Coney will be praying for minor miracles

Press, 16 January 1986, Page 34

Coney will be praying for minor miracles

NZPA staff correspondent Perth The phlegmatic New Zealand cricket captain, Jeremy Coney, will be praying for two minor miracles when New Zealand plays India and Australia in Perth at the week-end.

Coney wants desperately to win a toss and also to play on a fast scoring batting wicket in the successive World Series Cup matches. New Zealand has had a washed out draw and a loss against Australia and a loss to India after three of its 10 qualifying matches. Wayward bowling and poor fielding lost the game to India and an early tumble of New Zealand wickets led to the defeat by Australia on Tuesday night. However, Coney said that things might have looked more rosy if he had won both tosses. He said that getting first use of the batting strip at Sydney made the game about as much a gamble as betting in the new casino in Perth. The losing of the toss for the third time was a factor in New Zealand crumbling to Australia at the S.C.G. Coney complained in Sydney on Tuesday night that a score of 150, because of the unsuitable S.C.G. track, was not a sufficient one-day score. Unless the side scores quickly this week-end, the one-day game will fast become non-productive for New Zealand.

Its three-game prizemoney out of a possible $15,000, has been $4500. If the S.C.G. lured justi-

fied bemoanings from the New Zealand camp, the ground in Perth could also raise the hackles of Coney’s men. Indications are that the W.A.C.A. ground has improved out of sight and hardened since the third test in December. The New Zealanders had an afternoon off yesterday after their four-and-a-half hour flight from Sydney. They are itching to inspect the W.A.C.A. this morning, hoping for the best. “They had better not be putting any water on it, like they did in Sydney,” said the team’s manager, Glenn Turner, who astounded by the S.C.G. staffs hosing of the pitch less than 24 hours before the boisterous daynighter. Turner was even more alarmed last month when he walked out on to the W.A.C.A. before the third test against Australia. “As soon as we walked out to inspect the pitch I knew something was wrong. All the outfield was spongy and had been relaid. It was totally inadequate for a test match,” said Turner.

“By the end of the game some of the bowlers’ footprints had sunk deeper than a tennis ball.” Australia, meanwhile, has a chance to all but clinch a place in the finals in its fourth preliminary match against India in Melbourne tonight. Another win over India would give the Australians seven points from four games, needing only another victory from their remaining six matches to be certain of a finals place. And by bowling out India last Sunday in Brisbane and New Zealand on Tuesday night at the Sydney Cricket Ground, the Australians have opened up a huge runrate margin on their rivals. Australia was rated by many as the outsider of the three teams before the World Series Cup began, but how things have changed in less than a week. The Australian bowlers were most impressive in Brisbane when they dismissed the World Cup and World Championship of Cricket titleholder, India, for 161. They staged a performance as good, if not better, on Tuesday night when they ran through the Kiwis for 152, a total which took 49.2 overs to accumulate.