West Indies bowlers for more than an hour in the morning, to boost Australia’s first innings total to 619. Then the West indies openers, R. Fredericks and M. C. Carew, confirmed this impression by producing the first century opening partnership of the series, in even time.

However, Carew’s dismissal for 64 with the West Indies total at 100 was the first rumbling of the landslide that was to follow R. B. Kanhai’s removal in the final over before tea. Batsmen’s Procession Kanhai, after an aggressive 44 in 58 minutes, was caught behind by Taber off the bowling of Connolly—the first of Connolly’s four victims. And after tea it was a sad procession of West Indies batsmen.

Only five runs had been added when the dogged Fredericks was out for 39, compiled in a laborious 3 hours, and 20 runs later the West Indies skipper, G. S. Sobers, who promoted himself in the batting order from six to four, also fell victim to the Taber-Connolly combination.

Four balls later, and with the total still at 179, B. F. Butcher spooned a simple catch to A. P. Sheehan at mid-off when he tried to drive G. D. McKenzie.

S. M. Nurse was neatly snapped up by K. Stackpole off the bowling of Connolly for nine, with the total at 190, and the wicket-keeper,

J. Hendriks, was caught behind for one off McKenzie.

During his inspired spell of bowling after tea, Connolly at one stage had taken four for 12 off only 41 deliveries. Sting In The Tail The West Indies slump was arrested late in the match by C. Lloyd and C. C. Griffith, who added an unbeaten 40 runs. Taber, playing in his first test match in Australia, figured in five of the seven West Indian dismissals and combined with Connolly in three of them. This gave Taber a joint record for most dismissals in an innings of a test match between Australia and the West Indies. The South Australian, G. Langley, did it twice in 1955 and the late A. T. W. Grout achieved it in Brisbane during the 196061 series At stumps, the West Indies had lost seven wickets for 233. leaving them still 386 behind Australia’s first innings total. With three days of play remaining after today's rest day, the tourists still need 236 runs to avert a follow on. Walters’s Record Play on Saturday was dominated by K. D. Walters, who took his score to 242 before he was bowled by L. S. Gibbs after batting for 8 hours. It set a record in tests between Australia and the West Indies, beating Sir Donald Bradman’s 223 in Brisbane against the 1930-31 tourists. It was Walters’s highest score in test cricket and also the third time in successive tests that he had exceeded a century against the West Indians. Walters missed the first

test, which the Australians lost, and his scores before Saturday's memorable effort have been 76 in the second test, 118 in the third, and 110 and 50 not out in the fourth. Walters and his captain, W. M. Lawry, also set a new record for the fourth wicket of 336. This beat by more than 100 runs the previous best between Australia and the West Indies—23s set by L. Hassett and K. Miller during the 1951-52 series.

Lawry scored 151, boosting his test aggregate this season to 650, equalling the previous record by an Australian against the West Indians established by R. N. Harvey in the Caribbean in 1955. It was also his third century in this series.

At stumps, on Saturday, the Australians had scored 583 for eight, having added 315 runs for the loss of five wickets.