Fine bowling performance by Chatfield

Press, 10 March 1988, Page 48

Fine bowling performance by Chatfield

From

JOHN COFFEY

in DUNEDIN

Ewen Chatfield produced one of the finest of all bowling performances by a New Zealander in international limited-over cricket, but even he could not prevent England from winning the opening Rothmans Cup match at Carisbrook yesterday.

The scoreline records that England overtook New Zealand’s total of 204 with the loss of only five wickets and with just four deliveries to spare. Those bare statistics cannot testify to the outstanding effort of Chatfield in defence of a target which always appeared to be within England’s range. Chatfield began with two maidens, conceded a mere 15 runs from the remainder of his 10-over stint, and had both Martyn Moxon and David Capel caught by the wicketkeeper, fam Smith. On the all-important score of economy, Chatfield’s figures have been bettered just four times in New Zealand’s 130 oneday internationals. Two of the superior sets of statistics were returned by Chatfield himself, including the record 10, 4, 8, 1 against Sri Lanka at Carisbrook five years ago. There is a mutual affinity between Chatfield and the people who populate Carisbrook on cricketing days. It was in Dunedin that Charfield, with Jeremy Coney, guided New Zealand to one of its most dramatic test victories in their famous partnership against Pakistan. Chatfield’s innings yesterday was considerably shorter. After a rousing reception from the 9000 spectators Chatfield departed with dignity, though he was stumped first ball. i By late afternoon he had the venerable old ground dancing to his tune as he all but saved a hopeless situation. The England captain, Mike Gatting, had reaped 42 runs from 43 balls to cancel out his side’s indifferent start. Neil . Fairbrother and Capel then became involved in a fifth-wicket stand worth 78 runs which carried England to almost certain success. They forced John Wright to recall Chatfield a little earlier than he intended. Chatfield had permitted no more than six runs from his opening five overs, and another six from his next three overs.

By allowing only two runs and removing Capel, Chatfield reapplied some pressure upon his opponents. What had been a comparatively simple fin-

ishing task was transformed into a potentially awkward 13 runs from the last two overs of the innings. Unfortunately, Martin Snedden could not emulate Chatfield. His first two balls were struck through the covers and then over mid-on for boundaries to Fairbrother, who reached his half-cen-tury with the winning hit, a four backward of| square leg off John Bracewell’s second ball of the last over. Chatfield was quite magnificent, not the least because he was also combating influenza. Compared to his average concession of one and a half runs per over, the other New Zealand bowlers were downright expensive. The England tourists have been criticised for their slovenly fielding throughout their itinerary. Yet if one catch has ever caused the winning of a match it was that taken by Moxon to get rid of Wright yesterday. The New Zealand captain was cruising towards his previous best international limited-over score of 84 when an attempted hook shot was miscued wide of mid-on. Wright seemed likely to escape with a single until Moxon, sprinting back, just got his right hand under the ball as he fell heavily to the turf. Wright was out at 140 in the thirty-third over at a time when New was on course for a total 1 in excess of 250. Relishing the release of the chains of responsibility which bind him in test cricket, Wright pulled a delivery from ; Capel over midwicket for the first six of the international season.

He indulged himself with flowing drives to the cover and straight fences among his eight fours. So effective was Wright that New Zealand’s run-scor-ing graph was an inversion of the accepted oneday pattern.

Between the tenth and thirtieth overs 103 runs were accumulated, but a more modest 73 came from the last 20 overs. New Zealand’s plan to take a more positive approach was followed to the letter by its leader. But the experiment of calling up Richard Reid was not a stunning success. ■

When Wfight decided to bat first, Reid. — nicknamed “Whale" — was literally thrown 1 in at the deep end after two months out of representative play. His timing astray, Reid could not make-the splash his supporters, and selectors, had hoped for him. Reid needed 29 balls and 35 minutes to scramble eight runs. Chris Kuggeleijn also needed a period of adjustment after a spell of club cricket.-When Wright was dismissed Kuggeleijn was torn between a wish to keep the run-rate up, yet the reality that he could not expose the : New Zealand lower-order so early in the innings. In the circumstances, Kuggeleijn did well enough in mustering 34 runsj and staying until the second-to-last over. It was unfortunate that Ken Rutherford, Bracewell and Smith could not offer stronger support. Earlier, Martin Crowe, had hinted that he could unleash a truly authoritative innings before the series ends. Three times he sweetly stroked the England seamers through the cover field before leaving a rare gap for Paul Jarvis to exploit. NEW ZEALAND R. Reid c Broad b DeFreitas S J. Wright c Moxon b Rad-t ford 70 M. Crowe b Jarvis IS rM. Greatbatch c Capel b Emburey L 1 ‘ 28 K. Rutherford c French b Capel 13 C. Kuggeleijn c Gatting b DeFreitas. . . j 34 J. Bracewell run out ... . 7 I. Smith b Emburey .... 0 M. Snedden b Emburey . . 7 W. Watson not out ’..... 0 E. Chatfield std French b Emburey. . . ! 0 Extras (ibl3, nbl, w5) ... 19 Total 204 Fall: 24, 50. 127, 140. 157. 188, 190, 204, 204, 204.1 Bowling: P. DeFreitas 10, 1. 26, 2 (nbl): N. Radford 10. 0. 47. 1 (w3); D. Capel 10. 1, 45, 1 (w2); P. Jarvis 10. 2, 34, 1: J. Emburey 9.4, 1, 39, 4. ENGLAND C. Broad run out 33 M. Moxon c Smith b Chatfield 6 R. Robinson lbw b Snedden 17 M. Gatting c Kuggeleijn b Rutherford 42 N. Fairbrother not.out. . . 50 D. Capel c .Smith 1 b. Chatfield 48 J. Emburey not out.'... . 2 Extras (lb 6 nbl, w2). ... 9 Total Ifor swkts) | 207 Fall: 28. 53, 68,1114, 192. Bowling: W. Watson 10, 0. 46. 0 (nbl): E. Chatfield 10, 2. 15, 2; C. Kuggeleijn 7, iO, 31, 0; M. Snedden 10, 1, 46, 1; J. Bracewell 7.2, 0, 42,1 0 (wl): K. Rutherford 5, 0. 21, 1 (wl).

Umpires: R. McHarg and G. Morris.