FEW COMFORTING FEATURES

Chronicle (Levin), 5 December 1946, Page 5

FEW COMFORTING FEATURES

N.Z. Press Assn.)

AUSTRALIA'S TEST VICTORY

(Special to

(By W. J. O'Reilly) Received Thursday, 9.5 a.m. BRISBANE, Dec. 4. Even thcugh Australia won the .irst test by an innings and 332 uns, there were not many comioiAng features about the victory from m Australian point of view. Our jatting and fielding are definiteiy itronjg, but our bowling strength aas hot yet bben made manifest. The chief destroying agent in the aiatch was Keith Miller, who mu.st ;urely have been selected as mpernumerary bowler only. To;hack today made up some of the ground which slipped from undei nim on the fourth day, but he is uot yet bowling accurately enough. Australia can attribute her overvhelming victory chiefly to Don 3radman's luck in winning the toss. C think the luck of the toss will play a tremendous part also in the -•emaining Tests. Toshack bowled much better ;oday. He seemed to realise that it vas more . important for him to jowl right up to the half volley Dosition than to keep worrying ibout spinning the ball. Even so, here were still far too many occa;ions when the batsman did not iave to use the bat to defend his vicket. There is 110 need for a Dowler of Toshack's medium pace to ,ry to spin the ball much 011 such 1 dangerous wicket as this. . Thc .nain eiements of good bowling 01: uch a wicket are length and direc;ion. Every ball must be bowled 011 ,he stumps, and pitched up much :urther than the position of a good length on a good wicket. The wicket itself will impart more devil o the ball than all the spin the bowler can apply. Toshack certainly kept a better direction when he oowled round the wicket. It is strange that round the wicket is so unpopular in Australia. I cannot remember one such Australian bowler in the past twenty years, neither do I think that because many great English lefthand bowlers went round the wicket, such an approach is the hallmark of the art. Bert Iron monger, the best left-hander I have seen in either country, used to bowl over the wicket except when the wicket was making an extraordinary spin. Verity did the same in Australia. The idea of bowling round is to

counteract the spin with the transverse direction obtained. A ball piuciiing 111 line with ihe off stump irom a left arm, round the wicket bowler would invariably miss the leg stump. Therefore, it is imposoible to get a leg before wicket decision unless the ball is spun jharply from the leg side to jtraighten it up. Today Toshack got two such dc-cisions when he oowled round the wicket. Taking mto account that Toshack's bowlng experience is extremely limited —last year was his first season in .irst class cricket — he certainly oowled well enough to be given fi'urther trial. Keith Miller, whose ability to stay the bowling distance was in doubt, bowled for well over an hour, and m dumg so prooaoiy bowiea himself into an extremely busy programme with the ball in the remaining Tests. His seven wickets efl'ort in the first English innings was a match-winning performance. He" can look back with pride on his Test debut.

• Australia is likely to have three classy all rounders such as Miller, McCool and Johnso; our strength 111 the all-round aepartment wui oe a constant menace to England in .his series. It was with mixed feelings that I saw Sid Barnes take a brilliani one-handed catch at short leg to dismiss Len Hutton from the very first ball of the second innings. I was anxious to see how this great batsman could adapt himself to an xAustralian "sticky" wicket. However, his early dismissal was a great start for our bowlers. Sid Barnes fielded splendidly in the close positions. The catch he took from Compton was actually too far from his reach to take cleanly in both hands. The ball hit the tips of his fingers and bounced away to the right, and Barnes performed some peculiar type of diving somersault to take the ball before it hit the ground. None but a really firsu class fieldsman could have effected ihe catch. George Tribe made a far better impression here than he did in the Australian eleven game in Meibourne. He maintained an excellent length and showed 110 signs of worry when meeting with punishment. I think he will be an extremely useful man for us if he continues to bowl as he did today. McCool and Johnson did not bowl. The Australian fielding was really good, and it is difficult to find even one weak link. One exceilent fea--ure is the remarkably good return.ng to the keeper. Don Tallon's job n this direction was made palrticularly easy. Last week Queensland fieldsmen, in their enthusiasm, rave him many anxious moments. Denis Compton figured in an tnteresting incident which brought back memories of a 1932 Test against England. Compton .played. a high kicking ball to the ground at his feet. The ball spun back ahd rolied on to the stumps, but the )ails were not dislodged. In 1932 I myself had Herbert Sutcliffe early n his innings play one hard cn to ihe base of his wicket; so hard indeed that the ball came back at ieast a yaad after hitting the wicket. Sutcliffe carried on to make 194, the highest score of his career in Tests against Australia.