Chatfield India’s main N.Z. fear

Press, 25 January 1986, Page 80

Chatfield India’s main N.Z. fear

From NZPA staff correspondent,

KIP BROOK

in Adelaide

India’s manager, Mr Srinivas Venkatravaghan, fears the Wellington bowler, Ewen Chatfield, most of the New Zealand cricketers who could dash his side’s World Series Cup fading hopes at the Adelaide Oval today.

Chatfield was New Zealand’s unsung hero in the thrilling win over India at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Thursday evening.

When the Indian batsmen climbed into the Kiwi attack in the everincreasing crescendo of runs, Chatfield showed his ability to put a squeeze on the run rate.

“He should have got man of the match, as far as I am concerned,” said Venkat. “Chatfield has become a very fine bowler, and to concede only 28 runs, taking four wickets in a game like that is quite a remarkable achievement.” Chatfield now heads the $3OOO Kit Kat strike rate for bowlers, with a calculated figure of 80.03. He shot to the top of the charts after his fourwicket haul, including two off successive balls, for 28 against India. In six games, Chatfield

has sent down 48.2 overs, 11 maidens, for 148 runs and 10 wickets. He edged out Australia’s Simon Davis as the top strike rate bowler of the series, with four games remaining before the finals. During the tour, Chatfield has stood apart from most other players for his stamina and enthusiasm at training which has paid off. New Zealand will be drawing further on Chatfield’s resources in the most Important weekend of the tour for all three teams. They all play two games and Australia needs one more point to be fully certain of a place in the finals. India and New Zealand must win at least one game each to stay In the running. “The India-Australia game on Sunday is the most crucial one for us,” said the New Zealand

cricket team manager, Mr Glenn Turner, when the team arrived from Melbourne yesterday. “If Australia wins that, and we win at least one of the games, I’ll feel much better.” New Zealand trained at the Adelaide Oval yesterday afternoon, rather than rest up after Thursday evening’s one-ball win over India. “There’s still a lot of work to be done, and aspects of our game we must improve on,” Mr Turner said. New Zealand does not want a repeat of Thursday evening’s unprovoked excitement when Jeff Crowe and Jeremy Coney whipped on a stream of runs at the end. “It made it tough on two guys having to blast away at the end together, when they didn’t have a chance to line it up,” Mr Turner said. He will be demanding that his batsmen plan

their run chase better today.

New Zealand almost blew the game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, when its two top players of spin, Martin Crowe and John Reid, lost their wickets almost at once. The side has grown in confidence in its top six batsmen since the early days of the tour. Tney are all firing at once, and the return of John Wright’s dashing strokes arrived as a special relief just when needed. Unselfishly, Bruce Edgar gave away the strike to Wright, then to Martin Crowe, and made a strong contribution in laying the big New Zealand total. New Zealand’s mixed bag of bowlers could still improve as they know the Indians will be after them from the start today.