MELBOURNE PITCH AT ITS WORST

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 2, 4 January 1937, Page 11

MELBOURNE PITCH AT ITS WORST

SENSATIONAL PLAY IN THIRD CRICKET TEST United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. (By J. B. Hobbs—Copyright in all countries —Reproduction in whole or in part .forbidden.) MELBOURNE, January 2. A crowd of 65,235, which paid £5565 at the gates, despite the unsettled weather, was thrilled by a sensational day's cricket today, when the tide turned in favour of Australia in the second day's play in the third Test against Ergland. The home team began its second innings late in the day wi;;h a lead of 124 runs. Australian cricket came back with a rush today, and on the score the home team is now in an excellent position. But with rain hanging round and the likelihood of more during the weekend, I cannot at the moment say ■•whether conditions will at the finish favour England. Who knows but that Australia may have a bad wicket to bat on on Monday and England a good one to follow. The match is developing on sensational lines, owing to the English weather.

Heavy rain fell from 6 till 8 o'clock last evening. Today dawned sunnily and then came heavy showers and sunshine, rendering the wicket very wet and delaying the start till 2.15 p.m. Though there seemed a remote prospect of play for many hours the gates opened and 50,000 holiday-makers watched all the preparations for the resumption with admirable patience. The captains twice went out to inspect the wicket. They disagreed the second time, Bradman wanting play and Allen considering the wicket unfit. This brought the umpires out, and they decided to make another inspection at 2 o'clock. The wicket was very wet, the ball making deep dents in the turf. McCABE QUICKLY OUT. Verity completed his unfinished over with two balls to Oldfield. Voce's third ball popped up and McCabe was caught at third slip by Worthington. Allen made a good mot'e by putting Hammond on in place of Verity, off whom O'Reilly, a left-handed batsman, might have hit boundaries.. In Hammond's opening over O'Reilly missed five successive balls, making wild swipes. He was caught at slip off ,the first ball of Hammond's next over. Ward brought up 200 with a drive for 2. When he was stumped Bradman declared. I think Australia's was a very good score with the wicket in such a condition. England soon had cause to realise this, for wickets fell at nil and 14 to the delight of the vast crowd. Worthington was easily caught by Bradman at silly point off McCabe's third ball. Barnett edged Sievers's seventh ball for 4 between the wicket-keeper and first slip. Barnett had reached 11 when he made a shortarm hook off Sievers—a skier which went to Darling at short leg. On Ley land's arrival there were seven men in a ring close round the wicket. Leyland was a long time before scoring and then hit O'Reilly to square leg for 4. GRIM FIGHT EXCITES CROWD. It was a grim fight between bat and ball, and the crowd was worked up to a great pitch of excitement. They screamed and jumped to their feet in anticipation of a catch when Hammond, going for a big hit, skied one to O'Reilly, but the ball fell safely. The bowlers were on the short side. , On a wet wicket they should have pitched 'them up i another couple of ' feet. Hammond • and Leyland played back so well that they accentuated this i fault. I consider McCormick wpuld have been a much more difficult pro- s position to the batsmen on the day. f Sievers bowled one over after tea. t Then Fleetwood-Smith, the left-hand googly bowler, came on, O'Reilly changing' ends.

Leyland fell to a remarkable catch at short leg. During that over from O'Keilly he had just hit 2 past Darling and hit this ball round again. Darling half-turned in anticipation of a hard hit. Then he dived to the left, taking a magnificent catch with his left arm fully extended.

HAMMOND FALLS TO GREAT CATCH.

There was tremendous excitement when Hammond went out, thousands shouting. Rousing cheers were given for another wonder catch by Darling. Sievers had just gone on in place of Fleetwood-Smith, and immediately got ihore life out of the wicket at that end. One popped up at Hammond, who could not get away from it. Darling, at short leg, threw himself at full length. With Hammond's dismissal all hope of a score vanished, England's batsmen faring no better than Australia's had done in the two previous Teste, though Saturday's wicket was the Worst Of the lot. With the exception of Hammond, Leyland, and Barnett, England's players batted poorly indeed, but it was easy to find excuses, for the wicket was very tricky. The ball came off at unexpected angles to the batsmen rather because it popped than turned. ALLEN'S DILEMMA. After Hammond's dismissal the wickets simply tumbled down. The batsmen at 5 o'clock were shaping so badly* that I wanted to see Allen declare. The difficulty was that he did not know whether the rain might come at any minute or the light become so bad as to be appealed against. The Australians evidently did not want to come in and started bowling wide. It was amusing to watch the tactics, but they should have covered their intentions more cunningly. Allen, after vainly trying to reach the wide ones, applied the closure. The turn of the tide camc when Bradman did a master stroke by putting Sievers on at the opposite end. Sievers bowled a good length all the time, but at this end he was particularly deadly. After getting Hammond in the first over he played havoc with the rest, and at one period took three wickets for 3 runs. It is possible that 35 minutes was a long time to send two tail-enders in, but Bradman was justified as events turned out:— Details:— AUSTRALIA. First Innings. Fingleton, c Sims, b Robins 38 Brown, c Ames, b Voce 1 Bradman, c Robins, b Verity ~ 13 Rigg, c Verity, b Allen 16 McCabe, c Worthington, b Voce . • 03

Darling, c Allen, b Verity 20 Sievers, st Ames, b Robins 1 Oldfield, not out 27 O'Reilly, c Sims, b Hammond .... 4 Ward, st Ames, b Hammond 7 Extras 10 Total for nine wickets (declared) 200 "Fall of Wickets.—One for 7, two for 33, three for 69, four for 79, five for 122, six for 130, seven for 183, eight for 190, nine for 200. Bowling Analysis. O. M. R. W. Voce 18 3 49 2 Allen 12 2 35 1 Sims 9 1 35 0 Verity 14 4 24 2

Robins 7 0 31 2 Hammond ... 5.3 0 16 2 Second Innings. O'Reilly, c and b Voce 0 Fleetwood-Smith, not out 0 Ward, not out ■ 1 Extras 2 Total for one wicket 3 Fall of Wicket. — 0. Bowling.—Voce took one wicket for 1 run; Hammond, none for 0. ENGLAND. First Innings. Worthington, c Bradman, b McCabe 0 Barnett, c Darling, b Sievers 11 Hammond, c Darling, b Sievers .. 32 Lej'land, c Darling, b O'Reilly 17 Sims, c Brown, b Sievers 3 Ames, b Sievers 3 Robins, c O'Reilly, b Sievers 0 Hardstaff, b O'Reilly 3 Allen, not out 0 Verity, c Brown, b O'Reilly 0 Voce, not out 0 Extras 7 Total for nine, wickets (declared) 76 Fall of Wickets.— One for 0, two for 14, three for 56, four for 68, five for 71, six for 71, seven for 76, eight for 76 nine for 76. Bowling Analysis. O. M. R. W. Sievers 11-2 5 21 5 O'Reilly 12 5 28 3 McCabe 2 1 7 1 FleetwoodSm:"'i 3 1 13 0