Daunting total, determined Aust. team face N.Z.

Press, 23 February 1977, Page 40

Daunting total, determined Aust. team face N.Z.

By

R. T. BRITTENDEN

“It would be a good game to win from here—we have a long way to go.” This situation summary by Glenn Turner, the New Zealand captain, on the position at the end of the fourth day of the test with Australia, must rank as one of sport’s most startling understatements.

New Zealand, with all its wickets intact, still needs 338 runs on a pitch somewhat unreliable of bounce now, against an Australian team which would loathe to lose, and almost certainly is angry and agitated by an umpiring decision which | went against it just before the close of play last evening- , 1 If New Zealand can make so large a fourth-innings! score in the six hours remaining, it will achieve the immortality so nearly worn at Trent Bridge in 1973. | Turner’s terse statementrecognised the enormity ofj the task. But it said nothing of the magnificent fight-back New Zealand staged yesterday, when it first avoided, the follow-on, then made in-; roads into the Australian batting and confined the runmaking rate with determined bowling of far greater accuracy than was achieved inthe first innings. By a minor miracle of I mopping-up, the game was; resumed as early as 12.201 p.m., with New Zealand still , needing 29 runs to makeAustralia bat again. Against: an attack of ferocious quality, this target was reached with the last batsmen in. Although the Australians scored 27 off the last four overs before Greg Chappell declared, the Australians made no more than 154 for four in 220 minutes. This left New Zealand 350 to make in 390 minutes. Thelast half-hour of the day! yielded only 12 runs, and al controversy about whether’ Turner was caught or not;! but no wicket was lost. j Chappell’s declaration, like; those in the three-dayl matches of this Rothman’s, tour, was an attacking one.! The task he left New Zea-i land was not impossible.) Only nearly impossible. But; he was clearly determined to! give his bowlers as much! time as possible to get New, Zealand out.

What a magnificent; rearguard action New Zea-i land brought off. Just before! tea on the third day the; team was on the edge of an' abyss — seven were down! for 223. against Australia’sl huge 552. But Jock Edwards and Hedley Howarth, then! Howarth and Dayle Hadlee, j applied themselves to blunt-: ing the attack so success-), fully that by close of playi

the score was 324 for eight,! with 29 still needed to avoid; ’following on. Yesterday Howarth and! Hadlee went to the lists) again, on a cold and cheer-1 less afternoon. They had 40 1 minutes of play before! lunch, and the same deter-' 1 mined batting took them;' through almost half an hour! of it before Howarth lost his middle stump to a ball from ' Max Walker which might ; have confounded a Bradman. [ Although pitched somewhat I short of a length, it went ; swiftly at ankle height. But ( 14 of the runs had been ' made, and four more came;’ -when Hadlee cut Lillee, just I j (before the interval. Howarth batted with;, isuperb skill and courage for | two hours and three-quar- , ters, in all. He will never i plav a finer innings, or one • which will record more | faithfully his strength of j character. ( Buit then it was Ewen :

iChatfield to join Hadlee; no;one at Lancaster Park ’needed reminding that -Chatfield, in his only other ■ test appearance, all but lost Ihis life when he was hit by a bouncer in a test against England at Eden Park. How he survived six balls from

I Max Walker, is a matter iconfined to the batsman and | his Maker. But he was there [at lunch, with the need for I 11 more runs to ruin his ’appetite, and a good many [others. j Chatfield, white as parchiment, got through a full ’over from Walker, then Lil- . lee, attacking Hadlee with [venomous pace and liberal use of the short-pitched ball, gave away two no-balls, and a four to Hadlee from a flick off the hip. A single took him to the other end, and Chatfield had to face, for one ball, the most deterring sight in modern cricket — (Dennis Lillee in full cry. ■Chatfield did not flinch. Walker, with a ’magnificent over of tight bowling, had Hadlee playing out a maiden. 3o Lillee had Chatfield facing him again. The tension was almost unbearable. Four times Lillee raced in, four times Chatfield was unbeaten. And the fourth ball yielded a

single, when Alan Turner at short leg let the ball past him. That made it 351. Lillee, clearly concluding that a batsman who had stayed in as long as Hadlee removed him from the “non-recog-nised” category which the

International Cricket Conference seeks to save from short-pitched balls, had one leaping venomouly at Hadlee’s head. Two runs came from the handle of the bat, as the ball lopped off towards third man.

Poor Chatfield, with the strike again. Seven balls from Walker were resolutely stopped, or let go. From the last, Chatfield achieved a leg glance and the ball sped to the boundary. He will remember the shot. So will everyone else who watched. No praise could be fulsome for Hadlee, who regularly got in behind the short-pitched ball throughout an ordea] lasting two hours and a half. His stand of 73 with Howarth was the sec-ond-best for the ninth wicket in New Zealand test cricket. His partnership of 19 with Chatfield was worth as many.

Saving a follow-on is hardly tantamount to winning a test match, but the feat meant much in self-re spect to the New' Zealanders, as well as being of moment tactically. It was a grim task: near the end of the innings Lillee was twice warned by an umpire, Mr Dennis Copps, for persistent intimidatory bowling.