TIME PRESSES

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 149, 21 December 1936, Page 13

TIME PRESSES

WARNING TO PLAYERS

DISTURBING EARTH'S CRUSJ

SYDNEY, December 20.

Cricket commentators all declare that the second Test has been a very dull affair. The "Sunday Sun" says: "Two days have gone/with England's first innings not completed.\ Next Friday is Christmas Day and the third Test starts on Jariuary 1.. Players please note," , ■ ■ l Mr. Neville Catdus, in the '"Sun," contends that more runs should have been made by He adds: "England has probably amassed an adequate total. ■. We have come to a pretty pitch in" the game's history when more than 400 for six wickets is not ah impenetrable fortress against defeat. In Australia's seemingly endless sunshine, the governing idea of a Test match is to stay at 'the crease for days, wear out the wicket until it cracks and so subsides that a seismographic instrument at Peking 'will register a severe disturbance of the earth's crust in Sydney." HARD TO EXPLAIN. C. G. Macartney ' comments: "It would be difficult +o ascribe any theory for the painfully slow batting of the Englishmen on Saturday. The easy nature of the wicket, the big score on the board, and the tiredness of the bowlers, all contributed to a "position that demanded offensive methods which were conspicuous by their absence. ~ "Every man who went to .ne crease Seemed to have the fixed idea that he must play for Hammond, who was himself disinclined to take the bit in his teeth, Hammond's command over the bowling provided untold opportunities for a man with his repertoire of strokes to drive the ball to unguarded parts of the field, an<* there were seemingly acres of empty country into which, the ball could have been lofted without risk by a batsman of such a high calibre. Thus England's total should be much greater, as also Hammond's, but, thanks mainly to Hammond, England has consolidated her position.

"The Australians will require all their skill to equal, let alone pass. England's total. Everything depends on the weather. What rain has, fallen should Improve the wicket. 'Australia's out-cricket showed a distinct improvement on Saturday."