Turner, Hadlee top figures

Press, 4 June 1982, Page 28

Turner, Hadlee top figures

NZPA London New Zealand cricketers are in the unprecedented position of heading both the batting and bowling averages after the early rounds of the English county championships. Glenn Turner, with an average score of 89.57, heads the batting list after five matches while Richard Hadlee’s haul of 25 wickets at a lowly cost of 10.64 runs each makes him the top bowler.

Turner has plundered a total of 627 runs for Worcestershire with the 311 not out against Warwickshire last week-end —- his one hun-

dredth firsLclass century — by far his best innings. Hadlee has played a big part in the rout of Lancashire and Hampshire by the county champion, Nottinghamshire, with seven for 25 against Hampshire being his best performance. Altogether, the New Zealand test spearhead has taken 25 wickets at a cost of 266 runs off 131.1 overs.

Hadlee topped the bowling averages for the 1981 English season when he was also the only bowler to take more than 100 wickets.

This season, however, he may face stiff opposition in the race for the top wicket tally from Surrey’s West Indian fast bowler, Sylvester Clarke, who has so far taken 26 wickets — but with an average inferior to Hadlee’s of 16.84. The nearest rival to Turner in the batting averages is another West indiari, Wilf Slack, who plays for Middlesex, the present-cham-pionship leader. He has an average of 84.33.