CRICKET IN ENGLAND

Taranaki Daily News, 23 July 1929, Page 5

CRICKET IN ENGLAND

FINISH OF CRICKET MATCHES. BATSMEN FIGHT FOR RUNS. (From Our Own Correspondents). London, May 30. Though the bigger wicket is declared to have made no difference to cricket — batsmen say they do not notice it and bowlers that it has not brought them any more victims than they would otherwise have expected, there has been a remarkable change for the better. Matches, it is properly said, must be finished. The per centage this season has been far higher than last—over seventy, which is a gain of twenty as compared with last year. It is notable, too, that fewer games are being decided on the first innings, twenty-two per cent, as compared with forty per cent, in 1928. For the moment the domination of the bat appears to have been broken. The variable weather has been in favour of the bowlers. There has been rain and sunshine to alter the pace and make the ball turn. But last season rain did not seriously affect the highly-prepared pitches, or at least they quickly recovered.

In the twenty-two games played in the championship to date only four* innings have produced over four hundred runs, and in twenty-five innings there have been fewer than 150. Indeed, in ten cases the total was below a hundred. Lancashire, the champions, have been put out for 85, Hampshire for 53, Surrey for 60, and Essex for 67. Significantly enough, the bowlers who have done the best have been those who have relied on spin. The most notable feat so far accomplished is by the veteran Yorkshireman, Wilfred Rhodes, who was almost unplayable by the Essex side. Rhodes has always said that it is the other fellows who get themselves out, but in this case the batsmen were helpless. AMATEUR PROTESTS. LORDS’ WICKET. For some time the M.C’.C, have pleadi ed with the county clubs not to overprepare their pitches, and so to give the bowler a better chance. It was known that the wicket at Lords was largely in a natural state, and it was to this that the low scores made on the ground this season were attributed. H. A. Gilbert,

the old Oxford University player, and member of the Worcestershire side, has declared it to be unfair in the sense that it confers an undue advantage on the team winning the toss and batting first. It is true that in this match between

Middlesex and Worcestershire the Lolds pitch began to break up as early as four o'clock on the first day, and that afterwards the bowlers held the upper hand. Gilbert issued a considered statement on the position, and it was a most

unusual procedure, though no one took exception to it, and the official reply was that the -weather conditions rather than any change in the treatment of the turf had been responsible for the fact that it was very liable to crumble. Though not to the same extent as at Lords, all grounds have suffered owing to the dry and cold spring, and it is generally recognised that the marked drop in the number of runs matches have produced this season has been due mainly to the state of the turf, and not to the bigger wicket and change in the leg-before-wicket rule. Lancashire, the champions, have at last been beaten. This was in the game with Sussex 1 at Old Trafford, and it is notable that their previous reverse, sustained so long ago as August, 1927, was at the hands of the same side. Sussex are one of the most enterprising and sprightly teams in the championship, and their batting against Lancashire was a delight after the dreary efforts of the champions in the previous game with Yorkshire.

The young ’nephew of Ranji, K. S. Duleepsinhji, played a glorious innings of 134, showing complete mastery over the fast bowling of Macdonald, the Australian. Sussex hit up 466 in under six hours, and they won with an innings to spare. Bowley, after Tate had broken down, bowled splendidly, and he has a good chance of appearing in the season’s test cricket.

Surrey have been beaten again, a weak team going down before Leicestershire. Hobbs and Sandham have been absent for a week or more, and the lack ’of their batting has been a big handicap.