PLUNKET SHIELD

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 86, 5 January 1940, Page 3

PLUNKET SHIELD

Auckland v. Canterbury

A VITAL MATCH Possession of the Plunket Shield, the emblem of cricket supremacy in New Zealand, will be decided by the result of the match between Auckland and Canterbury, which will be commenced at Eden Park, Auckland, today, and, if necessary, extend over four days. This year Canterbury have a strong all-round teain. They defeated-Otago on the first innings to gather four shield points, and victory over Wellington by an innings and five runs gave them a further eight points, to make their total 12. Auckland in their match with Wellington, which was abandoned because of rain, were behind their opponents on' the first innings, but got two points out of the match. There was compensation in the match with Otago, with an outright win for Auckland, and the eight points gained has brought the Auckland total to 10. Thus the pending deciding match is full of possibilities. A first innings win for Auckland would advance the Auckland points total to 14, but the Canterbury points total would go up by two, and thus the two teams would be level. On averages, as the decision would then have 10 be made, the advantage would be with Canterbury in view of their performances to date. But should Auckland secure an outright victory the Plunket Shield would remain in the keeping of the Auckland team. Memories of Meritt. It is eight years since Canterbury won against Auckland at Eden Park, the occasion 'being in January, 1932, when Auckland failed against the visitors in their first innings.'and were out for the poor score of 56. On that occasion W. Merritt, the best slow right-hand spin bowler of recent years, found the wicket to his liking, and Auckland batsmen Mere overcome. Though there may not be a Merritt in the Canterbury team, the southerners will place a strong and well-balanced team in the field, which has a big leaven of experienced players. There will be well-known New Zealand representative players in Kerr, Donnelly. Hadlee, Crotnb and Roberts. In addition there, is O’Brien, a Canterbury player who is back from England after a successful season with Northampton county, and Menzies, who was regarded as one of the batting finds of last season in big cricket. Anderson is a forcing player whose advent will be watched with interest, Mcßae and Davis will add to the Canterbury bowling strength, and their wicketkeeper will be Harbidge, who has taken the place of Webb, the latter being unavailable owing to military duties. Kerr, Donnelly and Hadlee rank as three _of the best batsmen in the Dominion, and Crcnnb and Roberts are all-round players who have proved their worth both in New Zealand and Englandwhen they went on tour with New Zealand representative teams. Possible Changes. let the obvious strength of Canterbury will only add interest to the fixture as far as Auckland supporters are concerned, particularly in view of the home team's fine showing against Otago. The Auckland batting is strong, and the bowling should compare favourably with the visitors’ attack. It may not be quite as well-balanced as last year, when II G. Vivian was available