CRICKET.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18339, 16 December 1927, Page 3

CRICKET.

TO-MORROW’S GAMES WILL BE LAST BEFORE CANTERBURY TEAM IS PICKED

TO-MORROW will see the conclusion of the fifth series of matches in the Canterbury Cricket Association’s senior A competition. The Canterbury representative team for the Plunkct Shield match against Otago, at Christchurch on / [/[ \ December 24, 2b, 27, and 28, will be selected • \ probably on Saturday evening, and the Canter- jh i i bury coach, who is eligible to play for Canter- \ bury, will take over the coaching of the team J’i# PiK‘l from Monday. m

Competition points gained by teams at the end of the fourth series of games were as follow: Riccarlon 8, Sydenham 6, St Albans 6, Linwood 5, Old Boys 5, East Christchurch 4, West Christchurch 1, Old Collegians 0.

J- Powell and M. Beuth are at the wickets for Riccarton, who on the first day of the match made 1.56 with the less of four wickets. This was in reply to the Bast Christchurch first innings’ total of 186. Riccarton are in a snug position, and as the match will probably be decided on the first innings, Riccarton should, in their hard-hitting style, be able to rattle on a really good score. Certainly they should be able to pass East’s total without much difficultj'. St Albans have a big hurdle in their task of overtaking Old Boys’ first innings’ total of 450, which included centuries by D. C. Nixon and J. Jacobs. St Albans will bat at the resumption tomorrow. They will have to face Merritt s slows, and if the 3 r oung bowler is on form he will need to be watched closel}'. :: :: Linwood have a fairly comfortable total of 220 in their game against Sydenham. The latter team are batting, and have made 36 runs for the loss of four wickets—certainly not a very imposing beginning. a a a West Christchurch have set Old Collegians a big ta.sk, having made 330. When stumps were drawn last week Old Collegians had 23 for the loss of one wicket.

strokes. ’ In each of his last three matches be has scored a century against South Australia. Moreover, ho has done so four times in the last five matches, and has marie six centuries in nine matches, three each at Adelaide and Melbourne. In all in tor-Statc cricket Ponsford bad made 3581 runs at the end of the first innings on Friday, December 2, the average per innings being 111. The only State against which he has not scored at the rate* of 100 per innings is South Australia. In matches against Queensland, Tasmania, and West Australia Ponsford has batted seven times, and reached the century in six of these, having made 248, 151, 12, and 116 against Queensland, 162 and 429 against Tasmania, and 158 against West Australia. From Century to Century. When he started making centuries in these matches a little while back Ponsford was expected to strike a period in which the runs would be much more difficult to make. It has been the case with most of the greatest players. But he seems to go on from century to century, scoring against every State, and all kinds of bowling. One of the secrets of liis success on these wickets is the admirable use he makes of his feet in getting into position to punch the ball in front of the wicket. This is most pronounced against slow bowling, but it is also marked opposed.to medium-pace bowling, while he is also not averse to punishing fast bowling by orthodox driving. For a batsman of such extraordinary scoring powers, he makes singularly few runs by strokes behind the • wicket. In England last season Ponsford, on the whole, performed very creditably with the bat, though in the tests he broke down. As the English wickets are practically as easy for the batsman these days as Australian wickets, despite the greater fall of rain, he will probably make his presence felt with the next team in England. On Bad Wickets. Ponsford’s brilliant feats have been associated with perfect wickets. He has not shown as yet, on wickets helping the ball, anything to compare with his efforts on the truest wickets. Possibly, as time goes on, he will develop run-getting powers under such conditions. Some of the finest batsmen of other periods were wonders on bad wickets. The most outstanding was

Victor Trumpcr, who played some phenomenal innings when others on the side were hopelessly in trouble. And Joe Darling came to light under such conditions. Others to do so were S. E. Gregory, H. Graham and J. Worrall. In all these men the fighting spirit was developed to its highest point by the difficulties created by wickets affected by rain. Unfortunately Victoria has seen fit to stand out in favour of covering the wickets, in defiance of the laws of cricket, and Ponsford may not get the needed practice under such conditions on the home ground. He may get it elsewhere if rain happens to fall in either Sydney or Adelade on big match days. Wickets, however, right round the world are not affected so seriously by rain as was the case years ago, when the batsmen mentioned were in their prime, and ever ready to tempt fate in an effort to hit their way to success for the side.