England recovers after great N.Z. bowling effort

Press, 25 February 1978, Page 56

England recovers after great N.Z. bowling effort

By

R. T . BRITTENDEN

The second cricket test which began at Lancaster Park yesterday could hardly be described as a championship fight but it has some of the elements of a 15round title bout.

The first three rounds have gone. There have been some heavy punches, some wild swings, and some good: recoveries but neither: contestant is ahead on England, after some swift; reversals, recovered to reach 1 172 for five at the close of. plav. ’t was a small return’ in ruils for six hours of cricket but. if there had to! be a split decision, E.igland l might be a narrow winner.) The New Zealanders' rocked England with the) capture of three wickets ini an hour. The home team: could have felt satisfied that I it had made the most of the; freshness in the pitch after, Ceoff Boycott had won the; toss for England. But the pitch played more| quietly in the afternoon so England must have expected' a recovery. It was not) achieved with masterly or I even convincing batting but' the runs were made and if Richard Hadlee, even in mid-| afternoon, was able to get; lively bounce from short of) a length there is little doubt I that Bob Willis will present the New Zealanders with! problems. Moreover, New) Zealand will be batting last: and there are bound to be' some difficulties then. It was a frustrating day' for New Zealand. Graham: Roope. the tall Surrey righthander, provided England i with most of its runs but it was an inn.ngs without, substance. He looked I’kelyl to depart in almost any and! every over. He made strokes! of genuine quality but they! were few and far between. The New Zealand bowling was usually well controlled but there was an ominous certainty about England’s batting in the last 90 minutes as lan Botham and Bob Taylor added 44. A further swift advance will be sought this morning if England is not to be denied a reasonably comfortable England did not make all the runs it should have and New Zealand did not get all the wickets it dese-ved. But for all its shortcomings in individual performance, this was very much a test match. For half an hour it seemed a low-key affair. The dismissal of Boycott was the perfect catalyst and it was a grim struggle from that point. The two further reverses suggested that Boycott might have erred in batting and in leaving out of the selected 13 players two of the pace bowlers, John Lever and Mike Hendrick. Now there is more than a hint that Boycott has read the pitch accurately and that he might be glad to have two spinners in his team. England's difficulties began when Richard Collinge had Boycott for the third time in as many innings. Although Collinge had to southerly he picked up an maintained it when he came New Zealand also had the spur of Richard Hadlee beating Boycott three times storming of a citadel when front with one which nipped back at the batsman and

Three runs later, Mark I Burgess, who really had noi right to be there, picked up a lovely catch at second slip to dismiss Derek Randall. At 26, Geoffrey Howarth brought off an absolutely superb catch at leg slip, j diving away to his left, and: England’s innings was in i tatters. Thar it struggled through was a faint echo of the wartime miracle, although the nation never had as lucky a leader as Roope was in this come-back. With the total at 24. he ran with the stroke, was sent back, and was stranded but John Wright’s throw was badly astray and there were overthrows. When he was four, Roope was dropped at fourth slip off Collinge, with Robert Anderson momentarily going the wrong way. At 27, Roo;-e gave Hadlee a very sharp chance at gully off Ewen Chatfield. Between times, he managed to inject a few’ strokes of utter magnificence into a vast array of airy swishes. When the ball was pitched a shade outside off stump and lifting a little, Roope was at it, as he had been at Wellington. The New 7 Zealanders exposed and explored this failing regularly but it w’as not until he had been in three hours and threequarters that this suspended sentence w’as enforced. He was caught at second slip. If Roope lived on borrow’ed time from the start of his innings and even achieved the distinction of a test 50 with an undignified French cut, Geoff Miller, his partner for 160 minutes and 1 77 runs, batted very soundly and sensibly. There | were some firm front-of-wicket shots when length fallowed, which was not .often, and he tucked the ball away off his legs expertly. I A methodical Miller and the wire walker Roope seemed to have seen ! England on to firm ground I when Miller was struck ) heavily trying to hook a !short one from Collinge. He w’as badly positioned for the I shot and was hit on his right upper jaw, another reminder of the danger of ) hooking a quickish leftarmer bowling over the I wicket, w’ith the ball chasing 'the batsman. Miller was

taken to hospital but X-ray examination confirmed that there w’as no fracture and he will be able to bat again. His withdrawal, however, unsettled England, and reduced its scoring to a crawl, not that, it had ever been brisk. In the hour before tea, 24 runs were added and, in the next hour, only 20. In that time an uneasy Clive Radley, playing his first test match, and I Roope were both dismissed by Richard Hadlee, who had sought and won the backing of the No. 5 stand crowd. New Zealand’s tactical approach after tea was interesting. Once Hadlee was off after five overs, there was an urgency about the over rate and a superb spell of defence from Bevan Congdon, who gets through his overs very quickly, argued an effort to have a significant period left for an attack with the second new ball. The new ball was available 35 minutes from the end but Burgess held it back 10 minutes to avoid over-taxing his tired fast bow’lers and to keep the gloss on it for this morning in a second fresh attack. During the preparatory period, Congdon did a magnificent job for his side. He plugged away just outside off stump, as a rule, and cast a spell over the game. In the first innings of the Wellington test, he had taken two wickets for 14 from 140 deliveries. Yesterday he bowled 144 for only 14 runs. It was an unromantic task but it was carried oot with efficiency and the sense of duty which marks Congdon’s cricket. Collinge bowled with admirable spirit and efficiency and so did Chatfield, who was persistent and parsimonious, doing just a little with the ball all the while. lan Botham and Bob Taylpr, in a sound and safe partnership, denied New Zealand any further successes in the last hour and a half. They took no risks but both of them played firm and attractive strokes, prospering particularly against a rather weary looking new-ball attack. In the final hour, I they advanced the score by '3B.