INTERNATIONAL CRICKET.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7332, 19 February 1902, Page 2

INTERNATIONAL CRICKET.

The Fourth Test Match, which was finished yesterday, furnasbeel another of those surprises wlich. are instrumental in making cricket the perplexing and supremely fascinating game tihat it is. At an early point the gaime appeared' to be going in favour of tha visitors; at a later one am excdtdngi struggle was promised. At tbe end, 'however, ths home team won easily. The latter owes its success to the collapse of its opponents in thear second innings. How to -account for this collapse is puzzling the critics in Sydney, and; we shall not approach the task at this distance from the scene. On a good' wicket and' against bowling off which they had scored more tihan 300 runs in their first innings, the Englishmen wers dismissedi for less than on« hundred 1 . The collapse would! savour of the ridiculous if it were not a matter of very earnest regret for that large body of colonials to whom the traditions of English .cricket are a much-treasured recollection. In some quarters it is ascribed! to " funk," 1 but we hesitaite to attribute it to such a' cause. Throughout their tour the visitors have proved over and over again that th»y are liberally endowed with grit nn<di determination, and we can ibardly believe that these fin© qualities disserted tEem in. Sydney. It is miuch. more likely tli|t they wire suffering from, the effects of the Bard work and travelling they have, dion© since they left England. It is notorious that a cricket team sometimes becomes stale towards the blose of a long tour, and: it h possible that this fate has overtaken,' th© representatives of the Mother Country.