THE TEST MATCH.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 69, 14 December 1907, Page 4

THE TEST MATCH.

Those friends of cricket whose sympathies are always with Australia in the international contests—and we believe that most New Zealanders are in this category—will be keenly ' interested'in the Test Match which began at Sydney yesterday. Unless it is overwhelmingly hiige or disastrously minute, the score of- the first innings of the match is never of very great value as an indication of the way .in which fortune will go. The Englishmen's score of 273, therefore, means nothing one way or the other. Not a small score, it is yet not large enough for any epithet other than that useful one "handy." If ..the visitors sustain the form which they have v shown in the matches against the States, .they have better prospects than was arfirst anticipated of winding-up the tour in possession of < the coveted " ashes." For a team which, on its selection', was either sharply criticised as being much below the standard of past Marylebone teams, or damned with faint'praise, the visiting team has registered some excellentperformances. It made short work' of Western 'Australia, winning by an innings and 134 runs. It closed its first innings against South Australia for 660, and won by an innings and 213 runs. Victoria was much more formidable, opponent, and when the Englishmen began their second innings, the home team having made. 233 and 463, they found themselves set the task of knocking up_ 4&S to avoid de j feat. In a race against time they actually made ! 422 for nine wickets, when the match was drawn. They defeated New South Wales by 408 run's, and Queensland by an innings'and plenty to spare, the game against an Australian team being abandoned on account of rain. One is tempted to suggest that Australian cricket, if hot inferior to what it'was'a few years agd, has not kept pace with the advances which England has 'been making. Many people in Australia believe that that is the true state' of affaifs: In an article upon the match against New South Wales, in which Barnes and Fielder worked Such havoc, Major ]?liilip Trevor sought to explain "the double failure of so many fine batsmen on such a wicket," and he Suggested that the explanation lay in the fact that in England the first-class cricketer is always playing first-clasS cricket, while the' Australian cricketer, normally engaged in club games, only plays first-class cricket when in England. It may, indeed, be that AusIralian cricketers are suffering from their 'isolation, while their opponents have learned many devices from them. The Test Matches promise to be partic; ularly interesting, and, ajthough on this occasion the Australians have started- well, few will be rash enough to prophesy concerning the result of the series.