Rival captains silent on state of pitch

Press, 21 February 1986, Page 32

Rival captains silent on state of pitch

From

DAVID LEGGAT,

in Wellington

How Australia copes with the menace of Richard Hadlee, whether the New Zealand team is in the right frame of mind, and above all, exactly what the pitch has to offer, will be the crucial factors in deciding the outcome of the first cricket test of the Rothman series, which starts at the Basin Reserve this morning.

First the pitch: Large patches of mottled brown interspersed with bright green strips indicate that batsmen will have to quickly adjust to an uneven bounce, yet both captains, Jeremy Coney and Allan Border, made no direct criticism of its appearance, or predicted how it would play. However, both would privately feel Wellington offers the best hope of victory in the series. For New Zealand, which will be keen not to let the good work in Australia before Christmas become a distant memory, the first test is particularly important.

It comes at a time when the great, overblown debate, public and private, about “The Car,” has been put to rest. The team met on Wednesday and the whole issue is now, or should be, dead. Whether New Zealand is able to pull together and develop the outstanding spirit which has been one of its strengths will be seen over the next few days.

“I’m really pleased it has been sorted out,” said Coney yesterday. "Potentially it was a fragmented situation, but now everything has come together nicely.”

Trevor Franklin has come into the New Zealand team for the injured John Wright, which gives it a right-left-hand opening combination, and provides Franklin with another opportunity to show if he can successfully cross the bridge from first-class to international competition.

The inclusion of Franklin ahead of the consider-

ably more experienced Aucklander, Jeff Crowe, indicates the selectors’ desire to keep Ken Rutherford away from the top order.

Rutherford, with the nightmares of Holding, Garner, Marshall hopefully behind him, will bat at No. 5, ahead of his captain. A batsman of outstanding potential, Rutherford has the opportunity to exorcise West Indian fast bowlers from his mind over the next few days. A Wellington newspaper has been running a competition to pick the Australian batsman who will become Hadlee’s three hundredth test wicket, and the number of balls he receives from the great bowler before departing. The smart money will be on one of the Australian opening batsmen — Geoff Marsh or David Boon.

In the three tests between the countries in Australia, Hadlee dismissed all but three of the Australian players at some stage. Border has set his batsmen the task in New Zealand of making Hadlee work harder for his wickets than he did before Christmas.

“Obviously if Richard bowls as well as he has been, he’ll take wickets. I won’t instruct my players not to play shots over here, but they’ve got to pick the right ball to play the big shots. I don’t want them going for the big shots, the cover drive and the square drive, unless the ball is right in the slot,” said Border.

The Basin Reserve pitch is sure to provide movement off the seam

for, Hadlee and Ewen Chatfield, so Border’s words will be ringing in his team-mates’ ears today. The Auckland leftarm medium-fast bowler, Gary Troup, with a fine Shell series behind him, will be the third seam bowler and the twelfth man for New Zealand is likely to be Stuart Gillespie, with John Bracewell filling the spinner’s role.

Not only did Bracewell trouble the Australian left-handers with his offspin before Christmas, most notably Border, but it would be dangerous to leave the only spinner in the squad out. Ray Bright, the Australian vice-captain, and either Simon Davis or David Gilbert, the medium-fast men, are likely to be omitted from the Australian elevan. Despite being troubled by a shoulder strain, the perky all-rounder, Greg Matthews, seems sure to play.

“It would take something extraordinary to leave him out,” said Border. “As long as he’s happy that’s good enough for me.” Border believes this Australian side is made of stronger stuff than that which went down, 1-2, to New Zealand across the Tasman.

The umpires for the match are Messrs Fred Goodall, of Christchurch, and Steve Woodward, of Wellington. For Mr Goodall it will be an historic occasion. He will break the record number of test umpiring appointments — a mark he previously shared with Mr Trevor Martin, of Wellington.