Cricket.

Putaruru Press, Volume VII, Issue 277, 28 February 1929, Page 8

Cricket.

CRICKET CHATTER. Match-winning Bowler. > J. C. White has joined the very select band of English howlers who have taken 10 or more wickets in a test match against Australia. His 13 for 256 at Adelaide is oiie of the best efforts on good wickets ever recorded in a test on the ground. Other lefthanders who have taken. 10 or more wickets in a test are W. R. Rhodes, John Briggs, Colin Blythe, F. E. Woolley and Bobbie Peel. Briggs did it twice. The last right-handed bowler to do it was Maurice Tate, four seasons back, in Sydney, when his record was 11 for 228.

It is worth noting that the last four performances of this sort for Australia are associated with bossy dr slow leg-break bowlers, H. V. Hotdern and A, Mailey twice each, and C. V. Grimmett once. F. R. Spoiforth did it three times, ot once oftencr than any other bowler for either country. He captured 14' for 90 at Kennington Oval, 13 for 110 at Melbourne, and 11 for 147 at Sydney. . English Aggregates. Four years ago, when Sutcliffe scored 734 runs in the tests, we did not think it would be surpassed for years, if ever, yet here we are to-day contemplating its total eclipse. In 1924-25 Sutcliffe’s innings were 59, 115, 176, v 127, 33, 59, 143, 22, 0. Those of Hammond are 44, 28, 251, 200, 32, 119 not out, 177. He may complete the 1000 for the series in the fifth test. If batting goes on dominating cricket in this way we may some day see a batsman go through a series making a century in every innings. Details of the three biggest aggregates for England in a test series follow: J. B. Hobbs, season 1911-12, 9 innings, 1 not out, 662 runs, average 82.75.

H. Sutcliffe, season' 1924-25, nine innings, 0 not out, 784 runs, average 81.55. W. R. Hammond, season 1928-29, V innings, 1 not out, 851 runs, average 141.83. t , Over Fifty in Each Innings. H. Sutcliffe is the only English batsman who has made 50 or over in both innings of a test match England V. Australia four times—s 9 and 115 at Sydney, 176 and 127 and 58 and 135 at Melbourne, 76 and 161 at Kennington Oval. M. A. Noble has done It three times. W. Bardsley, C. Hill, H. L. Collins, J. M. Taylor and J. Ryder are the only other Australians to twice top 50 in both innings. J. M. Taylor went very close to doing 5t three times in the one series with 70 and 90, 86 and 68 at Melbourne, and 43 and 108 at Sydney against the last English team. Only Two Over Thirty Years. A writer in the Natal Advertiser makes the following comment on the South African team to tour England:— Only two members of the team are over. 30 and nine of the 16 are under 24, and in many respects the side is. a team of colts. To the leading batsmen who did duty in the test matches last year have been added J. Christy, of the Transvaal, and ■- Seidle, of Natal. The former is probably tbe outstanding batsman in the country who has not yet played for South Africa and is a player likely to make his mark in no uncertain fashion. Altogether the team should be stronger in batting than any whicb <lid duty against M.C.C. last season, and there is a fine variety of bowling. The youth of the side should enable it to be brilliant in the field, and under Deane’s captaincy it may develop a team spirit comparable with that of the Australian Service side.