New Zealanders’ backs to wall in third test

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33444, 28 January 1974, Page 32

New Zealanders’ backs to wall in third test

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ADELAIDE. I'he New Zealand cricketers will have to draw on all their often-used talents for survival if they are to save the third test against Australia and thus retain the several distinctions they have gained on this tour.

After two days of play. New Zealand, which opened so magnificently in the first four hours, aqd then lost control in the next four, was 104 for four wickets, and hardly into the foothills approaching the Everest-like Australian score of 477 runs.

The immediate task is to pass the follow-on mark of 277. and with J. M. Parker, G. M. Turner. .J. F. Morrison and B. F. Hastings, all recent century makers, gone this will he a formidable task.

Bv late yestenA? afternoon the pitch whs giving the Australian spinners, A. A Mallett and K. J. O’Keeffe, some help, and they are likely to be spectres that will haunt the New Zealanders in the next few days.

The two spinners bowled 23 overs yesterday afternoon for only 39 runs, and they are likely to put the New Zealanders under even more! pressure as the pitch wears. Most, of the Australian! runs came in two partner-' ships. The first was of 106 for the fourth wicket bv K. D. Walters (94) and G. S. Chappell (42), and the tightfisted New Zealand bowling attack did well to break this stand at 173. ft did even better to remove Walters at 221 for five, and f. Davis at 232 for six.

Attack broken The New Zealanders were only a wicket or two away from the utterly splendid, and perhaps match-winning prospect of dismissing Australia for under 300 in conditions! that, were heavily in favourj of the batting side. But that vital wicket did not come for another 168! runs, R. W. Marsh finishing with 132 and K. J. O’Keeffe' scoring 85 most elegantly, defying and then demolishing; the sagging New Zealand' attack. So. the New Zealanders i could look hack sadly at. an Australian innings which produced onlv 232 for the top six wickets and 245 for the last four. They could look back sadly, too. at the fickleness of fortune, which seemed to stay with Australia's big battalions.

B. E. Congdon lost the toss for the third consecutive time, and 1. M. Chappell returned to the pavilion smiling

broadly, tor he had best usei ot the pitch, and the New Zealanders would have to l suffer under the most trying! conditions. The temnerature raced up! to 37deg. the humidity was dike a cloying blanket, and from some part of the hinterland came a strong wind as hot as a dragon’s breath. Even haidy veterans of campaigns in India. Pakistan, and the West Indies could not recall conditions which placed such a strain, both in terms of physical effort and mental concentration, as did the Adelaide oval oven.

Sullivan exhausted

By late afternoon, D. R. O’Sullivan, who had bowled 20 overs in succession and who was to become New Zealand’s special bowling hero, had to quit the field limp and dizzy with exhaustion.

Later still, as Marsh and O’Keeffe changed to attack and profiled from dropped catches (O’Keeffe at 56 and Marsh at 43) the New Zealanders were moving round like automatons, hoping only for relief from the withering heat. The New Zealanders deserved perhaps rather more luck than that. For the two hours before and after lunch they had bowled and fielded expertly. All the bowlers maintained a tight line and length, the catching was good, and only Walters, in brilliant form which would have destroyed a less tenacious attack, really looked comfortable.

B. L. Cairns opened his test career with the wickets of A. Woodcock and I. Chappell, and after only six balls D. R. Hadlee quickly removed K. R. Stackpole, and R. J. Hadlee 1 got as much life as could be expected out of the placid pitch.

Courageous toil < Congdon assigned himself j and O’Sullivan to most of the work in mid-afternoon when the heat was at its worst, and they laboured courageously, Coiigdon bowling G. S. Chap(pell when he was on the i point of taking command, and j O’Sullivan bluffing Walters

| when it seemed as if the could race past lone century and on to his; Inext. But by the time 1. Davis] was out just after tea, the : New Zealand attack had lost much of -its sting, and with some of the pressure off Marsh and O’Keeffe batted so sensibly that by stumps they had added 100 together. I Yesterday morning, the luck seemed still to stay with the Australians, for overnight rain had cooled the air, and Marsh and O’Keefe breezed along, with K. J. Wadsworth, of all people, dropping Marsh at 50. R. J. Hadlee finally removed O’Keefe at 400 for j seven, and then O’Sullivan, j restored to health, skipped through the last three wickets and 19 balls to finish with the wonderful figures of five wickets for 148 from 35.5; overs. He will seldom have, to strive harder than this for success. The New Zealand innings began badly, with Parker out for 0 from G. Dymock’s second ball in test cricket, and never really gained momentum. Turner looked good until A. Hurst had him l.b.w. with the first ball after tea. Morrison and Hastings looked in good form, but O’Keefe undid them both in the 80s and Congdon and J. V. Coney had to defend doggedly for the next 45 minutes to stumps.