Bowlers should get ‘a bit’ out of test pitch

Press, 27 February 1986, Page 44

Bowlers should get ‘a bit’ out of test pitch

Russell Wyllie, whose Lancaster Park pitch will come under close scrutiny for the next week, is confident of producing a top-class strip for the second cricket test between New Zealand and Australia, which starts tomorrow.

However, he fell short of predicting a result for the second game of the Rothmans-sponsored series. The key factor, he believes, will lie in the respective bowling attacks. “It should be a very good batting strip. But if the bowlers are prepared to put their backs into it, they should get a bit out of it,” he said. Mr Wyllie expects the strip to play very similarly to those already used on the block this season for Shell series matches. He has been rolling the pitch, to a specific programme, for the last eight weeks and

feels he has the “compaction” just right and a good, even grass cover. Mr Wyllie is convinced that the morning session on each of the first three days will give the bowlers heartening assistance. He pointed to five bowlers in the Shell series — Neil Mallender (Otago), Stu Roberts and Steve McNally (Canterbury), Gary Troup (Auckland, who is in the New Zealand 12 for the test) and his provincial teammate, Brian Barrett, as the medium-fast men who exploited the bounce and seam movement avail-

able. The others, he added, “just bowled along the pitch.” The wicket block was relaid at Lancaster Park before the start of last season and this summer has generally offered plenty of runs to those prepared to work for them. One ominous sign for the bowlers — at one point in the Shell series, the average number of runs scored per wicket at Lancaster Park got as high as 43. One disturbing aspect is that the long range forecast for tomorrow is southerly winds and occasionalshowers.