OTAGO BATS WELL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26731, 29 March 1948, Page 6

OTAGO BATS WELL

CRICKET MATCHES BEGUN At stumps on the first day of the two university cricket matches, begun at the University ground on Saturday, Otago and Canterbury, playing Victoria and Auckland respectively, both made good totals in their first innings. Canterbury dismissed Auckland for only 81 runs in its first innings. Playing against Otago, Victoria still had many runs to chase. Scores were: Otago 370 v. Victoria 123 for five; Canterbury 224 v. Auckland 81. Runs were scored at the rate of 200 in the first 100 minutes when Otago batted first in the game with Victoria. Two centuries were scored by Hunt (105) and Cameron (100). In a lightning fiartnership, they .put on 185 for the! nhird wicket. The most successful bowler for Victoria was Murray, who took four wickets for 141 off 28 overs. The early Victoria batsmen were troubled by a good attack and an alert field. At stumps they had lost five wickets for 123 (Cornish 21, Lewis 36, O’Connor 31 not out). A grand opening partnership between A. Kibblewhite (66) and J. A. Pollok (74) was mainly responsible for Canterbury’s handy total. Late in the batting order, N. L. Macbeth (35) hit out, but, apart from J. F. Collins (22) and A. W. Saunders (11), the other batsmen failed. The wickets were shared between A. F. Senior (five for 63) and M. J. Tanner (five for 87). Auckland’s batting decline may be partly excused by the distraction caused by the noise at the athletics being run on an adjacent ground. Bowling unchanged, J. F. Collins took five for 41 and S. M. Betty five for 33.