THE FOURTH TEST MATCH.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XII, Issue 731, 10 March 1904, Page 6

THE FOURTH TEST MATCH.

The fourth “ Test ” Match between the Marylebone Cricket Club Eleven and the eleven of the Commonwealth has resulted in the defeat of the Australians by 157 runs. Very great interest centred in the match, because a victory for the team from the Old Country meant a win of at least three out of the five representative matches arranged for the tour, whereas if the Commonwealth team had triumphed honours would have been easy, and the championship would have been decided by the fifth match just completed in Melbourne. By their victory at Sydney the Englishmen have recovered the “ ashes ” lost by Stoddart’s team in 1898. Although Australians will probably argue that the element of Luck has enabled the visitors to win, yet looked at through impartial eyes this hardly seems to have been the case. The first match was played in Sydney, and was fought out under very even conditions, the Old Country representatives winning by five wickets, the scores being England 577 and 5 for 194, Australia 285 and 485. The next meeting between the rival teams was at Melbourne, where rain to a certain extent helped to bring about another victory for the Englishmen, the score showing England 315 and 103; Australia. 122 and 111. The Adelaide Oval was the scene of the third contest, and here on a very fast wicket the Australians showed to decided advantage, as the scores denote these reading— Australia 388 and 351, England 245 and 278. In the match concluded on Thursday last the luck does not appear to have favoured either side to any great extent, although Australian writers have shown a tendency to explain away the defeat by stating that the Australians were handicapped gre ttly from this cause. As a matter of fact it would appear from the accounts which have reached us that when Pelham Warner won the toss and sent in his side to bat the wicket proved fiery, and under the circumstances the total of 249 was much more creditable than the actual figures indicate. On the same wicket five of the best Australian batsmen were got rid of very cheaply, and then came the rain. On resuming after a delay of two days the remaining members of the Australian team did nothing, a poor score of 131 being the total result. That the wicket was not so bad as the score indicated is shown by the excellent start made by the Englishmen in their second innings immediately afterwards. Next day the pitch had decidedly deteriorated, so that the visitors’ score of 210 was a highly creditable performance under the circumstance Despite the fact that the wicket is said to have greatly improved, the Australians were only able to put together 171, most of the crack batsmen failing in the most unaccountable manner

Although the large amount of rain which fell certainly ruined the match, yet after examining the respective scores and taking into consideration the conditions under which they were made the conclusion is forced upon us that the visitors outplayed the representatives of the Commonwealth in every department of the game, and are fully entitled to all credit for the victory. Nd matter how the fifth test match resulted the honours of the series remain with the Englishmen, and their success will be a difficult matter for those critics at Home, who heaped ridicule upon the pretensions of the team to be considered in any way representative, to explain away Much as we could have wished to record a victory for the colonial eleven, it would be ungracious to deny the winners credit for a success which appears to have been achieved by sh-er merit and all-round excellence.