First real test

Press, 10 December 1982, Page 32

First real test

XZP.A Melbourne A relatively inexperienced New Zealand cricket team faces its first real test against Victoria today in a four-day match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. It will be the tour management’s first chance to closely study how the new players pcform against top-class cricket competition in Australia. The New Zealanders go into today's game unsure of how they will hold up when the pressure is applied. New Zealand made an encouraging start to its Australian tour with a seven wicket victory over what was little more than a second string Victorian Country XI in Horsham on Thursday. A practice session at the M.C.G. nets yesterday afternoon was cancelled because of wet weather and the tourists opted for a hard run instead of taking a chance at the indoor nets. The captain, Geoff Howarth, said that the team for today’s game was not expected to be announced until shortly before the match starts: “But there will be a few changes from the team which played in Horsham,” he said. Howarth said that there were no injury worries, and that his team was “100 per cent fit.” “But I don’t know much about the Victorian team,” he said. “It should be a reasonable exercise for our side especially on the new M.C.G. wicket.” New Zealand and Victoria will be the first teams to use the new strip. After complaints from the Ausralian Cricket Board and players last season, the wicket was dug up in January and February and replaced. New Zealand will be hoping for a repeat performance from the young opening batsman, Martin Crowe, who slammed an impressive 77 against the Victorian Country team on Thursday. Although the Victorian side has not won a Sheffield Shield match since the 198081 season and is this summer on the bottom of the Shield table, it has shown encouraging improvement in recent weeks. The Victorian side is: Graham Yallop (captain), Julien Wiener, Ray Bright, Len Balcam, lan Callen, Brad Green,, bean Jones, Michael Taylor, Rod McCurdy, Garry Watts, Dav Whatmore and Geoff Miles.