Cricket.

Putaruru Press, Volume XI, Issue 510, 23 February 1933, Page 8

Cricket.

THE FOURTH TEST. England Wins Ashes. The honours are to England. The “ ashes ” will be taken back. The mission of the English team has been successful. There can be no doubt that the better side won. Australia was outplayed. The match was remarkable for the fluctuations of fortune. The advantage swung first to one, then to the side. The great start by the Australian opening pair, followed by the success of the next batsmen, left Australia in a good position at the end of the first day. Larwood’s success with the ball on the opening of play on the second day, and the failure of the last Australian batsmen, weakened their hold. The opening of Sutcliffe and Jardine, then the relative failure of the following batsmen, brightened Australia’s chances, which were dimmed by Paynter’s great stand. Still with only a few runs’ lead on the first innings England had not by any means secured a hold on the game. Australia’s hopes rested on the opening batsmen, and they failed. With the fourth innings on a wicket which was bound to show signs of wear big scoring was unlikely. But the Australians failed to secure a lead which would have given them a commanding position. . The batting collapsed, only Richardson and Darling appearing to be at all confident against the English attack. It has to be noted that the Englishmen showed that their turn bowlers were as capable as the fast battery.

One of the features of the match was the slow scoring of both sides. Whether it was the bigger wickets, the importance of the match making all cautious, 'whether the bowlers held the upper hand, or a combination of the three, the facts remain that for test match cricket the scoring was slow. It appears to have been dogged rather than brilliant batsmanship. The loss of the toss by the Englishmen was a big thing for Australia. That England won in spite of this handicap more than ever establishes that the Englishmen are the better side. They are more reliable and more even. Their fast battery has demoralised many of the Australian batsmen, and has forcefully shown that the Australian batsmen have been unable to find a sound defence against a type of bowling to which they are not accustomed. It would seem that the tendency of modern Australian batsmen to rely less and less on strokes in front of the wicket led to their downfall. Richardson is one of the few batsmen who is not afraid to attack bowling by strokes in front of the wicket, and he has proved as consistent as any of the batsmen who have faced the English bowlers. The defeat will do Australian cricket a great deal of good. It will drive home the lesson that the allround man is needed, and it seems probable that the next Australian team to take the field will all be able to get runs, as the Australian teams of the past could. It is probably going to lead to a search for young blood. It may give encouragement to bowlers, who of late have been rather neglected.