PLUNKET SHIELD MATCHES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19218, 6 January 1926, Page 8

PLUNKET SHIELD MATCHES.

With the conclusion of the OtagoAuckland game, the Plunket Shield cricket matches have reached an interesting stage. All the provincial teams have been in action. Otago and Canterbury have each played two games, Otago losing both and Canterbury having a win and a loss, while Wellington and Auckland have each scored a, win. The absence from these games of the representative players now visiting Australia has doubtless had some effect upon them, but the traditional uncertainty of cricket puts estimation of that effect beyond the possibility of nice calculation. All four of the provincial elevens have had their strength diminished in this way, Canterbury's crushing defeat by Wellington being due, perhaps, in no small measure, to the absence of six of its leading players. But this factor will be eliminated before the Shield matches are completed, and some herculean struggles are therefore in prospect. When Otago meets Wellington toward the end of this month there should be an excellent chance of the Southern

representatives recovering their laurels, although their hope of the Shield has gone. Should they succeed against Wellington, they may still affect the outcome of the contests, and that possibility invests their final match with interest. Wellington and Auckland, each with one win and two matches to play, have the best prospects of emerging triumphant, but prophecy even as to this is perilous, with Canterbury's third match yet to be played. Whatever the outcome, the games so far played, when all allowance is made for the partially representative nature of the teams already engaged, have confirmed the accepted opinion of the high value of these inter-provincial tests. The OtagoAuckland match was full of interest right up to its last phase, some very notable batting partnerships altering its chances from day to day. Whether these feats of batting ; would have been possible against the prowess of bowlers absent in Australia is problematic ; but there is left by this match, fought out though it was with splendid garaeness, a deepened impression that it is in bowling that the Dominion's skill is weakest. The completion of the game might have been changed utterly by the presence of bowlers of superior calibre to that customarily displayed in this country. This undoubted possibility points a moral for those at present intent on getting for New Zealand cricket the benefit of good English coaching.