Vital catch missed, chance of test victory lost

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32879, 30 March 1972, Page 24

Vital catch missed, chance of test victory lost

(From

D.J. CAMERON.

N.Z.P.A. special correspondent)

, BRIDGETOWN. The catch—and the match—that got away. That was New Zealand’s chastening experience as the West Indies, mainly through two superb innings, by G. Davis (183) and G. S. Sobers (142), snuffed out. any New Zealand hopes of victory as they batted throughout the last day of this drawn third test and scored 564 for eight wickets.

So New Zealand, sitting pretty after the first three days when the West Indies scored 133 and the tourists 422, had a great chance of victory dragged from their grip.

Davis and Sobers were magnificent, and it was no dishonour for the New Zealanders to be foiled by two such majestic batsmen. Davis was the keystone of the West Indies recovery, for he batted one minute over 10 hours in an incredible display of concentration and dedication.

Sobers was no less wonderful, especially as he had to tame his usual wish to bat in the grand manner, and he toiled away for his ones and twos just as diligently as Davis, who is not en-

dowed with Sobers’s abundant gifts. Yet, the New Zealanders twice dropped Davis in his monumental innings and, at the critical point of the match yesterday morning, let Sobers off the hook when the balance of the match was still teetering. On Sunday morning, G. M. Turner misjudged a snick from Davis when the batsman was 18 and the total 138 for three, and they did not see the back of Davis until 446 runs later. That did not seem a grievous blow at the time, for there always seemed the possibility that the bowlers, especially the valiant H. J. Howarth, would strike down the men at the other end. Fielding switch Yesterday morning, Turner could not field in his usual position of first slip because of a sore finger. So T. W. Jarvis, an admirable slip field, was posted there. Both sides regarded the first hour of yesterday’s play with the West Indies starting at 297 for five, eight runs ahead, as the decisive period of the match. A wicket or two then and New Zealand would have been into the soft West Indies tail. A rush of runs from Davis and Sobers might even have meant that New Zealand would have had to face a ticklish second innings under pressure if Sobers had sufficient time for a declaration. In the event neither happened and Sobers had little alternative but to let his second innings roll on throughout the afternoon. Catch dropped Thirty-one minutes after the resumption of play, B. R. Taylor decided to bowl round the wicket to Sobers. Perhaps the new line confused Sobers, for he drove at the first ball while playing away from his foot and a good and healthy outside edge zoomed away to Jarvis at first slip. Just as Taylor let out a yelp of triumph and Sobers tucked his bat under his arm and prepared to depart, Jarvis seemed to lunge at, the waist-high catch. He failed to hold ft, and as.the ball spilled forward, he jerked thia way

and that, before the ball and Jarvis both fell to the ground.

It was hard lines for Jarvis, normally the safest of catchers, and there was little consolation for the New Zealanders in the fact that they had profited even more by the number of catches the West Indies dropped in this and the second test. Pressure lost In a twinkling the New Zealand pressure, built about the superb boiling of Howarth and the quite magnificent fielding, seemed to fade away. The fielding was still wonderful, with M. G. Burgess and G. E. Vivian exceeding even their own high standards, and With B. F. Hastings almost aS good; The bowling was as dangerous as the pitch would allow, and Howarth maintained his accuracy throughout a long, hot day that was to end with his bowling 74 overs in the innings for 138 runs and two wickets.

But the vital spark that would have been ignited by the dismissal of Sobers was not there, and it took only Davis and Sobers a few more minutes to re-establish their control over the game.

Davis missed Until lunch they batted sedately especially when Howarth was pitching into the scrapings outside Sobers’s off-stump and when Taylor, and then R. W. Morgan, bowled tidily. At lunch, the West Indies were 375 for five, with a lead of 86, and both batsmen with their centuries—Sobers in 248 minutes and the diligent Davis in 388 minutes. Satisfied that defeat was increasingly unlikely, Davis and Sobers hewed away carefully until B. E. Congdon called for the new ball. Before that Davis had been dropped, a difficult outside edge to K. J. Wadsworth when Davis cut at Morgan, but by then the West Indies were 386 for five wickets and the New Zealanders had forgotten about victory. Came the new ball and, for a brief and brilliant moment, the sight of Sobers at his incomparable. best He cast away the cares of saving the

game, for this had already been done. Cunis pitched up and the ball went through extra cover like a bullet. Cunis again, and the ball fled to the square-leg fence. Cunis shorter, so Sobers leaned back and hammered it to the mid-wicket fence. Brilliant stop Cunis pitched up, and yet another gorgeous strike rifled through the gap at extra cover. All of a sudden a white blur dived full length and stopped it. This was Vivian in yet another of his desperately thrilling saves, and even Sobers clapped the wonderful stop.. It could not last. In Taylor’s next over Sobers tried to work him to leg, the ball went hard and low, and about square leg Vivian dived forward to catch it an inch or so above the ground—and Sobers clapped that, too, as he went away to collect a benefit collection of $l4OO which he later shared with Davis.

All that remained were ; some explosive strokes by D. H. Holford before Wads- ; worth caught him standing , up to Congdon, and the pos- ; sibil ity that Davis’s innings would gain the distinction of a double century. It eluded him, simply because he gambled against Turner’s I point-blank throw from midi on and was run out. 1 WEST INDIES ' First Innings 113 Second Innings ' R. F. Fredericks lbw b Cunis IS ' M. C. Carew c Turner b Howarth 45 | L. Rowe lbw b Congdon .SI M. Findlay c Morgan b Howarth * I C. Davis run out .. 113 • M. Foster lbw b Taylor .. 4 0. S. Sobers c Vivian b Taylor 141 l D.H. Holford c Wadsworth b Congdon 51 Inshan All not out .. .. 11 ' V. Holder not out .. 14 I Extras (byes 4, log-byes », wide 1, no-balls 1) 14 1 Total for eight wkts 544 Fall of wickets: one for 41, two . for n, three for lIS, four for 1 143, five for 171, six for 415, > seven for 511, eight for 544. Bowling ' OM R W I Cunis .. .. 31 1 130 1 Taylor .. .. 33 3 IM 1 , Congdon ..31 744 2 Howarth .. 74 24 133 1 , Morgan .. .. 30 171 0 I Vivian .. 0210 0 NEW ZEALAND 1 First Innings .. .. ■ ■ 422