Jeff Crowe regains batting form

Press, 15 August 1986, Page 36

Jeff Crowe regains batting form

KEVIN HART

NZPA staff correspondent Birmingham A significant step by Jeff Crowe towards regaining his best batting form was the chief benefit for New Zealand on the opening day of its match against a Test and County Cricket Board XI at Edgbaston yesterday. Crowe scored a positive 58 as a lethargic New Zealand side stumbled to 218 for nine declared against a virtual England B side. In reply, the T.C.C.B. XI had reached 43 without loss off 11 overs $t stumps. Crowe’s 58 represented

the first time in his last seven innings he has passed 25. His last big score was 75 against Nottinghamshire before the first test The Aucklander’s subsequent failures mean his place in the third and final test at The Oval is under threat. However, Crowe went some way towards fighting off that danger yesterday as he and the acting captain, John Wright (59), combined in an 86-run fourth wicket stand which rescued New Zealand from an embarrassing 36 for three. Crowe admitted plater

that his confidence had waned considerably with his run of low scores. “I have not been able to force the ball away for fours and that has led to a lack of confidence,” he said. “Some of it may have started when I dislocated my thumb in the Lord’s test. The injury meant I started deflecting the ball rather than hitting it” Crowe said he had adopted a better technique yesterday in what was a confidence-boosting innings. “I committed myself forward, started getting my feet in the right spot.

and got to the pitch of the ball,” he said. “I had started to feel quite good when I scored 23 in the first innings of the second test but got out because I did not get far enough forward. “The innings here has proved that if I am in the right frame of mind and my technique is right, I can score." Crowe, who has played all but one of the 12 firstclass matches on tour, had good reason to be concentrating fully on the match, but the same could not be said of some of the five other second test players who approached the g|ime with iittie relish.

A confrontation with young fast bowlers intent on pressing their claims for England’s tour of Australia next summer was not the ideal way to spend the day after the Trent Bridge test triumph. The bristling David Lawrence and the more moderately paced Phillip De Freitas and David Capel found plenty of encouragement in the green-ish-tinged, if slow, pitch and the heavy atmosphere. NEW ZEALAND First innings J. G. Wright b Capel. ... 59 T. J. Franklin lbw b De Freitas 11 K. R. Rutherford c Russell b Lawrence 2

M. D. Crowe c Whitaker b Capel 4 J. J. Crowe c Whitaker b Such 58 T. E. Blain c Russell b De Freitas 29 I. D. S. Smith c Bailey b Such 31 J. G. Bracewell lbw b Capel 8 W. Watson lbw b Capel . . 0 B. Barrett not out 0 Extras (lb 7 nb9) 16 Total (for 9 wkts dec.) . . 218 Fall: 16. 20, 36, 122, 146, 197, 216, 216. Bowling.—Lawrence 15, 2, 47, 1; De Freitas 19.5, 6, 39, 2; Capel 17, 5, 61, 4; Such 28, 11, 37, 2; Barnett 10, 1, 27, 0. T.C.C.B. XI First, innings K. J. Barnett not out. ... 18 A. A. Metcalfe not out. . . 20 Extras (lb2, nb3) 5 Total -43 Bowling.—Chatfield 6,2, 11, 0; Barnett 4,0, 26, 0; Watson 1, 0,4, 0.