England Gains Firm Grip On Third Test

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30954, 10 January 1966, Page 3

England Gains Firm Grip On Third Test

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright) SYDNEY. England was in a commanding position against Australia after the second day’s play of the third test match at Sydney on Saturday. By the close, Australia was 113 for 4, the England fast bowlers, D. Brown and I. J. Jones, each having taken two wickets. Australia needs a further 226 runs to avoid the follow-on, which must make England a clear favourite to win and take a 1-0 lead in the series.

England, as at Melbourne in the second test, has once again held the initiative, this time in spite of further fine seam bowling by N. J. Hawke and superlative wicket-keeping by A. T. W. Grout. England, resuming at 328 for five, added a further 160 runs on Saturday, due mainly i to a fighting century by J. H. i Edrich. ! The tourists were all out for 488 after D. A. Allen and ! Jones had swelled the total ' unexpectedly by adding 55 for ■ the last wicket. Best Performance Hawke finally bowled Jones i to finish with his best test 'performance of seven for 105.! Grout clung to five succesI sive catches —a haul to equal I

the record he already shares with W. A. Oldfield and G. R. Langley for an Australian ’keeper against England. Australia’s batting failures stemmed from the dismissal of W. M. Lawry off the fifth ball of the innings. He edged an outswinger from Jones which J. M. Parks took in front of first slip. G. Thomas contributed 51 of a second-wicket stand of 81 in 99 minutes with R. M. Cowper. Thomas batted brilliantly, his hooking and cutting being especially severe on anything loose. But his audacious strokeplay always carried a hint of the desperate about it and he finally fell to a slip catch off Brown as he mishit an attempted hook. Brown, bowling from the opposite end to which he had begun, worked up a fiery pace, sometimes sacrificing something in direction. In the following over. Brown had Cowper dropped

;at long leg but the next ball he dismissed P. J. Burge. Burge attempted a drive but the ball broke back, flew over his shoulder and Parks made a brilliant dive to his left to clutch the ball. The catch was held onehanded to send back the batsman the England team most fear. Booth Fails Again B. C. Booth, still sadly out of touch, snicked a catch to second slip when Jones returned for the tiring Brown, and D. Sincock hung on for the remainder of the day. Cowper was still there at the close, having remained completely subdued for just over two hours and a half. England owed Edrich a tremendous debt for his 103 after he had come in on Friday night and watched the innings slump. On Saturday Edrich scored 60 of the 99 put on by England before lunch. He reached his second successive 100 in the series with a lofted four back over P. I. Philpott’s head from the ' leg-spinner’s final delivery ! before the interval. When he skied a hit shortly after the resumption, Edrich had battled on for four hours and a quarter in all, hitting 12 fours.