Hard taslL may fall to Snedden

Press, 8 October 1987, Page 39

Hard taslL may fall to Snedden

DAVID LEGGAT

NZPA sports, reporter 1 Hyderabad

Among the more important issues for the New Zealand cricket team’s tour selectors to wrestle with at the World Cup is who should be bowling in the often critical • closing stages of an innings. . Before the World Cup, Richard Hadlee was invariably on hand to tie up one end, but Hadlee is not in India and the manager, Glenn Turner, the captain

Jeff Crowe, * and r his deputy, John Wright will have to corrie up with an alternative. ' . The thankless task of bowling when the bats are swinging could well go to Auckland’s experienced seamer, Martin Snedden. With 57 one-day appearances for New. Zea- .. land behind him, Snedden > has only Wright, Chatfield and Martin Crowe ahead of him in experience among the present tour party.

has a good reputa-. , : tion fOr. bowling .. tightly - <; when pressure is on and' ‘ his form in - , the ; two matches so far in Hydera- 4 bad has been impressive. Snedden, aged 28, took one for 26 off nine tidy overs against Hyderabad, Blues on Sunday and j.. followed that with two for ‘ four off four overs with the new ball against Karnataka yesterday. i However, Snedden has. adopted a low key attitude i to the tour so far and his <

potential role in the New Zealand scheme of things. “I feel it is important to keepthesegamesinper- . spective. L ; They are designed as warm-up games and have no official status. I’ve only bowled 13 overs against opposition that. has not been that hot,”/he. said.' ? ' i; . . '■“But Frtf! pleased that I’ve got some rhythm at. this stage. .It is not something to get carried away with. The World Cup games are the ones that count.” 7