Personalities In Sport

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 856, 27 December 1929, Page 7

Personalities In Sport

Scion of Princely House Is Dazzling Cricketer

Nephew of his Highness the Jam Sahib of Nawanager, K. S. Ranjitsinhji, the greatest creative artist the game of cricket has ever known, Kumar Shri Duleepsinhji, whose flashing blade has dazzled the English public for the past two seasons with a touch of the genius of his immortal uncle, is the most picturesque personality of the Marylebone Cricket Club’s side at present in New Zealand.

Partly, be it said, because of his uncle’s undying fame, and partly be•cause of his own deeds with the willow, Duleepsinhji ranks as the most brilliant right-handed batsman among the Englishmen. , , p The nephew has all the strokes of his great uncle, but as yet he does not make them with quite the same polished ease which charmed the cricket-foil owing public in past days. Duleepsinhji could have no * recommendation to the New Zealand public than the 96 _ he scored in his first match in New Zealand, and the brilliant century he registered at Nelson. - Kumar was born on June 10, 1900. anil was educated at Cheltenham College and Cambridge University. He headed the Cheltenham batting averages in one year, and in 1924 when he scored ,120 and 43 for the M.L.C. against Cambridge University at Lords, his batting caused something of a sensaAs a freshman, he won his way into the Cambridge University side in

and despite an injured arm. he finished second on the averages for the season with an average of just under 50. tie qualified for Sussex in 1926 and opened with scores of 97 and 115 in successive matches.

Duleepsinhji started the 1927 season in great form for Cambridge University, scoring 101 against Yorkshire, and 254 not out (a record for the university ground) against Middlesex. Then he caught a chill, and pneumonia developed so badly that his life was in danger. Doctors forbade his playing any more cricket that summer, and for the winter he was sent to Switzerland. In the 1928 season he took things rather quietly, and played only in the warm weather.

His best innings for Cambridge that season was 96, but after the Cam-bridge-Oxford game he showed excellent form for Sussex, scoring six centuries—his best was 198 against Northamptonshire—and aggregating for the county alone 1,082 runs in 19 innings (once not out) —an average of 60.11.

Demonstrating that he had recovered his health properly, Duleepsinhji gave a dazzling display of batting in scoring 134 runs in just under two hours for Sussex against Lancashire on the opening day of the 1929 season. His next innings was against Derbyshii'e, and he scored 82, although S. Worthington (also to be in New Zealand this season) was right on the job with the ball, the Derbyshire professional finishing with eight wickets for 29 runs in that innings of Sussex.

TWO CENTU RIES IN ONE MATCH

He has started well in New Zealand, and his advent in Auckland will be keenly awaited.

Several of fine innings—notably the two centuries in ono match against Kent—have been mentioned, but it should be noted that his 202 for Essex in July was a remarkable lesson in fast scoring without risks being taken. Before lunch he scored 122 in two hours, and lifted the ball only once. Each ball was played on its merits. Between lunch and three o’clock he added 100 runs still without hitting a six. It was a beautiful free display of “carpet” strokes. But there was an innings of Duleepsinhji’s late in the present season, which is said to have been better than many of his more productive efforts. In this innings he scored exactly 100 runs on a wicket that had been made very difficult by rain on the previous day, “No wicket, however, and—one is tempted to say, after sitting for hours watching Duleepsinhji hitting the ball wherever he liked—no bowler could have upset him.” says a prominent critic. “The quickness of his footwork and his eye enabled his body to be perfectly balanced for either the aggressive or defensive strokes he intended and even more impressive than the number of fours he hit was the fact that not once when he was playing back to keep a spinning ball out of his wicket, did the ball pop off the bat to give even the closest in-fielder the ghost of a chance. Duleepsinhji played in one test match against the South Africans, and his batting then was very fine, although he did not make a big score. It should be added that he is a very fine fieldsman. His straight driving is deA'astating in its power.