The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, DECEMBER 15,1903. THE TEST MATCH.

Gisborne Times, Volume XII, Issue 1073, 15 December 1903, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, DECEMBER 15,1903. THE TEST MATCH.

Very keen interesc is being taken in the first of the test cricket matches now being played in Sydney. Though the triumphal march of the Marylebone team through the Australian States must have proved to even the most rabid of Australian supporters that the team was a great one, everyone was waiting to see tnem opposed to the pick of Australia. '• Wait till the test matches begin,” quoth the Australian supporters, as innings’ defeats were chronicled'against Victoria and New South Wales. Weil, the test matches are upon us, and the Englishmen are thus far thrashing the chosen of Australia far worse oven than they battered the poor States. Too much credit cannot be given the Englishmen for their magnificent play as far as the ■match has gone. The advantages were all in Australia’s favor. The Colonials won the toss, and took strike on a batsman’s wicket,- and that they failed signally to take advantage of this can only .be put down to the excellent howling of the Englishmen. Then the latter had to bat on a wicket more or less affected by rain, and some excuse could have been allowed them had they ever, failed to reach 'Australia’s total. The Marylebone team did not arrive with the flourish of trumpets which heralded Stoddart’s second team, ' (but to date they have a far better record than any of the many strong teams England has sent out since Australia has been at her zenith on the cricket field. The magnificent innings of 287 by It. E. Foster was more than the whole Australian side totalled, and out-distanced W. L. Murdoch’s 211, the previous record individual score for a test match, by fffl runs. When 447 runs had been Dmassed for nine wickets, the Australians surely looked for the end, and it only proves the soundness of the English team when, as was the case,. Wilfred Rhodes, the last man, •helped Foster to put on 130 runs for the last wicket, and was unbeaten a.t tile finish with 40 to his credit. It was his brilliant partner who made the mistake and got out. But cricket is a funny game. The Australians, in tile first test match in 1895, against Stoddart’s first team, scored 580 odd runs in the first iuVnings, yet were beaten by the Englishmen,: who had to follow their innings. Again, .it will he remembered that Maclarcn’s team had a runaway victory over the Australians in the first test match, but -were defeated in the remaining four. Whatever the outcome of the present match may be—and there is only one visible at present—the Marylebone •Club team have amply proved that they are the finest and soundest' ■English combination which has ever visited Australia, and the remaining struggles for the cricket supremacy of the world will be invested with an interest greater far than has ever attached to them.