FINAL CRICKET TEST.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20985, 23 September 1931, Page 12

FINAL CRICKET TEST.

MANCHESTER AND RAIN. ONLY THREE HOURS' PLAY. TOURISTS' CREDITABLE RECORD. r.V O. S. IIINTZ. Special Correspondent with the Team. NORFOLK, August '2O. Manchester is probably the wettest town in the world. Every test match played at Old Trafford for the past 17 years has been interrupted at some stage by rain, and tho third test between England and New Zealand was no exception. It was a match that had been awaited with the keenest interest and it ended with a mere three hours of play. To describe it as a test match at all is almost the height of exaggeration. Rain fell practically throughout the Thursday and Friday, and when the New Zealandcrs arrived at the ground on Saturday morning, patches of rain-soaked grass proved conclusively that there could bo no play that day. However, groundsmen were working like galley slaves, but early in the afternoon two heavy showers rendered all their labours fruitless. Rain tell steadily on Sunday, 100, and on Monday there was a minor deluge, which covered Old Trafford's velvet, turf with pools of water. The fine weather camo on Tuesday, but it was too late to pivo the panic any interest. Tho groundsmen were at their work at dawn. The surface water soon drained off and then they proceeded to treat tho wet patches in the outfield by covering them with blankets and rolling them with tho heavy roller. Tho wicket had been covered and did not need the same degree of treatment as the outfield. The umpires, Chester and Hardstaff, who havo controlled all three tests most admirably, inspected the ground after lunch and finally announced that play would start at 3.15. With only three and a-quarter hours' play possible, any hope of a definite result was out of the question. Wicket Proves Easy. T. C. Lowry won the toss from D. R. Jardine and sent England in, evidently hoping that the wicket might prove difficult with tho sun on it. Perhaps, too, he thought of the fact that his men had not batted for nearly a fortnight and that a period of inactivity owing to rain is not good for most cricketers. As it happened, tho wicket proved slow and easy, and in the three hours available for play England scored 224 for tho loss of three wickets. There was a, machine-like century by Sutcliffe, a compact, precise innings with only two lapses from a studied policy of safety first, some dazzling stroke play by K. S. Duleepsinhji, a successful effort by Hammond to get out and catch an early train and, under the conditions, some quite good bowling by I. B. Cromb, A. M. Matheson and C. F. W. Allcott. Cromb's bowling in the first hour and a-half of play was excellent. His first ball to Sutcliffe might easily have taken the wicket of England's most famous batsman. It swung in late and just snicked tho inside of his bat to go to short leg. Cromb swung the ball both ways and at times even made it nip quickly off the leaden pitch. In his first bowling spell, Matheson developed considerable and he also got one really good ball past Sutcliffe, only to sec it beat the wicket. He was bowling under conditions which did not suit him, but he showed how greatly improved the New Zealand attack would Jiave been if his leg had been sound enough for him to play in the first two tests. Duleepsinhji Troubled. Allcott's feat of bowling unchanged for two hours twenty-five minutes speaks for itself. He was steadiness personified and on two or three occasions early in his innings, Duleepsinhji played him very uneasily. However, it was Matheson who should have had the Indian caught at second slip by Blunt when he had made only ten —an easy catch straight to tho fieldsman's hand. Two other easy catches were dropped in the outfield, one by Weir off Alloott, allowing •Sutcliffe to carry his score from 53 to 109 not out, and the other by Page off Vivian, giving Hammond an inexpensive life. To make up for this there were two brilliant catches, one by James behind the wicket to dismiss Paynter—a dazzling leg side catch, which no wicketkeeper in the world could have taken more smartly or more cleanly—and the other by Allcott, jumping up at mid-on and holding the ball, left-hand, high above his head, from a forcing-on shot by Duleepsinhji off Vivian. After England had been batting for an hcur and a-half, a section of the crowd became a little restive and demanded that Jardine should declare and put New Zealand in. However, Jardine refused to treat a test match, even a three hours' test match, as a picnic game, and the criticism must bo regarded as distinctly unfair. So ended a match which might have been memorable had tho weather been kind, Tho New Zealandcrs were quite definitely in form and even with Larwood to strengthen tho English attack, were quite capable of giving a good account of themselves. In their previous match they had gained a meritorious win over Gloucestershire, which, although without the services of Hammond and Dacrc, fielded Parker and Goddard and could not stop New Zealand from scoring 257 for nine wickets—a score which on a faster outfield would havo been worth 400. Attractive Batting. Lowry batted magnificently against Gloucester, scoring his 96 in remarkably quick time and by remarkably attractive batting beforo liq went leg before to Parker. Vivian dealt out liberal punishment to Goddard, and Dempster, in spito of the fact that this was his first game for three weeks, showed all his mastery of defence and stroke play in scoring 54. In this match, too, Matheson followed up his good bowling at Birmingham and made his place in the test side assured. New Zealand's record for its first season of test cricket in England is distinctly creditable. The first test was diawn, with the honours, if anything, slightly in favour of New Zealand; the second ended in defeat, but defeat which did not bring disgrace; tho third was literally "washed out." Tho opinion is freely expressed on all sides that the Now Zealandcrs of 1931 have fully deserved test match status and there seems little doubt that the next team to visit England will bo given the honour of a full programme of five tests. Just as important) from the New Zealand point of view is the possibility of English test sides extending their Australian tours to the Dominion. This question was discussed at a dinner given by., the New Zealand Cricket Council in Manchester to English cricketing journalists and Now Zealand's claims are certain to receive strong support in the future. In a speech at the dinner, Mr. H. D., G. Leveson-Gower said that there was no reason why tho next English team to Australia should not return through New Zealand, playing two matches on the way. After the dinner he told me personally that he intended to do everything in his power to bring this about.