DOMINION CRICKETERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19798, 19 November 1927, Page 13

DOMINION CRICKETERS.

THE REST OUT FOR 141 RUNS. BAD WEATHER CONDITIONS. EFFECTIVE BOWLING BY PAGE. [Br TELEGRAPH. —PKESS ASSOCIATION.] CHRISTCHUBCH. Friday. The bad luck' in regard to weather which has dogged tho New Zealand cricket team held to-day when the match against The Best commenced at Lancaster Park. It was a miserable day. There was a cold south-west wind, and heavy clouds and a shower fell after hall an hour's play. . The rain soon ceased but'it was sufficient to spoil the cricket for the ! afternoon. In any case the wicket, not thoroughly dried after, the soaking rains earlier in the week, could not have been in favour of the batsmen. It was not surprising that the attendance was small. Prospects for fino weather to-morrow are, not good. That the cricket was not of a high order was' probably largely due to tho deplorable conditions. The Rest batted first and were all out for 14L The wicket was tricky and tho grass in tho outfield was so wet that it was almost impossible to get a ground stroke to the boundary. The greasy state of the ball was a great handicap to the bowlers. The Rest batsmen made a poor showing and the score sheet is not by any means flattering to New Zealand, for apart from the English "professionals, Newman and Langridge, Boon was the only one to pass the 20 mark. Newman and Langridge. Newman scored his runs fairly quickly and showed good batting form, considering the. conditions, and Landridge, after a somewhat uncertain, start, improved greatly with sound defence and prettily executed scoring strokes. Boon batted soundly and' made some good scoring shots but even'his batting seemed to be affected by the unpleasant weather. Of the others, Nixon was the only one to reach double figures. He made one or two good strokes,' but for the most part he was "all at'sea" to Merritt and found the fast bowling of too good a length. A 1 feature of the day" was Page's bowling. His, success with tha ball in England was one of the surprises of the tour and most people probably attributed it to that luck 'or chance that enters so largely into cricket. However, his bowling to-day» was such ,as to suggest that his bowling performances on the tour were the result of sheer merit. He had that greatest asset of a bowler, a splendid length. Added 'to this he varied his pace nicely. * Difficult Bowling. Although . Page is supposed to be an 08 break bowler he secured some of his wickets to-day witb balls that appeared to come in from leg. His fine length gave the batsmen few opportunities of scoring and for the most part it took them all their time to play him. McGirr - also bowled exceedingly well. He kept a good length and his pace on tha tricky wicket made him always look difficult. The wicket was too slow to suit Merritt,' but'nevertheless he kept a fairly good length and had most of the batsmen more or less "guessing." The fielding of the New Zealanders was for the most part good, and any shortcomings • there were in the ground work could be attributed to the wretched we&ther conditions. Probably for the same reason James did not show that form that gained him a great reputation as a wicket-Beeper in England. He did one fine piece of work when he took a fast return from Lowry, which came to the wicket awkwardly and ran Massey out. New Zealand Loses Two Wickets. The New Zealand team had a little over half , an hour's batting at the end of the day and lost two wickets for 3L Dempster was not confident at times and seemed chiefly concerned with keeping his wicket up. However, many of. his scoring strokes were made in most finished style and probably no one will be very surprised if tomorrow he equals The Rest's total off his own bat.-' .Details are:— THE REST.—-First Innings. J. Newman, [lbw, b Page 31 J, Langridge, b Page .. K « K . 30 H. D. Gillespie, b'Page Mi 9 H. Foley, E Alcott • • MM KM 3 F. T. Badcock, b Page .. t .M 1 H.' B. Massey, run out vx r.r. & M. K. Boon, b McGirr i. M t .x 21 D. C. Nixon, b McGirr 16 J. McEwin, b Merritt .. .. ~x 9 R. J. Read, c -Allcott , b Merritt > « 0 W. Cunningham, not out „ t .-«' 5 Extras ' a • t,;.j tos {.>; 11 Total • r.T.i • r«-« w«r 141 Bowling.—McGirr took two wickets for. 41 runs; Merritt, two for 33; Page, four for 22; Allcott, one for 13; Blunt none for 14; Bernau, none 4or 7. > 'NEW ZEALAND.—First Innings. C. b. Dempster, not out „.. t ...; 15 CM* 1 J.. Oliver, b Badcock .. t . w 3 J. E. Mills, c Foley, b Newman 0 T. 0. Lowry, not'out t . M 3 Extras i..« ioj u* 10 Total for - two wickets res r.v 31