WICKETS BY STRATEGY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 15459, 2 March 1921, Page 8

WICKETS BY STRATEGY.

ENGLAND’S PLUCKY. FIGHT. (By J.F'.T.) MELBOURNE, Feb. 16.—Twice within the day England seemed to have a .grip of. the fourth test match. Twic6 England lost, the'grip of the game. And the agent was Arthur Mailey, of Sydney, 'who will do down in the annals of the grand old game as a record-breaker. No man in a test match ever diu what Mailey did to-day. No bowler has ever walked off a field in a test match with all his comrades shaking hands witii him, and 12,000 people yelling at him. Mailey came off cap in hand in acknowledgement of the mighty salvo of- plaudits. But. he did not know what it was all about. It was not until he bodded to the writer nearly aii hour ‘lifter, and was congratulated on having made a record that, lie' know it. -was a record. That ir> Mailey’s way. Do the job assigned to you, and then think of what it means. ■ Mailey was superlative. England twice, as has been stated, seenied to have the game in her hands, but the wizardry of Mailey stole it away from her. What Mailey did was this: He secured nine wickets in one innings. No other man has done it in a test match, and the only amazing thing about the amazing reception that was accorded the googly man was that lie was amazed about it," and did not know. That is a fine thing—that a man knows he is’playing the-game and"nothing'elite! Now, the times when England had this game, which now is lost to her if miracles-do not happen—arid they say the .age of miracles is dead—in the bag, were these. She had 40' on for only two wickets, down, which, considering that Australia had fourth use of the wicket, was not to he sneezed at, when a sudden attack of Mailcyism arrived, and three wickets went down for seven runs. Then Douglas and Fender, two'of the three amateurs touring with the team, 'got. together. ,The score started to climb. Fender had- some enterprise about him, and Douglas more than his “Johnny, won’t hit to-day appellation” justifies*. The pair of them simply ch4aged the whole aspect of the game, though neither played Mailey with confidence. And. Mailey is a wily bird. lie -got them with, strategy in thij end. But it must be admitted, that we were a very silent lot during-the period they were at. the wickets when the score climbed 201 to 505. That left Australia pWtl behind, and vis'ons of 3CO to win "were floating about-. Then came the other attack of MailhyisSs. and three wickets 'went for two runs. The “googly” champion was in his element. He was dropping them where lie liked, arid turning them how he liked. Kellevvay, with his medium-pace stuff, was coming across inches at -times, and even at the risk of affecting the record oi Mailey. Let jt .be said that the otherwise faultless Carter has to stand up to the charge that he missed Waddington. off Kelleway, and that he cleverly gav< the same wicket to Mailey. Not with malice aforethought-, ol' course. Carter’s wicket-keeping, as a matter ox fact., has been little short of marvellous. In this match he has been responsible for the dismissal of no fewer; than six men. An'd it, should have been seven. The innings of Douglas' and Fendei were not. of the kind to win one to ecstasies, but it was cricket. They were there to win, if they could.': Maybe Douglas saw the clouds on, the horizon, and wondered whether they would. bring forth rain. One seemed to see' in hit contemplative air the-thought, “Now, if it rains and we give them 205 to gel we’ve got a fighting chance.” Cricket, after all, has much' of tactics in it, and, though they talk of orn- bulldog pluckwinning the war, the chances are that it was mostly our strategy. At all events those two give us qualms. ;Fender, indeed, played the best.'innings, he has done on the tour. His timing of infield hits would have been no disgrace to John Hobbs, a master of the art of tapping a ball so that the fieldsman has; to run furthei to it‘than it-to him.' There’s a lot. in this respect that the Australians can learn from the Englishmen. The Fender Douglas partnership was the sixteenth of the tour that. has reached 100 runs. Nine of these have been made by Australians. : . , When, after a stubborn effort, that befitted an' English side, the visitors,' or rather the last two of them, walked off the ground, the crowd did what it rarely does : it screamed the, name of one man —Mailey. It'was his day alUright. And it would have done the hearts of Sydneysiders good to have seen the little sprinkling from our side roaring their heads off, and then going to look for one of the best. We could not ask Mailey—he was in the‘hands of the masseur. And well he might have been, for lie had bowled no fewer than 47 overs, and had taken nine wickets for 121, making his total for the match 13 wickets for 236 runs off 76 overs. The one question on every lip to-day was, “Why isn’t Gregory bowling?” 1 Gregory did bowl a few overs this morn- . ing, and then suddenly dropped out. of the picture. It appears that the giant ricked his back yesterday when he bowled a wide. Not that he did it trying ' to howl a wide, but the wide was'the {result. It was an old rick, which Syd ' ney-siders will remember.The position now is that Australia, ' with 119 to get, has eight wickets in ' hand, and, the weather holding, it woiftd seem a case of England losing the fourth test after a game fight that compels admiration.