ENGLAND’S EASY TASK

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 119, 5 February 1923, Page 8

ENGLAND’S EASY TASK

NEW ZEALAND IN ARREAR ON SECOND INNINGS

MAGNIFICENT CENTURY BY LOWRY

DISASTER STAYED BY COLLINS AND BLUNT

The English cricketers continued their innings in the third Test match with New Zealand at tie Basin Reserve on Saturday, in perfect weather on a fast wicket, and raised their score to 401 runs. Lowry, the New Zealander with the team, headed the batting list with 130, his first century of the tour, and completed his 500 runs. Chapman, who made 69 on the previous day, added 2 runs when he was bowled. Mac Lean, a very consistent batsman on the Wellington wicket, reached the half-century. Five bowlers shared the wickets, B erneau and Mcßeath getting three each. The New Zealand second innings, like the first,, opened disastrously, and three batsmen, Berneau, Shepherd and Dacre, were out before 50 runs were on the "score-board. Collins, althoug h partially crippled, and Blunt, added a hundred runs for the next wicket, and made the prospect of another innings defeat less remote. After scoring 69 Collins,was caught at the wickets, but, although another batsman, Lambert, was dismissed cheaply, Blunt, with 65 to his credit, his highest score in any of the three tests, was not out at the close of play. New Zealand lost five wickets for 178, and are s till 57 runs behind the English total.

Whatever unkind things may have been Baid about the slow cricket of the Englishmen on Friday could not nave been applied to their batting on Saturday, for they added 221 runs to their score at the rato of 85 runs per hour. Ever since the second Test match at Christchurch, there has been a controversy among cricket followers and fin 1 the columns of the New Zealand Press ' ns to whether ths Englishmen are scoring runs at such a rate as would entitle them to be regarded as an international side, from that standpoint. We have prepared an interesting table, eomp'led from the official records of I Mr. W. Ferguson, tho international scorer with the English team. The i computations have been carefully checked and may be taken as correct. Thev show the average rate of scor--1 ing'by the Englishmen, by Australian teams" they have met, and by New Zea--1 land team's, up to and. inclusive of Saturday’s play. Following is the statement :— RUNS SCORED PER HOUB.

While the Englishmen were in Austrai lia, playing against superior teams, their rate of scoring was a little over i a run per minute. The Australians I scored runs 24 per cent, faster than I . the visitors did. In New Zealand, ; ' however, against teams that have not vet secured a victory over them, the 1 Englishmen have scored at the rate of a run P”d a. half per minute. Against them, the New Zealand batsmen have ; peered 6 r>=r cent, faster than the F.ng- ; Kshmon did against Austra’ian bowers, t hut 32 per cent, slower than the EngI lishmen have scored against them. The ' results disturb Mr. MacLaren’s content : on that the average rate of scor- ; Ing in interhat : onal cricket is a run a i nr’nute. Lowrv wa.s th" chief agent in imi . proving England’s rate of scoring on j, Saturday. He was in with Chapman when stumps were drawn on the nrei vious eyenhig. Both men were settling

■ down to goad cricket when Chapman, '■ • who had scored 71. played over a ■ yorker early in McGirr’s second over, after adding 2 to his overnight total. He was at the wickets 87 minutes for ; 71. rims. Calthorpo was clean bowled for tho third time in succession by Brice, without scoring. Five wickets had fallen for 189 runs when Maclean i partnered Lowry. If Maclean’s form w’th his coiintv, Worcesto’-slrre, bo comn.arcd with h's form in Test matches ih Neav Zealand, one is safe in asserting that he is an improved batsman. In 36 completed innings last season in county cr.icket.

bn snored 459 runs for a” average of 12.75 runs ner innings. H’s first inn- | ing? in a Test match in New Zealand 1 was 84, during wli'cli Im helned Mac- ' Larch nd/l 157 runs in 90 minutes for the eighth wicket. As in that match, i he nart’c'natod on Satur'loy in tlm best i partnership for the English side. Standing some inches over s'x feet, Maclean has a fine reach, and a powerful drive, between cover and ; mid-off, where he scored most of his runs on Saturday. Wh’.l-j he ya° at tho wickets lie and Lowry scored 53 runs each in an hour. Ho was equalIv at home to McGirr, Berneau. and i Shepherd, from whom he scored 17, 19;"and 16 runs, respectively. From ' one over from McGirr he hit two boundaries and two singles. Collins, who went, on nt 297. runs, frfrhed one outsido the off stump, and M’cloan, intending to drive it, spooned in into Garrard’s hands at point. Lowry's Great Innings.

