Century-makers for Aust. and N.Z.

Press, 18 March 1982, Page 29

Century-makers for Aust. and N.Z.

Twenty-one centuries have ' now been scored in official tests between New Zealand and Australia. And the Chappell brothers, lan and Greg, were responsible for four of them — all in the same match at Wellington in the 1973-74 season. lari Chappell, the then Australian captain, scored 145

and 121 and brother Greg did better still with 247 not out and 133.

That, incidentally, provides the only instance in test matches of brothers both scoring a hundred in both innings and in the same test. Greg Chappell’s match' aggregate. of 380 is also a record for tests.

Chappell’s double century remains his highest first class score. He has since scored a century in each innings of a test (123 and 109

lan Redpath 159 n.o.

not out), against the West Indies at Brisbane in the 1975-76 season.

Glenn Turner, the first New Zealander to score centuries in both innings of a test .'(101 and 110 not out), accomplished that feat during New Zealand’s historic win against Australia at Lancaster Park on March 13, 1974.

Just over 8 years later New Zealand will be chasing its third win over Australia

in 15 tests, although even a draw will be sufficient to give the team its third home series win, having beaten the West Indies and India in the last two years. Comfortably the highest score in New Zealand-Aus-tralia tests was the magnificent 250 by Doug Walters at Lancaster Park in the' 197677 season. Only one other player, Seymour Nurse (258),

of West Indies, has exceeded that score in a test on the ground.

Walters seemed to like New Zealand bowling. He made 104 not out at Auckland in the 1973-74 season and then capped' off his career with another century, 107, at Melbourne last season with a little help from the umpire, Robin Bailache, who, much earlier, made his controversial “no ball” call when Lance Cairns got the No. 11 batsman, Jim Higgs, with an alleged bouncer. That turned out to be Walters’, last , test as he was

not. picked for the tour of England.

The other batsman to score more than one century in Australia-New Zealand tests are the 25-year-old

West Australian, Graeme Wood (111 and 100), and Bevan Congdon (132, 107 not out).

Others to register “tons” are Ray Marsh (132), Gary Gilmour (101), lan Redpath (159 not out), and Keith Stackpole (122) for Australia, and Brian Hastings (101), John Morrison (117), John Parker (108) and Bruce Edgar (161) for New Zealand. , As far as the bowling goes, Dennis Lillee, who took .11 for 123 (5/51 and 6/72) at Eden Park on the last tour five seasons ago is the only one to pick up 10 wickets or more in a match. New Zealand’s best match figures are the nine wickets for 146 runs (3/89 and 6/57) that Richard Hadlee managed at the Melbourne

Cricket Ground last season. Before that Richard Collirige had the best figures with nine for 166 (5/82 and 4/ 84) at Auckland in 1973-74. One interesting aspect of the 14 tests played so far is that in only of them, the

disastrous match in the 194546 season (when the captain was Bill Brown), has Australia not been led by a Chappell. lan Chappell has been at the helm for six of the tests and Greg Chappell seven.