Rutherford injects life into innings

Press, 20 February 1988, Page 92

Rutherford injects life into innings

p Dunedin An elegant and attractive innings by Ken Rutherford injected life into otherwise pedestrian proceedings on the first day of the match between the Mew 7 Zealand President’s XI and the touring England cricket team at Carisbrook yesterday.

Rutherford’s 57 and an accomplished 48 by Bryan Young were the main contributions to the President’s XI total of 181 for seven declared after Mike Gatting had won the toss and elected to bowl on a cold, grey day. There was an encouraging tinge of green in the pitch for the seam bowlers and it was clear that batting would be difficult in the first two sessions. The loss of David White and the dropped test player, Dipak Patel — both without scoring — in the first two overs bowled by Neil Radford produced a feeling of imminent disaster but the next wicket did not fall until 20 minutes after lunch. Rutherford and Kevin Burns, his dogged Otago team-mate, dug in for the

morning in a partnership which yielded 79 runs in 122 minutes. There followed a mini collapse in which the President’s XI slumped to 109 for six, but Young and Evan Gray, who played a role similar to Burns, added 72 runs for the seventh wicket in 126 minutes before the declaration came on Young’s dismissal. Martyn Moxon and Tim Robinson safely negotiated the six overs bowled by Jonathan Millmow and Richard de Groen and there could be an interesting middle and final chapter to the match if the weather remains fine. England was 11 without loss at the close. It was a bonus after the recent rain to gain an uninterrupted day’s play but the legacy was an

extremely slow outfield and a pitch which had some variation in bounce. For all that it was a day when the drinks buggy went on the blink; the fieldsmen gulped down hot tea instead of cordial at drinks; the England slips cordon dropped five catches; and three of the President’s men made ducks. Neil Radford had his best day of the tour, statistically — the wickets of four top-order batsmen for only 24 runs, and a marvellous, diving catch at third slip to dismiss Derek Walker — but he and the other England bowlers, except David Capel, failed to consistently keep the ball up The over by Phillip De Freitas was the quickest and most eventful of the day, Rutherford taking 12 runs before he fell into

the trap and Tim Robinson moved in for the catch. PRESIDENT'S XI First innings K. J. Burns lbw b Radford . 28 D. J. White c Richards b Radford 0 D. N. Patel c Fairbrother b Radford 0 K. Rutherford c Robinson b DeFreitas 57 R. T. Latham b Radford . 13 D. J. Walker c Radford b Capel 0 E. J. Gray not out 19 B. A. Young c Moxon b Gatting 48 Extras (lbs nbll) 16 Total (for 7 wks dec.)... 181 Fall: 0,2, 81, 104, 109, 181. Bowling: P. DeFreitas 22, 3, 68, 1; N. Radford 19, 9, 24, 4; P. Jarvis 12, 4, 25, 0; E. Hemmings 13, 5, 23, 0; D. Capel 12, 3, 19, 1; M. Gatting 62, 1, 17, 1. ENGLAND First innings M. D. Moxon not out. ... 8 R. T. Robinson not out . . 3 Extras 0 Total (for 0 wkt) H Bowling: J. P. Millmow 3,0, 6,0; R. de Groen 3,1, 5, 0.