FAST BOWLING BY AUSTRALIA DEFEATED ENGLAND

Wanganui Chronicle, 1 July 1948, Page 5

FAST BOWLING BY AUSTRALIA DEFEATED ENGLAND

Best Batsmen In Need Of Practice; Tailenders Shaped Better

(Special N.Z.P.A. Correspondent) (By Walter Hammond, former England captain') Received 7.20 p.m. LONDON. June 29 England lost the second test at Lords today by 409 runs and Australia now go into the third test at Manchester on Thursday week with two wins to none and every chance of retaining the Ashes. I would explain our defeats in two tvords—fast bowling.

The paee bov/lers, too, were backed up by some steady and accurate work by the rest of the attack. England’s leading bats- I men are in dire need of as much practice as they can get against fast bowling. Until they get this I cannot see much improvement in our play. Where they are going to get this practice I don’t Know. Looking round the counties there is, with the exception of Pritchard, the New Zealander, of Warwickshire, nothing in the country to compare with the pace of Lindwall and Miller. I was struck at Nottingham and at Lords by the fact that the lower half of i the England team seem to bat with j more confidence against the fast I bowlers than do the top half. This, of course, may be explained by the fact that the bowlers are not so fast or so fresh when they come to the tailenders. One thing we must try and remedy is the bad sttjts we have been making. I recall the old days of Hobbs and Sutcliffe when England could always look forward to making a good start, which meant so much to the rest of the side. If numbers three, four and five in the batting order are continually struggling, we cannot expect to get the nest out of them. That is why I would lay stress on Compton's magnificent performances in the first two tests. I admired the way he subdued his natural aggressive instinct to go for runs and helped his sid;- by playing ■on the defensive and concentrating on staying at the wicket. One point which struck me as being important is that some of our leading players are not getting over the line of the ball. This, of course, means taking a few hard knocks but. one must expect these in test cricket. If players do this it may be one remedy for our failures. MASTER FAST BOWLING The big thing, however, is to master the fast bowling but I cannot, see how we are to do this in the middle of the test series, particularly as we don't appear to have the fast

bowlers against whom to practice. Bradman's placing of the field was wholeheartedly aggressive, showing complete disregard for any boundaries. He obviously realised that England could not possibly obtain the total required and he concentrated on getting the batsmen out with a close in field. Compton’s early dismissal was the real blow to England as upon him rested the side’s main hope. He was out to an amazing double catch. He played Johnston's first ball down to square leg and played the second one to Johnson and Miller who were fielding two short gulieys. Johnson dived for the ball, could not hold it, but threw it into the air allowing Miller, who was backing up, to take the catch. THE FINAL BLOW Compton plainly was uncertain what to do and waited for the appeal but to the dismay of the crowd he was given out. With England’s leading batsmen dismissed, a great deal depended upon Dollery and Yardley but the final blow was when Yardley played over the ton of a bail from Toshack and was clean bowled with the score at 133. At that stage it looked as though the test would be over before luncn. Evans and Bedser adopted bold methods in adding 17 runs for the ninth wicket and when Bedser was caught, Evans and his team-mate, Wright, played gallantly to take the match mto the afternoon. Dollery wiped out his first innings faillire and deserves another chance in the next test.