N.Z. cricketers face heavy loss

Press, 7 December 1987, Page 48

N.Z. cricketers face heavy loss

By

DAVID LEGGAT,

of NZPA, in Brisbane

New Zealand was stumbling towards defeat in the first cricket test against Australia at the end of the third day’s play at the Gabba ground yesterday.

At stumps New Zealand in its second innings was 131 for five, an over-all lead of just 12 runs with two complete days remaining. Richard Hadlee ended the day on 17 after 43 minutes at the crease and Dipak Patel had batted 51 minutes for eight.

By stumps only rain, or some spirited middle and lower order resistance can save New Zealand from a heavy loss. It was a day on which most of the New Zealand plans went awry. It had been looking to cut through the Australian lower order before lunch, but it was not able to finish the job until 28 minutes after the interval. Then on the day when the pitch should have been at its best, and generally did-play reasonably comfortably, three of the top five batsmen played poor shots and one of the others, the opener, John Wright, failed to offer a shot to a ball from the left armer, Bruce Reid, which seamed back to have him leg before wicket.

Earlier in the day Australia went to lunch at 291 for nine, and added a further 14 runs before Peter Sleep’s valuable 39 was ended by John Bracewell.

The young Auckland fast bowler, Danny Morrison, gave an encouraging first up test performance, battling a damaged right thumb to finish with four for 86 off 28 overs. Wright began purposefully, and succeeded in keeping the reluctant opener, Ken Rutherford, away from the strike until the start of the fourth over.

But he departed with the score 18 and seven balls later Rutherford joined him in the pavilion after his second four-ball innings of the match. He unnecessarily pushed his bat at a short ball from Craig McDermott which moved away off the pitch. Rutherford failed to pull back in time, giving the wicketkeeper, Greg Dyer, his third catch of the match. Andrew Jones and Martin Crowe effected a par-

tial recovery. Jones was distinctly unhappy with the short ball on his hip and flirted dangerously with the hook shot but showed plenty of resilience, took some blows on the body and played some handsome shots through the covers and down the ground.

Crowe, although beaten superbly by Reid and Merv Hughes, looked comfortable.

Then, completely unexpectedly he hooked a short ball from Hughes straight to Dean Jones 20 metres away at square leg.

Jones had a life at 36 when he made an awful hash of a hook at McDermott but Hughes, running forward dropped the catch. He punched Reid through the covers to pass his previous best test score of 38 against Sri Lanka, and brought up the New Zealand 100, driving through mid-off for three, but would have been run out had McDermott’s throw from the boundary

hit the stumps. Then at 103, he failed to move his feet to the pitch of a ball he could have left alone and gave Allan Border a sharp, low catch at second slip.

Seven balls later Jeff Crowe was leg before wicket to a superb yorker from Reid, again comfortably Australia’s best bowler, for 12 and New Zealand was staggering at 104 for five.

Reid finished the day with the excellent figures of three for 31 off 15 overs,

NEW ZEALAND First innings 186 Second innings J. Wright lbw b Reid. ... 15 K. Rutherford c Dyer b McDermott 2 A. Jones c Border b Reid 45 M. Crowe c Jones b Hughes 23 J. Crowe lbw b Reid. ... 12 D. Patel not out 8 R. Hadlee not out. 17 Extras (b2, wl, nb6) .... 9 Total (for 5 wkts) 131 Fall: 18, 20, 66, 103, 104. Bowling: B. Reid 15, 5, 31, 3; C. McDermott 11, 0, 50, 1; M. Hughes 12, 5, 35, 1; P. Sleep 12, 4, 13, 0.

AUSTRALIA First innings 305