Cricket prospects sound

Press, 28 November 1979, Page 22

Cricket prospects sound

Bv

R. T. BRITTENDEN

A first loss to Otago, ini limited over games, for five years might seem a depressing start to the Canterbury cricket team’s season, but it was anything but that. Canterbury has a young side, it has as its principal target an improvement on last summer's sorry record and it showed on Sunday that it has the main requirement for success — determination. Its batting performance in the first hour or so was disastrous, but the recovery was admirable, and when Otago looked as if it might make the 114 runs it needed easily, the Canterbury bowlers and fieldsmen displayed tremendous tenacity. it may be relatively easy to sustain an aggressive approach in the field for a couple of hours or so. It will be more difficult in a long day of Shell series cricket. But there are signs that this side is building

up a splendid spirit, and if it can take Sunday’s fighting qualities into the major matches, it will be on the way to achieving its main aim. It will not be a simple proposition, for the batting does not look sound, the bowling lacks sustained aggression. But insistence on length and direction, application from the top batsmen and more of Sunday’s magnificent, fielding will make Canterbury a very useful side. Some of the dismissals in Canterbury’s depressing start could be forgiven. David Dempsey got a good one, first ball. Geoff Smith was run out in very unusual circumstances. Paul McEwan received a very nastily lifting delivery, first ball and Stuart McCullam’s catch from it was incredible.

Lindsay Thorn batted ably and handsomely for some time, but Cran Bull was beaten by a dreadful scuttier from Stephen Boock. Glen Bateman made a good impression again. He started bowling better than Trevor Jesty and Dayle Hadlee. Bateman will almost certainly be. in the Shell side, and he will probably have a lot of work to do. He looks capable of shouldering a heavy burden. Hadlee came back with a very spirited second spell, which offered Canterbury further encouragement and Paul McEwan enchanced his growing reputation as a very useful medium-pacer. There was everything to admire in David Stead’s performance. Leg spinners in limited-over cricket are rare. The task for Stead

looked almost impossible— Otago had made a racing start and there was only a handful of runs for Canterbury to play with. But Stead had even Glenn Turner in trouble now and then, during a very fine spell. The fielding won very warm commendation, as Otago’s had done, Some freak catches were taken in this match, one of them by Vaughan Brown. He is an outstandingly good fieldsman, but there were others not far behind. Bryan Ritchie made an excellent impression with the bat, as did Brown, and Ritchie also set a good tone with his wicket-keeping. So if this exciting match ended in a Canterbury Joss, there was certainly little cause for depression. Canterbury cricket teams over the years have not been accustomed to an under-dog role. Already, however, the right sort of reaction seems to have begun.