DULL CRICKET

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 126, 22 February 1938, Page 11

DULL CRICKET

Third Day Of Plunket Shield Final WELLINGTON LEADS Dropped Catches Costly For Auckland Dropped catches proved costly to Auckland in the third day’s play of the Plunket Shield cricket match with Wellington at the Basin Reserve yesterday. After dismissing their opponents for 156, Wellington compiled 223, but Tindili, Donnelly and Moloney were given “lives,” and the northerners face defeat, although this is not likely to affect their grip on the shield. The day’s cricket was drab and colourless. The rough weather which curtailed play on the first day and washed, out the second day, had cleared during the week-end, and the wicket dried out well. Nevertheless, it was troublesome in the morning, and Auckland had to light hard for runs. Several deliveries from the fast bowlers reared up, Wallace being the only batsman to shape at all confident* ■ ly. He was undefeated with 51, and actually never looked like being dismissed, the benefit of his tour to England being revealed by the manner in which be mastered the difficulties. His score of 51 took his past the 1000 murk in Plunket Shield matches. Garson looked like getting runs, but in an attempt to hook a rising ball got too much under it and Moloney took a good catch at deep square leg. Auckland’s 150 took four hours to compile. Even allowing for the tricky state of the-wicket, the batting, with the exception of Wallace, was uninspiring. Pritchard was the most successful Wellington bowler, and must rank among the best medium-fast truudlers in the country. He kept a consistently good length to take four wickets for 27 off 10.0 overs. In Plunket Shield matches this season so far Pritchard has taken 12 wickets for 104 runs. The wicket had rolled out- much easier-thaw in the morning when Wellington commenced its innings, but the battiug was a mixture of good and iu- . different cricket. Tindili cocked the third ball he received back to Cowie, but the bowler was off his balance and dropped a'“sitter.” Tindili went on to compile a very solid 43. Moloney gave the brightest display of the match; his 29 containing some delightful strokes to all parts of the field. When he was 12 he lifted a ball from Simpson high to deep mid-off. Mills got his hand to! the ball, but failed to .hold a not over-difficult chance. Donnelly topped the batting fbr Welling-, tori with a very pleasing knock for 52, but, like Tindili and Moloney, was let off, Postles dropping a fairly easy catch at short leg off Matheson, wnen Donnelly was eight. Lamason showed a welcome return to form. He has not had a good season, and there has begn. a certain amount of criticism of his selection, but his captaincy, batting and fielding in this match have been uniformly good. Matheson’s 100 Wickets.

Cowie, Matheson, and Carson carried' off the bowling honours for Auckland., Matheson required one wicket to reach •100 in Plunket .Shield . matches, and, when this fell 'to him lie came in for congratulations from . his team-mates, as well as receiving a well-deserved round of applause from the crowd. Matheson has now taken 103 wickets for 3043 runs in shield cricket. Auckland’s Innings. Postles (21) and Matheson (2) resumed Auckland’s innings to the bowling of Pritchard and Blundell. Both went cheaply and failed to ad_d to their score. Postles snicked one from Pritchard to Tindili, and Matheson was clean bowled, Prijehard having three for 9. Carson and Wallace became, associated, but after scoring 10, the former was well caught at deep square-leg by Moloney off Pars-* loe, the board leading 91-5- J. Scott filled the vacancy and opened .ms aeeomil with a very uppish shot off Blundell past mid-on. where, there was no fieldsman. Off a much better stroke to deep mid-on he secured three. Wallace dispatched Blundell in a similar direction tor three, and in the next over drove Parsloe through the covers for a very nice four. At-107 Griffiths was brought on in place of Blundell. Three were -taken off his first oyer and 12 off the second, Wallace doing most of the scoring. Donnelly spelled Parside, and his first ball was spooned by Scott to Pritchard. It was a poor shot. 120-G-11. McMahon did not last long, being stumped by Tindili off Griffiths. 127-7-1. Edmonds joined Wallace, who was 34. At 132 Pritchard replaced Donnelly (two for 12 off 11 overs). Wallace, scoring freely, brought his 40 up and also reached 1000 runs in shield cricket. At 143 Edmonds was brilliantly run out by Griffiths. The batsman endeavoured to sneak a single, but Griffiths fielded the ball smartly and whipped it to Tindili, who took the bails off with Edmonds well out.. 143-8-7. Cowie came in, hit Griffiths for four, and skied the next ball to Pritchard. 151-9-4. Wallace reached 50 with a pull to leg for two. He had been in 108 minutes, Simpson, the last batsman in, secured a single off Griffiths,' and then cocked the first ball he received back to Pritchard, the innings closing for 150 runs compiled jn four hours. Wallace carried his bat for 51. Early Sensation in Wellington’s Innings. Tindili and Bice opened Wellington’s ininngs to the bowling of Cowie and Matheson, There was an early sensation. Tindili cocked Cowie’s third ball back to the bowler, who misjudged it and dropped an easy catch. Tindili signalled his let-off b.v taking seven off Cowie’s next over, and quickly ran into double figures, but a dull period followed, Matheson keeping the batsmen quiet. Postles replaced Cowie (none for 14 off tour overs)- and pegged Itice down. With the score at 34 , Carson replaced Matheson (none for 8 off six overs), and with his seventh ball Rice was bowled off his pads. 34-1-10. .

