BATTING TRIUMPH

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 143, 21 June 1927, Page 9

BATTING TRIUMPH

TREAT OF THE SEASON

DACRE A "CROWD-COMPELLER"

How long will it be before the New Zealanders are playing Test matches against England and Australia? Many a spectator at Lord's on the first appearance of the New Zealand cricket team asked that question as Lowry and Dacre were hitting the cover off the best amateur bowling, that England has to offer. The latest mail from England brings news of many glowing tributes paid to the New Zealanders for their great batting performance on the famous cricket ground. The comments are flattering.

NO MEAN FEAT. <<muTh^ ie who staved away," says The Times," " TC ry possibly missed the treat of the season. The phrase, We have not seen anything like thii for years!' was in all men's months while the New Zealanders were making just over 400 runs between 1130 and 4.15. This and similar comment was most frequent during Dacro's innings, which w^s the star turn of the programme. This young man, if he keeps his health, must surely be destined to be one of the season's crowdcompellers. It is no mean feat for a batsman, whose experience has mainly been limited to Saturday club matches to travel from the Antipodes and score a century in each of the first two inmngs which he plays in England. The statisticians will no doubt inform us whether, in doing so, Dacre has or has not set up a new 'record.' That is matter of minor importance. The mam point is that Dacro revived at Lord a the rather obsolescent habit of dealing with each ball sent down to him strictly on its merits. Nor does his temperament cause him to seek anxiously for merit where none is at nrst sight obvious. To him a halfvolley is a half-volley, and he knows no Jaw which makes the neighbourhood of 5 P*?'\ ion rails.- or the sight screen, a forbidden area for batsmen who wish to be esteemed of the first-class We did not see him yesterday tested by a cunning slow, bowler.

CAUSE FOR RHAPSODY.

The temptation to rhapsodiso about an innings which few cricketers of today, except Andrews, the Australian have the capacity and the will to play' is irresistible. Lowry also mado a hundred by Acree and clamantly strenuous hitting. He and Dacre put on 110 runs in about three-quarters of an hour. During their partnership Dacre made his captain look almost like a fast bowler enjoying an unwonted triumph with the bat. It was not that .Lowry slogged rashly and clumsily Caere's batting was of such quality that only a player of Hobbs's class could safely challenge comparison with him. ' The opening pair, Blunt and Mills, played somewhat after the manner to which opening pairs of county teams have' accustomed us. They were by no means dull, but they did, very properly, seek safety first. The ' rest of those who got runs adopted each in his own way the tactics of Lowry and Daere, and batted as public school boys used to bat before they were instructed in tho art of playing themselves in and warned against lifting the bat too high lest they should be late for a shooter.

"Maybe the county batsmen will compile large scores off the New Zealanders' bowling, particularly if it is not better supported in the field than it has been so far. But- it will be interesting to see county bowlers opposed to strange batsmen, equipped with adequate defence and firmly convinced that the bat was given them to make runs, not merely to take those gratuitously offered."