CRICKET

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume IX, Issue 676, 19 February 1903, Page 8

CRICKET

'THE ENGLISH ELEVEN v. O TAGO. The cricket match between the Englishmen and Otago was commenced on Friday in very pleaseant Weather, the. wicket 'being in fine order. There was a very x large attendance estimated at over 5000 people. Otago batted first, but could make but little , headway against the bowling of Thompson anti burnup, the latter being especially destructive. The chief contributors were Fisher 32, Siedcberg 31, Howden 19 and Austin 12. None of the . Others did much, the total only reach 124. When time was called the English score stood at 133' for one wicket, Burnup being out .for 22. On resuming Warner and Fane made a long stand, and it was not till the.latter had 85 ti his credit that Downes found his w'icket. The English captain gave a grand exhibition of cricket making 211. which took him four and a half hours to< compile. Of the others Slanning 30 (not out), Thompson. 31, Dowson' 23, Bosanquet 18, Taylor 13 were the two figure scorers. The total realised was 473, the highest of the tour to date. With such a big defecit to wipe off the Otago men apparently lost heart, for the majority of them gave very lifeless exhibitions Of cricket. Siedeberg again showed good form with the. bat, putting together in attractive. style 52 before he was caught off Thompson’s bowling. Howden 35 and Cummings 21: were the only otters to do * anything at all, the innings closing for 119. The Englishmen thus won the match by an innings and 230 runs. The sixth round of the matches for the Cricket Association’s Championship was finished on Saturday afternoon in fine ; weather and on good wickets. Auckland had made 105 while Gordon had one wicket down for 13 at the commencement of Saturday’s play. The latter resuming their innings did moderately well. R. B. Lusk showed very patient cricket for 55, and was still in when the innings came to a, close for 156. F. R, Mason again showed sterling batting ability for 32, while Others to get into two figures were T. R. Southall 14, T. D. Ball 11, J. A. KaL lender 10 and T. Barclay 10. Auckland going in again lost two wickets for 63, and were thus defeated on the first innings by 51 runs. .*#■ ♦ ♦ J In 1 the match Parnell against United, the former had made 208. Robinson and , Smith -opened for United and carried the score to 65 before a separation came. The next four wickets fell cheaply, but Lusk and Gleeson made a long stand putting on 8-3 runs, and with only 26 runs to get and four wickets to fall victory seeme'd within their grasp. The Parnell bowlers, however, were not to be denied, and the next four wickets only produced two runs, the score reaching 184. Parnell thus won. by 24 runs. Lundon, who got three wickets

for 25, practically pulled the game out of the fire and saved the position. t * * * « According to a vote taken by an English magazine, the following is the best cricket eleven in the world :—Maclaren, Ranjitsinhji, Trumper Jackson, Hill, Lilley, Hirst, Rhodes, Fry, Braund. and Trumble. On his form this season, one would feel almost inclined to include in place of Fry, the young Sydney batsman Duff, whose scoring for the inter-State matches has bordered on the phenomal. • « «. « Very much has been made by Southern papers of an incident which occurred during Canterbury’s innings against the Englishmen. According to Bosanquet, he bowled a ball to Pearce, which pitched on the leg-side of the wicket. The batsman tried to hit to leg, and missed it. He heard a sound as if the ball had hit the wicket, and Whatman said “ Well bowled.” Warner, at mid-on, and Hargreaves, at point, both of whom could see what happened, said the same, and walked towards’ the wicket. Pearce started to. walk away, thinking he was howled, when Sims

said, t: You had better appeal." Pearce then returned to his ground, and an appeal was made to the umpire t Bannerman), who was quite unable to-see owing to Pearce being between him and the wicket. The decision was therefore referred to Spencer, who said that he also had not seen what occurred. Pearce then said, “ Well, I was out, 1 had better go," and started to walk away, but it was pointed out to him that the matter had been referred to the umpires, and therefore he couln not go till one of them gave him “ out.” After some time Marner requested Bosanquet to go on with the over, which he did. He then addressed a remark to Sims, for which he has since apologised, and Whatman then made remarks to the umpire, for which he also apologised, and they hoped the matter was at an end. The papers, however, took the matter up somewhat warmly, and the action of the visitors came in for much hostile criticism. Viewed from a distance, it would seem to be a veritable storm in a teacup. Evidently Pearce was out,, as he said so himself, but for some unexplained reason the second umpire at the batsman's end did not see it, although several players in

as good a position did so. No< doubt a momentary irritation at the possible inattention of the umpire caused a few . ramarks which were subsequently apologised for. It is to be hoped that the matter will be allowed to rest at that. -■