Batsmen Well Set

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 206, 19 November 1927, Page 13

Batsmen Well Set

N.Z. PASSES THE REST’S SCORE DEMPSTER AND LOWRY STILL IN Pres* Association CHRISTCHURCH, To-day. The wretched conditions which prevailed for the opening of the New Zealand v. The Rest cricket match at Lancaster Park yesterday have improved, and Dempster and Lowry continued New Zealand's first innings this morning in fine weather, with a light easterly wind blowing. That the cricket yesterday was not of a high order was largely due to the deplorable weather conditions. The Rest batted first and were all out for 141. The wicket was tricky and the grass in the outfield was so wet that it was almost impossible to get a ground stroke to the boundary. It was a miserable day. A cold south-west wind was blowing and a shower fell after half an hour’s play. The greasy state of the ball was a great handicap to the bowlers. Newman scored his runs fairly quickly and showed good batting form, considering the conditions, and Langridge, after a somewhat uncertain start, improved greatly with sound defence and prettily executed scoring strokes. Boon batted soundly and made some good scoring shots. Of the others. Nixon was the only one to reach double figures. A feature of the day was. Page’s bowling, which was such as to suggest that his bowling performances on the tour were the result of sheer merit. He had that great asset of a bowler, a splendid length. Added to this he varied his pace nicely. Although Page is supposed to be an off-break bowler he secured some of his wickets with balls that appeared to come In from leg. His fine length gave the batsmen few opportunities of scoring and for the most part it took them all their time to play him. HAD BATSMEN GUESSING McGirr also bowled exceedingly well. He kept a good length and his pace on the tricky wicket made him always look difficult. The wicket was too slow to suit Merirtt, but nevertheless he kept a fairly good length and had most of the batsmen more or less “guessing;” The fielding of . the New -Zealanders was for the most part good, and any shortcomings cofild be attributed, to the wretched conditions. The New Zealand team had a little over half an hour’s batting at the end of the day and. lost two wickets for 31. Details are: THE REST First Innings . NEWMAN, lbw, b Page . 31 LANGRIDGE, b Page 30 GILLESPIE, b Page .0 FOLEY, b Allcott 3 BADCOCK, b Page 1 MASSEY, run out .. 5 BOON, b McGirr 21 NIXON, b McGirr 16 McEWIN, b Merritt 9 READ, c Allcott, b Merritt 0 CUNNINGHAM, not out .. 5 Extras . .. .. ... Mi Total - .i ... .. 141 Bowling—McGirr, 2-41; Merritt, 2-3 3; Page, 4-22; Allcott, 1-13; Blunt, 0-14; Bernau, 0-7. - THE REST’S SCORE PASSED The New Zealand innings Were, resumed by Dempster, 15, and Dowry, 3. The opening bowlers were Newman and McEwan. Dempster survived an appeal at 2 22. T.he rate of scoring was rather slow, the batsmen being content to take things quietly. At 51 Read relieved Newman and the rate of scoring livened up, 11 coming off Read’s third over. Badcock and Cunningham were also tried. The century appeared at 12.30 p.m., both batsmen being in the 40’s. Dempster and Lowry were still together when the first inning’s total of The Rest was passed, and . the batsmen appeared to be well set. At the luncheon adjournment the score was two for 153, Dempster being then 64 and Lowry 73. Extras 13. NEW ZEALAND First Innings DEMPSTER, not out . .. . . .. .. 64 OLIVER, c Badcock .. .. .. ... 3 LOWRY, not out .. .... ... .. .. 73 MILLS, c Foley, b Newman .. .. ~ 0 Extras 13 Total for two wickets .. .. 153