Lack of time worries Aust, captain

Press, 15 August 1980, Page 20

Lack of time worries Aust, captain

NZPA London The Australian cricket captain, Greg Chappell, is worried that his middleorder batsmen will not have enough time to prepare themselves for the Centenary Test. After Wednesday’s 59-run loss to Surrey at the Oval, the Australians face three one-day games in their next four matches.

“It’s just what we don’t want at this stage,” said Chappell yesterday before the team left London for today’s 55-over game against a young England Enlgand XI at the New Road ground at Worcester.

Chappell is concerned that players like Kim Hughes and Graham Yallop will not get the chance to play themselves into form during the next fortnight. “They didn’t have much of a chance yesterday,” he said. “In a situation where we were going for a target some of the batsmen had to try to force the run rate before they were ready. “It’s particularly difficult to do that in one-day games unless you have the match practice behind you. “Yesterday, some of the batsmen got out two shots which looked pretty- bad, but that can easily happen when they haven’t played for several months.”

After today’s match, which is in some doubt because of rain, the tourists travel to Manchester for a three-day fixture against Lancashire at Old Trafford. Then they meet England in two limited-over internationals at the Oval, on August 20, and Edgbaston, on August 22. The final match before the test is against. Nottingham-

shire, at Trent Bridge. Chappell said that they would delay naming a side for the Young England match until just before the game.

The Autsralians may not be able to afford to play their strongest team. “We have to give as many of the blokes a chance as we can,” Chappell said. Hughes and Yallop, both former captains, badly need to score some runs over the next couple of games. Hughes has made only 25 in three completed innings, and Yallop, who made 45 at Southampton, failed twice against Surrey. One of the best things to come out of the Oval match was the form of Rod Marsh. His wicket keeping improved out of sight, he cleared up lingering doubts about a knee injury, and he weighed in with a typically aggressive 56 as the Australians chased runs in the second innings. Chappell and the Surrey captain, Roger Knight, got together on the third morning and quite openly contrived to get a result.

Chappell declared 212 rung behind on the first innings on the understanding that Knight, whom he had criticised on the first day for not closing before stumps, would set the tourists a reasonable target of about 300 in even time.

“That was never going to be easy on a wicket like that,” Chappell said. “But I thought it better that we had something to play for in the middle. Otherwise we might as well have been batting in the nets. “We didn’t like losing, but at least it meant that the lower order batsmen got a chance to have a decent knock.”