The Evening Star WEDNESDAY. FEBRUARY 22, 1911.

Evening Star, Issue 14496, 22 February 1911, Page 4

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY. FEBRUARY 22, 1911.

iW E are afraid that no apologetic ingenuity | xvill he able to palliate A Sorry Dsbaclo. the inglorious nature of the performance of the South African cricketers in the, fourth te.-t match, which terminated yesterday in a victory tor Australia with the unprecedented margin of 5:0 mis. There appears to he mi escape from the painfully commonplace) explanation of nerveless hutting, inreffeetivo bowling, and mulled catching. ’Seldom, if ever, in tho history of test matches lias a team been so hopelessly outplayed. It is true that tho South African captain, after winning tho toss, adopted the risky plan of sending his opponents to tho wickets; but, having regard to tho general course of tho game, it would ho absurd to contend that this error of judgment (if error it were) was largely responsible for the result. After tho third test at Adelaide, Avlien the visitors secured a creditable win by 38 runs, there seemed to be reasou.lo expect a keen struggle for tho “ rubber,” and some Australian observers ventured on rather paradoxical predictions, tho remembrance of which will have no relish for their minds to-day. That dream is over; and though the fifth test has still to be played, we take it that no ono would he particularly sorry if tho programme had been completed. A somewhat pessimistic strain is natural after such a deplorable breakdown, but it must not "be forgotten that the South Africans aro busily learning, if they are doing little in tho way of teach-

ing or delighting, and it is safe to say that tho lessons of their present discomfiture will havo a fruitful development. For one thing, they will not again visit Australia or England without providing themselves with a greater variety of first-class bowling, apart from the so-called “gcoglio” —which, by tho way, many shrewd judges of tho game are beginning to regard as little more than a transient eccentricity. Cricket “ records ” are becoming very voluminous and complicated, and it is necessary to tread among them in wary fashion: but probably wo a'rc right in surmising that tho annals of first class cricket contain no previous instance of a. team being sent in to get over 700 runs to win. “To get” did we say—to get 171 of them! Tho match finished at Melbourne yesterday will have another lasting and mournful claim to remembrance. It will always bo associated with the sudden dcatli of ono of tho greatest batsmen and captains that Australia has produced—a player whose resourceful ability, indomitable resolution, and sunny disposition meant so much in the palmy days of Australia's early cricket fame. Cricket has had no more devoted lover and few finer exponents than W. L. Murdoch, and the circumstances (perhaps not inappropriate) of his death show that his interest was faithful to the end. Tho younger players of to-day may have forgotten him, but the elder race of cricketers will think wistfully of many a bygone uphill light for the •'ashes,’’ when (Murdoch’s dogged capacity gave the victory to Australia, or at least averted defeat; and for them

The field is full of shades, as they near tho shadowy coast, And a ghostly' batsman plays to tho bowling of a ghost, And they look through a. mist on a soundless clapping host.”

Probably Murdoch wa.s at tho height of his fame in 1880, when ho scored 155 (not out) for Australia in the first test match ever played in England, I\. G. Grace having made 152 on the previous day. To borrow an aspiration from Frederick Gale —mav his scores in the, Flyaian Fields surpass even his mundane performance? !