HIGHLIGHTS IN CRICKET

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 2, 3 January 1936, Page 6

HIGHLIGHTS IN CRICKET

At this time of the year interest in cricket lies "down under"—below the Line;—from the point of view of Britain, and in our own hemisphere as we in New Zealand see it. In Cape Town the Australians are playing another Test against South Africa and have made a good start with 362 for eight wickets after a fiasco on the first day when weather prevented play and gave the impatient spectators occasion to show their feelings when they were refused "their money back." .This reveals a canniness about the Afrikanders one hardly suspected in the greatest gold-producing country in the world. What is closer to us and more interesting is the "comeback" of the incomparable Don Bradman, who is now playing for South Australia, with a score of 357 against Victoria at Melbourne in a Sheffield Shield match. Bradman is described as "batting dashingly, pulling, hooking, and back cutting" to beat Ponsford's record of 336 in a similar match. There is nobody like -Bradman on his day and Australia knows it —the greatest batsman, possibly, of all time. Locally, there is the innings defeat of Otago by the M.C.C. team, which piled up 550 to Otago's 78 and still had a comfortable margin, when Otago followed on and did much better with a score of 357 in their second venture. Canterbury, no doubt a trifle sore over their loss of a Plunket Shield match to Wellington by a brace of runs, are doggedly determined to do better against Auckland and stayed in all day for 274 runs for five wickets. At this rate the match.may be unfinished. In the Hawke Cup Manawatu have done extraordinarily well against Nelson, winning by an innings and 274. Several minor representative games have produced bright cricket worthy of the holiday weather.