We were trying to win — Chappell

Press, 30 December 1976, Page 20

We were trying to win — Chappell

NZPA Adelaide J'he Australian cricket captain. Greg Chappell, said that he gave no instructions to batsmen Rod Marsh and Gary Cosier to play for a draw in the first test against Pakistan, which ended at Adelaide Oval vesterdav.

The match finished disappointingly, with Australia 261 for six in its second innings. 24 runs short of victory. The Australian batsmen scored only 18 runs from the last J 1 overs. Marsh and Cosier, who batted through the last hour of play, were given a slow handclap during the last .10 minutes, when it became obvious they were making no effort to force a win. The Australian team was later booed by spectators, at the end-of-game presentations in front of the member’s stand.

Chappell said afterwards that, as far as he was concerned, Australia was always 'trying to win. “1 gave no instructions to Marsh or Cosier. I left it to them, and they did their best in the circumstances,” Chappell said.

“Neither team wanted to lose, and near the end it became obvious we could not win with the defensive bowling and field setting adopted by Pakistan.

“I don’t blame the Pakistanis for these tactics, for they didn’t want to lose either. “I' believe our batsmen would have had to take great risks trying to get the last 42 runs off 11 overs, and we could not afford to lose any more wickets.” Chappell said that he felt

Australia was in a comfortable position towards the end of his partnership with Doug Walters.

The Australians had previously gained the vital lastwicket break-through after half an hour, when the Pakistan second innings was completed at 466, with Asif Iqbal unbeaten on 152. The shock dismissal of the first-innings century-maker, lan Davis, off the third ball from Sarfraz, rocked the Australians, but Alan Turner and Rick McCosker quickly settled down to maintain their run-a-minute target.

Turner’s 48 and McCosker’s 42 set the stage for quick scoring from Chappell and Walters, and the match seemed well in hand.

However, even the promotion of Gary Gilmour and Rod Marsh failed to quicken the scoring, and a slowclapping crowd booed Marsh and Cosier from the field.

Qasim, who finished with [four wickets, had been the (hero earlier when he stayed 96 minutes for an 87-run las:(wicket partnership with Iqbal, which placed the fina' (pressure on the Australians to score quickly. PAKISTAN (First inniv.gs 2721 Second innings Maiid Khan lbw Lillee 4t i Mudassar Nazar c Marsh b O’Keeffe : Zaheer Abbas c Davis b ( Lillee 101 I Mushtaq Mohammad c Marsh ( b Lillee Javed Miandad b Gilmour Sa I Asif Iqbal not out I Imran Klian b O’Keeffe ■> (Salim Altaf c Turner b Lille* 2: Wasim Bari lbw Lillee 0 Sarfraz Nawaz c Lilies b O’Keeffe Iqbal Qasim run out Extras 23 Total 466 Fall of wickets: 58, 92, 182, 256, 293, 298, 368, 378 , 379, 466. Bowling.—D. Lillee, 47.7. 19, t 63, 5: G. Chappell. 11, 3, 31, 0; K. O’Keeffe, 53, 13, 186, 3; G. Cosier, 5,1, 11, 0; D. Walters, 2,1, 5,0; G. Gilmour, 14, 1, 87, I. AUSTRALIA (First innings 4541 Second innings I. Davis b Sarfraz 6 A. Turner c Sarfraz b Miandad R. McCosker c Bari b Qasim 42 G. Chappell c Mushtaq b Qasim .. 70 D. Walters c Bari b Qasim . 51 G. Gilmour b Qasim G. Cosier not out .. . 25 R. Marsh not out .. .13 Extras .7 Total for six wiekets 261 Fall of wickets: 0, 92, 100, 201, 219, 223. Bowling.—Sarfraz Nawaz. 8, I, 24, 1; Imran Khan. 5. 0, 25, 0; Mushtaq Mohammad, 7,1, 59, 0; Iqbal Qasim, 30, 6, 84, 4; ,ls-. rd Miandad, 21, 6, 71, 1.