ABOUT CRICKET.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16479, 19 February 1914, Page 4

ABOUT CRICKET.

THE AUSTRALIAN CHAMPIONS

LESSONS LEARNT x>i THE NEW ZEALAND TEAM.

LOCAL BATSMEN'S IMPRESSIONS

Education was tho keynote of tho tour of the New Zealand cricketers in Australia, and to-day a reporter approached Mr R. G. Hickmott, one of the young and still rising batsmen of tho dominion, for his opinions of the masters of the willow in tho Commonwealth and to learn from him the lessons of the tour for Canterbury players. ■ TRUMPER THE BEST.

"With his big scoring Macartney is probably the most interesting" £"-id Mr Hickmott, "but! though he is a stylish batsman and a master of the game, I liked Trumper much better. There are no flourishes as in Macartney's case, but the strokes are there just the same. Trumper is not eo active as he was a few years ago, but there are flashes now that show what a master he is. With Macartney the great feature is that with every stroke he is looking for runs. In Australia the bat plays the ball, but in New Zealand the order is reversed. We watch for the loose balls, but Macartney with rapid footwork, and simply wonderful timing makes everything loose. _ Playing against us he started scoring as soon as he got to the wickets, but I suppose against better bowling he would be steadier until he had played in. He is never happy unless he is scoring fast, and to a bowler he is heart-breaking. GET ACROSS TO THE OFF. "Like the other Australian batsmen Macartney gets right across, to the off stuff, and is right over the ball when he makes his stroke. Our fellows put the foot near the wickets and swing out at the ball, but Macartney's left leg comes right across. He does not cut a ball as wo do, but. he almost pate it through the slips, and it is done with out an effort. The practice of slipping right across is helped by perfect timing, and his ability to place a ball between point and cover is wonderful. Another heart-breaking habit he showed was off a short ball pitched on the leg Ruump. He would dash out to it, and before you knew what was coming the ball was going between cover and mid. I think that His weakness is really in leg glancing. Time after time when playing against us, he did not connect with the ball at making the stroke, but he is a master of the hook stroke, and hooking on Australian wickets is quite a different thing to what it is in New. Zealand. The pace of the pitch upsets one's theories about it, and until a batsman is used to the conditions it leads to downfalls. Macartney has sacrificed everything to his batting. He used to be a brilliant field, but when ho was playing against us he hardly did any running, and never did anything above ordinary. He doesn't bowl much, and before matches he takes great care to get in a good night's sleep. >He is a non-smoker and a non-drinker, and it is easy to see that he has given himself entirely to the making of runs. His driving is powerful, but its secret is the perfect timing, rather than strength, and the majority of his runs come from the off. On both sides, however; he is at home,'and, as I. have said, the only weakness I saw wis in the leg glancing. FAULTS OF NEW ZEAL-ANDERS. " Over there one of the faults the experts found in our play was that we dki not play ourselves in. Our fellows could not lea%'c the off stuff alone. It is quite a different thing with the Australians. It is nothing for them to let four balls out of an.over to go by on-the off. They pick out the right ball to hit,: but we swung out, and that was the end. Their running between the wickets showed the value of ' backing up.' The Australian batsmen look for a run off each stroke, but we wait and usually start late. The result is that they get a short run easily, even with the ball potted between the wickets, but we have to gallop all out. Hill is the best of them between the wickets. He will run for nearly anything, and he'll get it, too. This is the epitome of the difference between New Zealand cricket and Australian—they look for runs off every ball, and we don't. IT'S ALL IN THE FEET. "The downfall of our.batsmen wa6 not due, I think, to nerves, but to the pace of the wicket and the inability to play the off theory properly. We had a wet wicket at Brisbane, and we nractised in Sydney on a sticky wicket. The next day we played on a wicket that was three times as fast as anything in the dominion. The pace the ball made was too much, and our batsmen did not get over the ball. The pace of the wicket also made the iicldine; look rather wor~e than it was. We stopped the ball, but not cleanly, and our returns were bad. The tour has been a great education, and the t-fi'WT that I* have learnt more than anything else is that the footwork of the New Zealand batsmen needs making faster, and, while we want to play in? we want to learn to make runs off everything. Macartney's defence is in scoring strokes, and he gets out to a ball like lightning. It's all in the feet."