PILING UP RUNS

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 110, 11 May 1934, Page 7

PILING UP RUNS

(By "Not Out.")

Before the present cricket tour Braclnian was slightly ahead of Ponsford ill the matter of aggregate runs in firstclass cricket. In great aggregates of round about 12,000 there was a difference of little more than 100 between them, so that, cacli now having made a double century on the present tour, they aie still Tunning neck and neck in piling on tie runs. Ponsford, of course, had a long start on Bradman, and at one time he woro the mantle which has now fallen on Bradman. Ponsford was a record-breaker, but since a ball from Larwood damaged one of his hands he has not been the same great and regular scoring batsman, though he had a splendid season in 1930-31, when the West Indies team was in Australia, and when he slightly shaded Bradman. Though his place as a Test player is now being challenged by rising batsmen, it is evident that Ponsford is still a great force. His latest record score suggests that he has regained much of his old form. In first-class matches on the 1930 tour in England, Ponsford made 1425 runs at an average of 49.13. His highest score was 220 not out v. Oxford University, and he made centuries against Yorkshire (143), Derbyshire (131), and England (110 in the fifth Test).