NEW ZEALANDERS’ TYPE OF CRICKET DELIGHTS CROWDS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27090, 26 May 1949, Page 7

NEW ZEALANDERS’ TYPE OF CRICKET DELIGHTS CROWDS

LONDON, May 24. There is no doubt that the New Zealand cricketers are playing the sort of cricket that earns headlines—and, therefore, gates—in England. At the beginning of their tour the stylish and lively batting of the openers delighted the crowds and brought approving mention from cricket writers. It was not until the MCC’s first innings against them at Lord’s that similar approval was extended to the tourists’ bowlers. This morning the headlines are all devoted to the fighting seventhwicket stand by Mooney and Rabone.

The Daily Telegraph says: “All the best—or at least the most voluble—opinion has been united in deciding that whereas the early New Zealand batsmen are fine players the later ones are conspicuously frail, yet here were Rabone and Mooney hanging on at first by their eyebrows. But hang on they did till tea and afterwards on through the cool evening, gradually subduing the bowling, surviving a new ball with complete composure, proceeding to a long period of comfortable control, ana coming in at the close of play with 74 and 64 respectively to their names and the total unbelievably raised to 237. Long before the close of play these two batsmen were taking their runs more easily than the MCC batsmen had ever been allowed to do on Saturday.” The News Chronicle says that Rabone and Mooney “staged the cricket rescue act of the season before the King and Queen.” The Daily Mail says: "These New Zealanders can fight! It may as well be faced by England now that no test victory can be in sight till Rabone and Mooney are parted. It was a gallant and brave effort, net thrilling to watch or even entertaining cricket, but a magnificent example of refusal to accept the seemingly inevitable.” “What bonny fighters these New Zealanders are,” says the Daily Express. “ The word defeat has no place in their vocabulary. They may not be master cricketers of the Australian stamp. They may not all be elegant stroke players, but what they lack in technique they more than make up for in fighting spirit.” The Times described the RaboneMooney partnership as a “noble stand,” and remarks that the New Zealanders have properly earned the reputation for overcoming any early shock to their batting. The Manchester Guardian says that earlier New Zealand batsmen must have watched the successful association of Rabone and Mooney with mixed feelings. The reason for its success was that neither was afraid to play forward, particularly to the fast bowling, whereas their predecessors showed a fatal inclination to play back. They even made Bailey’s fast bowling, which had proved the undoing of the earlier batsmen, look quite ordinary.