Australian batsman scores debut century in test

Press, 19 February 1986, Page 68

Australian batsman scores debut century in test

NZPA-AAP Melbourne The second Australia v. New Zealand youth test, at the Albert Ground in Melbourne, was heading for a draw after more than four hours was lost yesterday because of overnight rain. The second day’s play did not begin on the sodden ground until 3.00 p.m. At stumps Australia was two wickets down for 252 in its first innings after a wonderful debut century by an Essendon lowergrade batsman, John Causon. lan Stenhouse was not out 60 and the vice-cap-

tain, Brenton Oppermann, not out five. With only two days remaining, there seems little chance of a result, falling two dramatic New Zealand collapses. However, there was enough time yesterday for Causon, the Australian Youth team’s opener, to carry his overnight score of 64 to 117. He was eventually caught by the New Zealand captain, David Hartshorn, when trying to drive the fast bowler, Fred Beyeler. Causon was playing his first match for Australia

after missing last week’s drawn first youth test in Canberra. Despite a nervous start, it was a chanceless innings and included eleven boundaries off 253 balls in 290 minutes. “I was pretty nervous in my first game, playing for Australia,” said Causon. “Yesterday was a bit hard early with the ball moving around a fair bit but today I played a lot better,” he said.

The Australian captain, Dean Reynolds, added only two runs to his overnight score of 50 before

he was out in the third over of the afternoon session. Reynolds top-edged the right-arm fast-medium bowler, Brian Barrett, to Peter Dobbs at point. Barrett, a first-class cricketer in New Zealand, is contracted to play with Worchestershire this year. The burly Rockhampton left-hander, lan Stenhouse, continued his good batting to be 60 not out at stumps. Stenhouse scored 128 in the first test when Australia missed victory by only nine runs.