A HERO OF THE BAT

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 6, 8 January 1925, Page 7

A HERO OF THE BAT

SUTCLIFFE'S GREAT PERFORM- . ANCE. . ;■ (ONITED PRESS ASSOCIATION.—COPTRIOHT.) (Received Bth January, 11 a.m.) . 'SYDNEY, This Day. The "Sydney Morning Herald," commonting on the saeond cricket Test, says: "To make 317 for nine wickets in the fourth innings of a Teat match on a \vorn wicket on the sixth day's play was a tremendous undertaking and required Cor its accomplishment oue or move extraordinary individual performances with batting, and general consistence of the right down batting order. . Hitherto tlie uneven character o£ .the English batting did not warrant the indulgence oE any sanguine expectations that it would succeed on this oroasion, but it did succeed almost beyoud expectations. At the close of. the day's play England will still have to light h'krd far a win, and, if anything, the advantage is again bu the bowling side. It seemed to our corerspondent that England lost a gpkleu opportunity, jf not pi actually wig*

ning the match yesterday, of making victory practically assured, for to-day runs were there to be had by the batsmen. After once getting on top of the bowling during the early part, the Wooljey-butchllo partnership failed to drive home its advantage by temporising and lapsing into ... ultra cautious methods. The slow play at this stage and the cautioua methods directing it were entirely overdone, and was only playing into the bands of the Australian side. ■It made the bowlers bowl better, and gaye back their lost initiative to the fielding side. The longer the getting of those runs was delayed the' greater.was the chance of the intricacies w tt, T»- fc \kins a hand- Sutcliffe was the batting hero of the day: indeed he may be justly regarded as the bat: nn+l °w M?f hole of a remarkable match. He will have good cause to remember his first Test match on the Melbourne Cricket Ground, and his performance yesterday entitles him to take rank as the only English player to perform the feat, which he sh,/ es with Warren Bardsley, of making :two separate hundreds in a Test match. He las been at the wickets wielding a broad and certain blade for *the belt part of whol T*\^ d Waa on «»*S<»fa the whole of the two previous days, so that except for the matter of an lUr and a dSrin^l, W if?™ 1. 1 * on "the field durms the whole six days of the match, mak?«n ?V l °ne ? 0Il(lu^t for him to" virtn,-^ f J S- OCP? SIon ln completion of: victory for his side, which his play has rendered a possibility, if not a PpVb a !