The finest individual display by any of the English batsmen, with the exception of MacLaren’s famous innings for 200 in the first Test, was given by Lowry. He is the most solidly built man in the team, and exhibits surprising speed between the wickets. Not to”detraot from his fine performance, but to state a simple fact, the fielding of the New Zealand team was at its lowest ebb during his stay nt the wickets. Lowry frequently showed his appreciation of the 100-e fielding by deliberately running while the ball was travelling to a fieldsman not twenty yards from the batsman’s wicket. No fewer than fourteen changes were made in the bowling during the two and threequarter hours Lowry was at the wickets. Fifty runs were added in 29 minutes at one stage of his partnership with Maclean. A curious feature about Lowry’s innings was that, although half his runs came from strokes to the on-side, he did not score more than ono run behind square-leg. Between that point and the bowler ho scored 50 ru is, 34. of which came off Brice’s bovling. Ju the same sector ho hit Bornean for 4 and 6 in consecutive overs. Mcßeath and McGirr ho hit chiefly between point and cover. Ho had one distinct ’‘life/’ Aru i before h ; s half-century, JSerneau. standing close in at point, fold an easy chance to run h’m out. The fieldsman threw the ball high, out of reach of the wicketkeep, Cate, frho made a gallant effort to gather

it while Lowry was several yards cut of his crease. Later in the innings, when he was 90, Cate appealed for a catch at the wickets, oif Berreau. Speaking afterwards, the wicketkeep was confident, that Lowry touched the ball; Lowry was just as confident that ho did not; the umpire said he saw daylight between bat and ball. Lowry passed Chapman’s total with a stroke that would have done credit to Trumper. He p oked a fast ball from Brice off tho middle stump, and, timing it beautifully, drove it to the boundary just forward of squareleg. Several times he was applauded heartily for his unorthodox strokes. One of them, which he seems to favour, is a short, wristy clip at a rising ball, that goes through the slips at tremendous speed. He scored a. dozen times, including three boundaries, from this stroke. His defence was in serious danger once when he was 89. McGirr nearly bowled him, and Cate seemed surprised that the wicket was not hit, as the ball sped to the boundary for 4 byes. Lowry atoned in the next over by a sixer at Berneau’s expense. When he was 105 he skied one from Mcßeath, but Shepherd got the sun in his eyes and misjudged the catch. Lowiy’s first 50 occupied 78 minutes, and the second 47 minutes. His innings closed in the same spectacular fashion as he had compiled his runs. Dacre, fielding at mid-off, brought about his dismissal bv a fine running catch, off Mcßeath’s bowling. Lowry’s reception when he returned to the pavilion was almost equal to that accorded MacLaren when he scored 200 not out in. the first Teat. Hartley was at the wickets 41 minutes for 16 runs, and had to put up with n'lenty of chaff from the spectators. Brand was 22 minutes in getting 9, and Gibson 10 minutes for '5. Freeman, who was batting for the fifteenth time in the tour, played his seventh riot-put innings. New Zealand’!! Poor Fielding.

There were almost as many runs scored on Saturday through the hands of tho fieldsmen as through strokes that went clear oi: thorn. Unlike tho first Test, no fieldsman actually dropped a catch, but five of tho English batsmen wero clean bowled, and, as none gave a chance, opportunities for catching were not frequent. But the groundwork of the fieldsmen was tho worst seen in all the series of big matches in Wellington this season. There was hardly an instance in which the ball was fielded at tho first attempt. It went from bad to worse, and spectators were chagrined to sec once more the detestable practice of putting the foot to a ball that could have been gathered by the hand. Ilio subsequent entrancing display of Chapman in the field, who has to como down from 75 inches of height to pick up a ball .was an object lesson to tho whole of the New Zealand team. Two fieldsmen, Collins and Shepherd, were limping on injured feet, yet many others courted injury by their careless attempts at stopping the ball. “Extras” contributed 31 to the total of 401; Cate’s, work at the wickets was not up to his best standard. The Bowlers.