Moloney joined Tindill, and opened . .confidently, ; teaching double figures- . in smart time. He relished ' Simpson, who had replaced Postles, but should .have, "been out when 12, Mills missing a not over-difficult high drive. He celebrated his let off by pulling a short ball to the'leg fence, reaching 20 in 25 minutes. Tindill lifted Matheson uppislily to mid-off, but the ball fell in flgap. Seventy came up in 80 minutes and Postles replaced Simpson (none for 19 off three overs). Fifteen runs came off the over, including four byes, the scoring rate advancing to one run a minute. Another change in the bowling proved effective. Cowie was brought on in place of Postles, and off his fourth ball Moloney was caught behind by Edmonds. 80-2-29. Ell was next. He secured a single off Matheson, but in Cowie’s next over was “yorked.” 88-3-1. Donnelly joined Tindill and opened his account with a two'to leg, bringing 90 up in 100 minutes. The last ball of Cowie's over he swept to the leg fence. Facing Matheson he turned one neatly to leg for two. The next ball he cocked up to short-leg, but Postles missed the chance. One hundred came up in Matheson’s next over in 112 minutes. Donnelly relieved a period of quiet play by lifting Matheson to deep extra cover, the ball just rolling to the fence. At the afternoon tea interval the wore was 110 (Tindill not out 39, Donnelly not' but 13).. ■ Shortly after resuming Tindill’s solid

innings came to an end when he snicked a ball from Cowie to Edmonds. 119-4-43. Bain joined Donnelly, but failed to open his. account, Edmonds taking his third catch behind the stumps. Matheson was the successful bowler, thus reaching 100 wickets in shield cricket. 120-5-0. Lamason joined Donnelly, and the pair settled down to a very useful partnership, taking the score past Auckland’s total. Several bowling changes proved ineffective. With the score at 188 Donnelly, who had just, passed his half-eentury, was “yorked” by Carson. 188-6-52. Parsloe joined Lamason, who was scoring freely. The 200 came up after 205 minutes’ play. After shaping carefully Parsloe had a dip and was caught off Matheson, who .had replaced Carson. 204-7-11. Two balls later Lamason failed to connect with an out-swinger and was caught in the slips. 204-8-31. The last two batsmen, Pritchard and Blundell, had a brief but merry stay, the innings closing at 6 o’clock for 223 runs. Scores:—

AUCKLAND.—First Innings. A. J. Postles, c. Tindili, b. Pritchard .. 21 P. E. Whitelaw, 1.b.w., b. Donnelly .. 32 J. E. Mills, b. Pritchard 12

W. M. Wallace, not out 51 W. N. Carson, c. Moloney, b. Parsloe .. 10 V. Scott, c. Pritchard, b. Donnelly ... 11 A. M. Matheson, b. Pritchard 2 M. McMahon, st. Tindili. b. Griffiths .. 1 D. Edmonds, run out 7 J. Cowie, c. Pritchard, b. Griffiths ... 4 J. 8.~ Simpson, c. and b. Pritchard .. 1 Extras (two no-balls, two byes) .. 4 . Total 158

WELLINGTON.—First Innings. H. F. Rice. b. Carson 10 K W. Tindili, c. Edmonds, b. Cowie . 43 D. A. R. Moloney, c. Edmonds, b. Cowie 29 J. Ell, b. Cowie 1 M. P. Donnelly, b. Carson o2 J. R. Lamason, c. Simpson, b. Mathe-

son 31 W. Bain, c. Edmonds, b. Matheson ... 0 C. K. Parsloe, c. Postles, b. Matheson • 11 T. Pritchard, c. Scott, b. Matheson ... 6 B. Griffiths, 1.b.w., b. Cowie « E. D. Blundell, not out ' Extras (16 byes, 7'leg-byes, 4 noballs) 27 Total 223

Play will be resinned at 10.30 o’clock this morning, and will conclude at 5.30 p.m.

