CRICKET.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1321, 27 December 1911, Page 7

CRICKET.

THE PLUNKET SHIELD MATCH. ON A STICKY WICKET.

CANTERBURY FAR BEHIND. . THE'EVERGREEN DOWNES. IBy Telegraph-Press Association.) Christchurch, IJcconibor 26, After tho soaking rain which had caused tho abandonment of play on Christmas Day tho wicket was expected to bo waterlogged this'morning, but the water, had disappeared, and an inspection of tho pitch at 11.30 brought about an agreement between the two captains to resume, play.at 2 o'clock. By that time tho.ground was in a fairly playable condition. ';'..-. ■ . After play had progressed for an hour or so,' however, the ball, cutting through, gave tho bowlers a great pull, and any Tuns got during the day were got by sheer merit, whilst many of the batsmen were out as the. result of tho ball's aries.The Tesult of. tho day's play, leaves Canterbury still with a big ■ handicap to make good, though they did as well as they could' bo expected to do. If the weather keep's' , fine,' and the wicket rolls out decently' to-morrow, they still have a. good fighting chance, especially if they succeed, in saving tho follow-on. There ttas a big attendance of the pub' lie, and the play, though for tie most part slow, .appeared to interest those present. The fact that the local men are up against a stiff proposition appeared to teeptte interest from flagging, and, given fine weather to-morrow, there should be other good attendance. ■„ ~, ~ , It was , 'early apparent that the wioket was far'more difficult than on the first day, and Otago's run-getting fell away correspondingly, tho remaining eight wickets only adding 90 runs.. Hopkins looked like giving further trouble until .a very difficult ball'beat him. ■ Condliffe played'a useful innings under very difficult oondifctons, for ha met a lot of good bowling with an- ejjcollent. defence. Bo scored by good play all round the wicket, but bis cutting may be" singled'out. as very fine, especially as the (conditions of the ground made this stroke difficult above'ail others.. ~■;■■■■■".■' .. Jt'Farlane reached. the; boundary several times with powerful and well-timed Rtroke3, but 'be'was inclined to , be reckless' The' Canterbury fielding was a great improvement 'on that of Saturday, being 'generally sound and smart. Sandman, after having 5S jut off him "without a wioket on the nrst day, bagged four for 20 to-day, and he bowled' very well, all his four victims being fairly beaten with good balls. Bennett was not as steady as on Saturday, but still sent down some Rood balls, anil he captured three .for 111. Reese, though not teepiug a pood length at first, was fairly., steady, though he failed:. to get a wicket '.'.'' One cbiild hardly imagine a.raorcjsUmcult wicket than when Canterbury went in to bat, and it must be admitted that the batsmen ' who got out showed, by their play, that'they were merely' 'good wicket batsmen." They-did uot rise to tho occasion. Indeed,- with f»ur good men out for 30, it looked as thqnijh-wcst of the sido would be out by closing time. Carltnn. however, adapted himself to the. difficult .wicket with consummate skill, and, receiving valuable assistance from iLusk,. the ..pair doubled the score, and ..played: out time- without .further disaster. Carltou earned unstinted praise for his sound display.' Downes uswi all his wiles to tempt him, but Tiot once did Uio professional make an impatient or bad stroke, with the possible exception of a ball that toso head-high. This he chopped down dangeronsly near the' slips. Lusk also batted solidly,-though-he ,did not look so firmly fixed as his partner and, at times, he was hard put to it to keep Downes out. Besides showing good niade a Iprb.pf-'fine hook.strokes.'; most of which, however (beffig all along the ground), only produced singles, as two'men .were fielding, in. "the country." The. Ol'ago fielding, with one or. two exception's, was'first-class,'being safe and smart, the returns to the wicket. being especially' accurate. Downes was easily the best of the Otago bowlers. Indeed, he was the only . one ivho ; seemed • likely to gel wickets, and from start to finish, he had the batsmen merely playing him. .He varied his pace and'lenprth with -the samo"skill as of yore, and no greater compjiment could be paid him. ""."'. ...,._ Otago—First Innings. J. Kenney,l.b.w.,b. Reese u C. Hopkins, b. Sandman 132 G G. Austin, run out 64 T.; M'Farlane, ; b. Sandman 21 J. W. Condliffe, c. Caygill, b. Bennett 3t A. Eckhold, c. Boxshall, b. Bennett ... - 5 L. Watson, b.. Carlton 10 .T. Ramsden, b. Bennett 2 A. Downes, b. Sandman .'..........'.„....... 2 W. Bannerman, b. Sandman 5 A. Eckhold, not out ..........;„: • tf Extras ; 16 Total .'. i 302 Bowliug Analysis. J. H. Bennett, 48 overs, 27 maidens, 51 runs, three wickets; D. Reese, 43 overs, M maidens, 91 runs, one wicket; D. Sandman, 36.1 overs, 6 maidens, 7C runs, four tickets; \V. Carlton, 9 overs, 1 maiden, 80 runs, one wicket; K. 11. Olliyier, 3 overs, 16 runs; W. Patrick, i overs, 11 runs; A Sims, 3 overs, 11 runs. Canterbury—First Innings. E. K..Caygill, b. Eam5den...:........- ; -f Alt' Xormar- c. Eckhoff, b. Downes 0 W. Carlton, uot out 32 K. M. Ollivier, b. Do.vaes .-. i A. Sims, b. Downes 3 H. B. Lusk, not out 12 Extras 9 Total for four wickets 61 Bowling Analysis. Downe3 took three wickets for 16 runsj iiamsdon, one for 10; Eckhoff, none for 57; Bannerman, none for 6.

THE HAWKE'S DAY TOUR. AT ,PALJIEBSTON. SMALL SCORES ON BAD WICKET. (By Telegraph.—Special Corresnondent.i Palmerstoiv December 26. After their excellent stand apicst Wellington it was expected that tho Hawko's Bay cricketers would put up a big score against tho Manawatu eleven to-day, especially as the liome team was not by any means a representative one only five of the chosen men being present. Tho visitors, however,* had to conteud with a difficult wicket which assisted the bowlers and the latter cave the batsmen a bad time. GTeer and M'Vicar, tho Manawatu trundlers, made things rather lively, and Hawke's Bay only registered 115. Board was bowled. by M'Vicar with a leg break when ho had just got into double injures. O'Brien made 2l>. Ashcroft (not out) 20, Stevens 13, and Hindmarsh 19. C-ireor took five wickots for 63 runs and M'Vicar four for 18. Manawatu replied with 99, Trovona topping tho score with 30. Greer (11), and liennett (13) were the other double-figure FcoTers. . I'airey was the destructive elemrmt, Rettini? six wickets for 29 runs. HnwUe's Bny made a disastrous start in their second innings. Tho bad light assisted tho bowlors, and, in the halfhour remaining, four wickets fell for 13 runs. The game will bo concluded to-morrow