Daunting cricket tour ahead

Press, 18 September 1976, Page 52

Daunting cricket tour ahead

By

R. T. BRITTENDEN

No New Zealand cricket team in recent years has had a harder task than that before the side which will leave within a week for the tour of Pakistan and India. This,, is always a difficult tour. Pakistan and India are not short of good batsmen, and are always strong in spin bowlings The pitches on which New Zealand play will almost certainly assist the spinners; the heat and humidity will be distressing, the vast and noisy crowds a distraction to all but the most cool and collected players. New Zealand is now without six of the players who appeared in the home series with India last summer, it has seven players with very little or no test experience. In batting, the New Zealand side has reasonable prospects, although one wonders how long Glenn Turner can continue to play two full seasons a year without a decline in form. His form, and his ability to get the best out of his players on a very trying tour, are two of the key issues. There is some good batting behind him. Mark Burgess is a seasoned test campaigner, still a top-class player. He has a high reputation for ability to play spin bowling. Robert Anders - —'■ '

son, Murray Parker and Turner himself are probably the best-equipped to counter Pakistan and Indian spin. John Morrison, John Parker — both with test successes behind them — Andy Roberts and Geoff Howarth complete the batting, Howarth has had a fine run of successes for Surrey this year and if he can carry that form into the tour he will be an invaluable asset. There is some little comfort too in the possibilities of the. later-order players. Lance Caims and Richard Hadlee have very considerable talent with the bat, Warren Lees may well develop into a very useful wicket-keeper-batsman, and there could be useful runs from Richard Collinge,. Gary Troup and David O’Sullivan. But the bowling gives rise to disquiet. On the previous New Zealand tour, the bowlers performed extremely welt In 1969 New Zealand won its rubber with Pakistan and drew with India, after rain — and procrastination — had cost the side the final test and a most certain victory in the series. The bowling in 1969 was extremely good. There was Hedley Howarth as the key figure on pitches which nearly always gave him a little help, or more. than a little. The side’s other slow bowlers —- Vic Pollard, Bryan Yuile and Burgess — also commanded much r*> aneei.

I But it was the success of ' the seamers which was ; ■ startling. There was seldom any pace in the pitches, but ; t Dayle Hadlee bowled with : such determined hostility, ’ • Bruce Taylor, Bob Cunis and f Bevan Congdon with such 1 ■ sustained accuracy that both : s home countries were ' struggling for runs as a rule. r Howarth took 28 wickets ■' s during these six tests, at 19.3, and from 271 overs the . batsmen could extract only a i shade under two runs an over. His extraordinary j endurance and accuracy . sharpened the seam bowling weapon. Pollard contributed 1’ to this too — 12 wickets at 1 21.5, but only 1.95 runs an 1 over. 5 Dayle Hadlee took 21 t wickets at 15.7 and cost 2.06 an over — an astonishing > performance in those condi--5 tions. Taylor had nine wick- . ets at 16 and yielded 1.87 an j over; Cunis took 15 at 20, i (2.17 an over) and Congdon, - although taking only four , wickets, gave away only - 2.16 an over. » It is unlikely that t O’Sullivan will be able to give the New Zealanders s such a firm foundation for s its attack as Howarth pro-; vided, and the only other i spinner, Peter Petherick, has a. had only one season of firsti class cricket. Either or both v may develop on tour, but 1, they will have to bowl with - unremitting accuracy » through long and wearying hours. • <

The pace section does not, so far, compare with that of 1969. Richard Hadlee can be genuinely fast — and he will have to be, if he is to be of full value. Even on slowish pitches, Indian and Pakistan batsmen do not relish fast bowling. The batsmen will not have forgotten Hadlee’s spectacular successes at the Basin Reserve last summer, and he will take up his tour task with a psychological advantage. If he is to retain it, he will have to be used in short, sharp bursts. Much will depend on what sort of support Cairns, and Troup can give him, and how much of an attacking bowler Collinge will be. At home, Collinge has been bowling extremely well in recent seasons — probably better than ever before — but he lacks the vivid pace which might compensate for the probable lack of movement off the pitch. ' . Howarth, Burgess and Morrison can offer some little support to the main bowlers, but the attack will have to reach a peak of fitness and determination — and have the support of topclass fielding — if New Zealand is to sustain its growing reputation. It would be a difficult assignment at the best of time. Coming out of winter’s chills to the hot-house of Pakistan and India makes it doubly so.