Australia facing fight

Press, 4 August 1977, Page 32

Australia facing fight

NZPA Sunderland The Australian cricket selectors are reluctant to change their combination, although they need to win the final two tests to square the series against England, and retain the Ashes.

Greg Chappell, the Australian captain, made that obvious as he spoke to reporters an hour after England had completed an historic seven wicket win.

“Nothing much went right for us,” Chappell said. “But nobody in the team really performed badly.” Chappell admitted that his side’s morale had taken a shaking in the last two tests, but said that the spirit was as good as could be expected from a team in that position.

“We can still level the series. We haven’t given up yet,” he said.

England’s stocks have rarely been higher. In the last eight months they have beaten India away for the second time in history, gone within an ace of winning the Centenary Test, and humbled Australia twice in succession 'for the first time since 1956.

The captain, Mike Brearley, a double first at Cambridge, even forgot his academic eloquence and slipped into the soccer-hackneyed phrase: “We’re over the moon” in the euphoria of the success.

Brearley made 81 in the England second innings, shar-

ing an opening stand of 154 with Geoff Boycott, who finished with 80 not out to add to his 107 in the first innings. It was a triumphant return for the Yorkshireman, who dissolved much of the resentment the cricket establishment bore against him for his enigmatic refusal to make himself available for test selection for the last three years.

His success probably sealed Dennis Amiss’s fate as an ex-test player. Amiss, the toast of English cricket a bare two years ago, was destroyed by Lillee and Thomson, and finally pushed out by the success of Boycott and Brearley. Unless there is a complete

reversal, he cannot hope to force his way back into the test team. Final scores from the test: _ AUSTRALIA First innings .. 243 Second innings .. jj .. 309 ENGLAND 3 First innings 384 Second innings M. Brearley b Walker .. SI G. Boycott not out . 80 A. Knott e O'Keeffe b Walker j A. Greig b Walker .. 0 D. Randall not out 19 Extras (lb, 31b, Iw, 2nb) 7 Total (for 3 wickets) 189 Fall of wickets: 154, 154, 158. Bowling OM R W J. Thomson ..14 4 34 0 L. Pascoe ..22 4 43 0 M. Walker ..24 8 40 3 K. O'Keeffe 19J 2 45 0 England won by seven wickets.