The whole of tho New Zealand team, with the exception of Dacre and the wicket-kcep. had a turn, or several turns, at tho bowling crease. Brice, whose non-selection aroused such widespread comment that Sncdden retired to allow of his inclusion, was on a different wicket tu that on which he achieved his success in tho Wellington match. The Napier soil, from which the wicket was prepared, lasted well, and the ball came through very true, Tho bowling Changes numbered 26. Brico bowled 33 ovors for 75 runs and two wickets. He was tried seven times, including a spell with the wind, from the northern end. Tho "wind was so strong that the bails kepi falling off. Mcßeath sent down his first eleven overs for 8 runs; from tho next three ovors, 23 runs were scored, Chapman and Lowry participating in them. Ho had one wicket for 77 runs from 27 overs, when ho captured Hartley’s and Gibson’s wickets in ono. over at the end of tho innings—the event gave a healthly appearance to his bowling figures. McGirr bowled faster than usual, helped by tho wind, but with the exception of a couple of occasions, when tho batsmen had a close call, his bowling lacked lire. This may bo said io imply to all the bowling, but :.t is hard to put sting into any bowling when fieldsmen may not be relied on to save boundaries or to return cleanly. A fair estimate of the effect of the bnd fielding is 40, or perhaps 50 runs added to the English total. New Zealand’s Collapse, Six times New Zealand has hatted against J'mglaud during tho present tour of tho M.C.G. team;. five times their innings has opened disastrously, tho exception being in tho first innings of the second Test, when Collins and Blunt put on 107 runs for tho first wicket. By a curious coincidence, after disaster had befallen the team on Saturday—with Berneau, Shepherd and Dacre out before tie half-century was reached—it fell to tho same pair to stay the rot, and make a stand that

rendered much more remote' what threatened to bo certain defeat by an innings. Berneau, who top-scored with 61 in the first innings, went to the wickets witii Collins, who was unable to indu|go in foot-work, owing to the injury to his foot. To add to his discomfort, and make his performance all the more commendable, Collins received a severe blow from Gibson just below the right thigh before the score I had reached 20. New Zealand had a deficit of 2-53 to make up. to avoid an innings defeat, and Collins found himself in the same position as in the match with Auckland, playing a hard, uphill game. He played a maiden from Calthorpe ; Berneau, at the other end, played one from Freeman. In Cnlthorpo’s next, Collins drove one past cover-point for a single. Then Berneau beautifully late-cut Calthorpe, but Brand superbly returned it from the field. He got a single from the fourth ball past point, and Collins drew a burst of aplause by a graceful leg-glance that produced a boundary. Facing Freeman, Berneau was obviously ill at ease. He swung wildly at one, but the ball wasn’t there. Next ball caught him in two minds ; th* over was a maiden. Freeman’s third over gave Berneau more tronbe. Two balls beat batsman and wicket-keep, and went for byes : from another Berneau scored two on the leg-side. In the third over. Berneau. swinging across again at Freeman, failed to cover the ball, which, with plenty of spin, shot up into the hands of Chapman a' cover. An Inglorious Display. Shepherd came in, and walked out of his crease to the first ball he got from Freeman and drove it back to. the bowler. Had he missed it, he would have been an easy victim for the wicket-keep, who was eagerly reaching for the ball. Following immediately on Bernenu’s downfall, it was .an inglorious exhibition lor a batsman in first-cass cricket. Two w : ckets for 14 runs! Will Freeman got the hat-trick, r.s he did in Adelaide? Dacre settled the question hy placing him to the on-sido for a single. The next ball was a wide, and Collins played the last two of the over. Freeman had sent down five overs for four runs and two wickets. Gibson was now at tbp other end. Calthorpe being taken off when he had bowled three overs for 8 runs. Collins continued to bring his leg-glance into play, despite his disability, and the game gradually took on a more hopeful aspect. Dacre was partial to Freeman, whom he got to the leg-houndary and through the slips for 3. When he was 17. after 24 minutes, Maclean appealed for a catch at the wickets off the same bowler, and Dacre retffed. Three wickets were down for 45 when Blunt camo in. Collins got his’second boundary bv driving Freeman to the off for 4. and the tea adjournment arrived. Collins Was 32: Blunt, although 15 m : nutes at the pickets, had not scored, and the total was 61, after an hour’s play. Collins and Blunt Avert Disaster. Blunt took 50 minutes to reach double figures. Eight overs produced 4 runs, which all went to Blunt. It was not until he had seen 29 overs bowled that ho got a boundary : be got Freeman past cover-point. Then he doubled his. score in half a dozen overs, scoring five boundaries from Freeman, who was replaced by Gibson, after 48 runs had been scored from him without a further wicket. Blunt had been walking out to Freeman in the later ovors, and covering his break, much to the delight of the crowd. Collins reached 50 in 78 minutes; Blunt was ten minutes longer. When he was 69. Collins touched one from Gibson, the impact being heard in the pavilion, and Maclean smartly took the catch at the wickets. Collins hit six 4’s, five of them on the off. where he scored haff of his runs. Ho gave no chance, and, while he was at the wickets, 149 runs were scored. He scored 69 while Blunt was getting 35. Collins was batting for 132 minutes, and gave an inspiring display, which, if he were physically well, would have been far more profitable than the amount of runs to his credit. Lambert ran into .double figures in about five minutes. When he was 11 Lambert was caught close to the ground st mid-on by Wilkinson, off Brand. It was a catch that could only be adjudicated by the umpire. Gnrrad helped Blunt play out time. The Canterbury batsman scored 65 in two hours. His strokes included nine boundaries. He scored chiefly to cover-point, where lie hit Freeman four times and Gibion twice to the boundary. He scored also at square-leg and on the “on.” At the drawing of stumps New Zealand had scored 178 rims for five wickets, and pre now within 57 runs of the English first-innings total. If the present, fine weather continues the Englishmen thonld have no difficulty in getting a comfortable victory. NEW ZEALAND. First innings 166 Second Innings. , D. C. Collins, c. Maclean, b. Gibson, 14231321341114141242332 121131422 69 E. H. L. Berneau, c. Chapman, b. Freeman 3 ,T T. Shepherd, c. and b. Freeman 0 C. C. Dacre, c. Maclean, b. Freeman 17 R. C. Blunt, not out, 1111122114 123444441222413414 65 H. Lambert, c. Wilkinson, b. Brand 11 D. R. Garrard, not 0ut.... Byes 6, leg-byes 1, wide 1 ... 8 Total for five wickete 178 Fa'l of Wickets. —One for 14. two for 14. three for 45, four for 149, five for 160.

