Brown, England's Captain, Again The Dominant Figure

Wanganui Chronicle, 27 December 1950, Page 5

Brown, England's Captain, Again The Dominant Figure

(Special from W. J. O’Reilly)

MELBOURNE, Dec. 26 (Recd. 10.35pm).—The English captain, Fred Brown, again dominated the game. He has already done well enough to have this match go down in test history as “Brown’s match.” Should England go on to victory, as they should do now, thereby putting the first turning into the long road of English defeats, Captain Brown will surely have laid a claim to cricket immortality. Following his magnificent batting effort on Saturday, when he, singlehanded as it wore, saved his side from utter collapse, he turned today to bowling and produced the best performance of his career. Concentrating upon length, allied with some spin, he bowled at the stumps relentlessly and thereby took every bit of help that the ageing pitch would give. No batsman was able to get down to the pitch of him, and when the back defence was resorted to the ball scuttled through low enough to rattle the morale of the most seasoned. Brown’s knowledgable and extremely purposeful bowling acted as a commanding example to his team, who fielded as men intent, on the full complement of booty that victory would bring BAILEY’S CATCH In this his batting aide-de-camp of Saturday, Bailey, was inspired. His catching of Hassett at. second slip off a low snicked ball was truly sensational. Hassett played the shot defensively, and the ball went off the edge of the bat, wide of Bailey’s left hand. Bailey dived instinctively and the ball was gathered inches from the ground. * Tlie piich will play an important part in the destiny of this ( game. From the first over bowled yesterday, Bailey to Morris, I the shooter was in evidence, j There is no hall more likely to j strike fear into the hearts of batsmen than the one which refuses to rise more than a few inches from the ground. England has a remarkably good chance to win this match now. But it will require all the concentration that their batsmen can command io effect it. The pitch should play into the hands of Iverson, who generally keeps length so consistently that the batsmen are forced on to the back foot to defend. Back defence on thisi wearing pitch will be constantly! fraught with danger. W. Washbrook paid the price of it, for instance, when j the tall Victorian got one to scoot j through past his bat. IVERSON. AUSTRALIA’S HOPE. Iverson will be Australia’s main hope to save the game. And his duel with Hutton, who has the knowledge and experience to counter him, will be

the crux of either side's prospects. It will be a severe test for the Australian bowler, who. coming into the game so quickly, without having accumulated much bowling background, will need to have nis wits xbout him. The Australians will have to keep up the pressure continually. They have so few runs on the board that one aggressive innings, such as Evans or Brown is capable of turning ‘on. can win the game for England. It seems likely that Hassett will throw his two spinners into* the attack at every opportunity, but in doing this he must take the risk of heavy handed aggression. The game has reached a thrilling position and the side which wins will deserve all the honours of it. The Australian innings provided further discomforting proof that our ascendancy in tho batting department is fast receding into history. None, other than Hassett, again approached the test match standard It is on i pitches favourable to the bowlers i that real batting efficiency becomes evident. There was no evidence of it I today. England will nerd Dewes to i bat tomorrow.

Hadlee’s 83 in the Plunket Shield cricket match at Christchurch took his aggregate in Plunket Shield matches to ’2639. which beats R. C. Blunt’h record of 2597. Of batsmen still playing first class cricket, the nearest are A. W. Roberts (2463', W. M Wallace (2205) and V. J. Scott (2230).