A MERITORIOUS WIN,

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18187, 21 June 1927, Page 5

A MERITORIOUS WIN,

NOTES ON THE PLAY,

Although Durham are only a secondclass county team, they won the sec-ond-class championship last season, so that the performance of the New Zealanders in beating them by ten wickets is a meritorious one. This is the third win that the New Zealanders have had in England out of thirteen matches played. They beat Sussex and Worcestershire. Of the other ten matches the New Zealanders have lost four, four have been drawn, and two (against the Royal Navy and shire) were abandoned on the third day on account of rain. In both of these abandoned matches the tourists were in a winning position at the end of the second day.

The Durham match has been one of surprises. At the end of the first day of play the New Zealanders were in a very strong position,, having scored 373 runs and got rid of eight of the opposing batsmen for 111 runs. Yesterday, however, Brooks and Cook continued their ninth wicket partnership and they made a wonderfully fine stand, with the restilt that the total was 254 before the innings closed. It was certainly a great recovery, but it was not sufficient to rid Durham of the necessity of following on. They wanted a total of at least 274 runs in their first innings to avoid this. The home side appear to have opened their second innings well, but then a “rot” set in and they were all out for 123, leaving the New Zealanders with only five runs to get in order to win. Cook, who made 106 not out for Durham, is a professional player, but he is more distinguished as a bowler than a batsman. Last season he came second in the Durham bowling averages, but he was at the bottom of the batting averages, his highest score for the season being only 21. Brooks led Durham to victory last season, when he met

with fair success with the bat, scoring 285 runs in eleven innings, an average of 25.90. If the inability of the New Zealand l>owlers to break up the partnership between Cook and Brooks in the first innings is an indication of weakness on their part, they certainly redeemed themselves in the second innings. The bowling honours in the second innings fell to Cunningham, ably assisted by Blunt and Henderson. Cunningham’s four wickets for 25 runs is easily his best performance with the ball in England to date. If this indicates that Cunningham has at last struck form as a bowler, the New Zealand attack should be considerably strengthened. It is pleasing to see that Henderson, too, continues to take wickets. Against Leicestershire he took five for 76, and now against Durham he has taken five for 66 and two for five. With Henderson and Cunningham in form to assist Merritt, Blunt, M'Girr and Alcott, the New Zealand attack should be more varied and more effective. Blunt is now nearing a total of 50 wickets for the tour. To date he has taken 46. The New Zealanders are having a spell to-day, and to-morrow they will commence a two days match against Northumberland, at Newcastle-on-Tyne. On Friday and Saturday they will play Scotland at Glasgow*. The tourists have four engagements in Scotland, and then on July 2, 4 and 5 they will play Yorkshire at Bradford. THE AVERAGES. FIGURES FOR ALL MATCHES Below are the batting and bowling averages of the New Zealanders for all the matches played in England to date. It will be noted that seven members of the team have a batting average of over 30, which is very satisfactory. Lowry still heads the batting list, but Dempster is now not far behind him. The score of 178, which he made against Durham, helped Dempster’s batting average a lot. Page still heads the bowling, but the figures show that Merritt, Blunt and M’Girr have been the most successful bowlers to date. Merritt just beats Blunt for second place. Henderson has improved his average considerably in the last two matches.

FIGURES FOR COUNTY MATCHES. Below are the averages of the New Zealand cricketers for the six matches that they have played against first class counties, Essex, Middlesex, Sussex, Worcestershire, Northamptonshire and Leicestershire. Page heads the batting list with the excellent average of 54.12. Although Page has not batted as consistently in England as expected he has done well in most of his innings against first class counties, his best performance being 140 not out against Worcestershire. He also made 65 against Middlesex, 63 against Sussex and 74 and 65 against Leicestershire. Merritt, who has six unbeaten innings out of ten, is second in the batting and Lowry is third. Lowry has dropped back in the last two county matches. He made 12 and 13 against Northamptonshire and only five and a single against Leicestershire. It is rather surprising to find that Mills is third from bottom in these batting averages. The bowling averages show that Blunt and Merritt have been the most successful trundlers. Each has an excellent average. Between them Blunt and Merritt have taken 55 out of the 98 wickets captured by New Zealand bowlers in the six county games. M’Girr has a satisfactory bowling average and Henderson considerably improved his by taking five wickets for 76 runs against Leicestershire.

BATTING. Total Ins. N.O. H.S. Kuna. Av. Bo-wry .... 18 1 106 799 47 Dempster . 38 2 178 734 45.87 Blunt 18 1 119 807 44.84 Merritt , . . IS 10 49* 330 41.26 Page .... 20 1 140* 738 38.S3 Dacre 3 9 0 3 07 698 36.73 Mills 22 1 1S8 642 30.57 M'Glrr IS 1 72 412 24.23 Hernau 3 4 3 4 1 208 3S.90 Alcott 14 2 46 264 24 James 20 0 54 341 17.05 Henderson. 3 0 4 30 92 15.S3 Oliver .... 15 4 26 380 15 Cunningham 7 1 23 51 S.50 * Not out. BOWLING. Runs. Wkls. Av. Page 107 7 15.28 Merritt 1313 54 24.31 Blunt 3 122 46 24.39 M’Girr 1020 39 26.15 Henderson 693 26 26.65 Alcott 416 14 29.71 Cunningham 337 10 33.70 Dacre 72 2 36 Bernau 57 7 15 28.4 6 Oliver 103 1 103 Lowry .. 119 1 119 Dempster S 0 —

BATTING. Total In*. N.O. H.S. Runs. Av. Fas:<* n 1 140* 433 54.12 Merritt .... 10 0 49* 389 47.25 Lowry 3 1 0 108 447 40.63 Dacre 11 n SO 345 31.36 Blunt 9 0 67 269 29.88 M’Girr . ... 10 0 72 289 28.90 Dempster .. 7 0 79 185 26.42 Alcott .... 8 1 35 153 21.86 Bemau .... 7 2 34* 131 26.20 Henderson . 5 2 30 65 21.66 Oliver .... 8 2 36 117 19.50 Mills 10 0 64 DU 39.10 Gunnlngrhara 4 1 23 42 3 4 James .... 12 0 44 160 13.33 BOWLING. Runs. Wkts. Avg*. Blunt 532 26 20.4 6 Merritt 617 29 21.27 Page 45 2 22.50 M’Girr 416 18 23.05 Henderson .... 308 11 27.7'2 Alcott 200 7 28.57 Oliver 58 1 68 Lowry 6 8 1 68 Bernau 183 2 91.50 Cunningham .. 142 1 142