WELLINGTON B BEATS HAWKE’S BAY

Win By Ten Wickets Dominion Special Service. Napier, February 21. Play between the Wellington B and Hawke’s Bay representative cricket teams was resumed this morning at Nelson Park,' Napier, at 11.50 a.m. Rain fell during the night and the outfield was wet and slippery, but the wdeket favoured the batsmen. The not-out Wellington batsmen, R. T. Morgan and A. McLean, soon settled down, carrying the score from 22 to 105, the partnership netting 83 valuable rune. The partnership was finally broken when Morgan was caught by* Simpson off Lambert's bowling. Brown followed Morgan and added 8 before being caught by Johnson off T. Reaney’s bowling. A useful 22 was added by O'Neill on a wicket that was commencing to wear. Wellington’s first innings closed with a total of 149 at 2.48 p.m. with a lead of 50 runs. Hawke’s Bay's second innings opened at 3.6 p.m., the opening batsmen being T. Geddes and E. Evans. Tricklebank and Muir opened the bowling for Wellington. Scoring was very slow, Geddes being finally dismissed when caught by* Burnette off Tricklebank’s bowling after adding.s to the Hawke's Bay total. H. Reancy went in. but soon after returned, caught and bowled by O’Neill, with a score of 8. At the afternoon tea adjournment the score stood at 26 for 2. The scoring then began to open up, the outfield gradually improving as the wicket deteriorated. 'Wickets began to fall fast, and at 4.35 p.m. five were down. With two more wickets in hand Hawke’s Bay was only 9 runs ahead of the Wellington first innings total. The last wickets fell leaving Wellington needing only 15 runs to draw and 16 to win. Wellington opened their second innings with Muir and Fowler batting. Hitting confidently, this partnership soon compiled the necessary total. The game resulted in a win for Wellington b.v 10 wickets. Detailed scores are as follows:—

WELLINGTON.—First Innings. R. Crawford, c. T. Reaney, b. Johnston 4 H. B. Burnette, b. 11. Lambert 6 Morgan, g. Simpson, b. Lambert 44 A. McLean, c. Moloney, b. T. Reaney .. 51. Browne, c. Johnson, b. T. Reaney , 8 O’Neill, c. Sherratt, b. T. Reaney .... 22 W. Chrlstophersen, b. T. Reaney 1 IV. Tricklebank, b. T. Reaney 5 G. L. Whyte, not out 3 C. A. Muir, c. Mahoney, b. Lambert .. 0 C. H. Fowler, b. Lambert 1 Extras 4 Total 149

Second Innings. C. A. Muir, not out 5 C. H. Fowler, not out 11 Total for no wickets 16 HAWKE’S BAY. First ihnings 99 Second Innings. T. Geddes, c. Burnette, b. Tricklebank 5 B. Evans, b. Tricklebank 12 H. Reauey, c. and b. O’Neill 8 M. O'Brien, c. Muir, b. O’Neill 7 T. Reaney, b. Whyte 14 H. Lambert, c. Crawford, b. Whyte .... 11 B. Mahoney, c. Tricklebank,' b. Whyte <> R. Sherratt, b. O’Neill 0 E. Simpson, c. McLean, b. Trleklebank 3 H. Johnson, not out 2 I. Proctor, c. Muir, b. Tricklebank .... Extras 3 Total. 65

Blundell Bowling Analysis. 0. M. 18 11 R. 23 w. 0 Parsloe 0 o . .i 1 Donnelly Griffiths 11 4 1 2 J. 11 0 51 A Lamason Pritchard 4 0 14 0 10.0 1 27 4

Cowie Bowling Analysis. K. 60 W. 4 0. 17 M. Matheson 20.6 6 4 PostlPS , 0 16 0 Carson • < (J 1 18 z 8 28 0 McMahon o 19 0

Bowling Analysis. R. 28 w. 1 Johnson 0. 0 M. 1 II. Lambert 14.5 o'.) 4 T. Proetor 1 (i 0 K. Evnns 1 0 1 0 H Reaney 8 0 T Rftfippy 8 0 33 >f. O’Brien (I 10 b B. Mahoney . 1 0 4 0

Bowling Analysis. 0. M. R. w. IV. Tricklebank 9.5 1 15 4 C A Muir 5 0 Hi 0 R O’Neill •"> - 18 2 0. L. Whyte •" 1 12 3 L. V. Browne 2 1 1 0