ENGLAND. First Innings. G. Wilson, b. Berneau, 1111151123 11 C. H. Titchmarsh. c. Br o?, b. Bornean. 1141112111111111111 141121121 40 A C. Wilkinson, b. Bernea I, 111 2111413211313 27 A P. F. Chapman, b. McGirr, 12 1114111144114.1'41131134111311 44112 71 T. C. I.owrv. c. Dacre I>. TvTcBeath. 1112242121141111411112 1122111412114111221311421414 HIGH 141 111 212112113341 ... 130 F. S. G. Calthorpe. b. Brico 0 J F. Maclean, c. Garrard, b. Co 1 - Jir.s. 1121-1412112112111114121 141.111214 53 J. C. Hartlev. c. Blunt, b. McBeath. 12311221111 16 D. F. Brand, b. Brice. 21 111 9 C. IT. Gibson, c. Lambert, b. McBeath. 14 •> A. P. Freeman, not out 0 Byes 25, legrbyes 5, wide 1 ... 31 Total 401 Fall of Wickets—One for 62. two for 67. three for 170. four for 188, five for 189, six for 295. seven for 353, oivht for 383. nine for 388, ten for 401.

Collins 10 G 1 Mcßeath bowled one wide. Umpires.—Messrs. Cardiner and Rodger. Attendance. 5000; ‘‘gate,,” £354.

Runs Minper Englishmen — Puns. utes. hour. , Tn Australia ... 1655 1584 62.69 1 Tn New Zealand 4434 3078 89.02 'Australians 1618 1214 79.97 New Zealanders... 3421 3077 66.71

Bowline;. 0. M. 11. W. Calthorpe 8 4' 13 0 Freeman 28 in 64 3 Gibson 21 2 62 1 Brand 11 3 31 1 Freeman bowled one wide.

Bowling. 0. I 33 \r. 9 B. AV. 2 McBeath .. 27 o 81 3 McGirr .... 20 i 70 1 Garrard .... 13 o .32 0 Borneau ... 20 1 68 3 Lambert ., . 2 0 9 0 Blunt 1 0 4 0 Shepherd . 4 0 25 0