BATSMEN FAIL

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 870, 14 January 1930, Page 13

BATSMEN FAIL

N.Z. HEAVILY BEATEN IN CRICKET TEST DAY OF SMALL SCORES Special to THE SUN CHRISTCHURCH. Monday. Bettering its first innings score by only 19 runs, New Zealand, after the close of its second attempt today, left the M.C.C. team an open chance of securing a straight-out win in the first cricket test. With the fall of New Zealand's last wicket, the visitors required 63 to win. They got the required number of runs, with three to spare, in exactly 63 minutes, and with eight wickets in hand. Though not without incident, the day’s play provided nothing in the way of a sensation. The wicket, after tho rain over the week-end, was a little on the dead side, and caused the ball to hang a bit. It was not a fastscoring wicket. The feature of the latter end of the M.C.C.’s first innings in the morning was the bowling of Blunt, the “googlie" bowler, who took three of the Englishmen’s wickets for 17 runs. The promise of a big score by the M.C.C. team, given by its earlier batsmen on Friday, was not borne out. When play opened this morning its score was 147 with six wickets intact. Thanks largely to Blunt, those six wickets were disposed of before the luncheon adjournment for 34 runs. The possibility of the match ending in a draw bulked bigger with this unexpected development, which was due as much as anything else to the excellent captaincy of Lowry, who varied his bowling judiciously, but New Zealand was not equal to the occasion. BATSMEN FAIL AGAIN

With the dismissal of Dempster, who opened with Foley, the score stood at 66 for three wickets. This offered something of a fighting chance, provided the other batsmen could hold their end up, but with the exception of Lowry and Page, they failed disappointingly, and when the sixth wicket, that of James, went down for 86, and the side was only 17 runs to the good, New Zealand’s stocks started to shrink a little, and it was obvious that nothing short of an extraordinary change in fortune would cause a recovery.

Lowry batted in confident fashion for his 40. He was not spectacular, but he was solid, and he drew the acclamation of the crowd when he started forcing tactics. He on-drove two of Woolley's no-balls to the boundary, and with Dickinson ran three off the same bowler three times.

BOWLER AS BATSMAN Dickinson, who with Blunt was one of the props of New Zealand's first innings, again proved himself a useful partner, even though his contribution to the score was not as big as it might have been. Had some of the following batsmen taken a leaf out of his book, the result might have been different. Page's innings was one of patience, rather than brilliance. He was lucky, after being clean bowled by a no-ball from Woolley, the M.C.C.'s change slow bowler. He also survived a confident and almost unanimous appeal for Ibw off one of Nichols’s express deliveries, and then settled down to score a very useful 21.

DEMPSTER'S DISMISSAL Dempster was as reliable as ever, lie appeared the least concerned of all the batsmen, and some of his leg strokes (his principal scoring shots) showed him up as the craftsman he is. He was dismissed by a magnificent catch by Duleepsinhji in slips, the fieldsman jumping up and out to take a shooting ball. Blunt never got going. When seven he snicked Woolley into Legge’s hands in slips for an easy catch. Gilligan, the M.C.C. captain, used much the same bowling attack as he did in the first innings, though his slower bowlers, particularly Woolley, carried a bigger share of the burden than they did on Friday. Woolley, who usually walks up to the crease, delivers a nice length ball, with a tricky turn. Enthusiasts saw both Woolley and Duleepsinhji, two star batsmen, in action again after a weak start given by Dawson and Gilligan in the M.C.C.’s second innings. These two settled down and carried the M.C.C. colours to victory without much trouble. The imperturbable Duleepsinhji gave his usual polished exhibition, on-driving Merritt’s slow stuff brilliantly at times. Details are as follow: ■NTRSW ZEALAND

First Innings 112 Second innings DEMPSTER, c Duleepsinhji, b Allom 25 FOLEY, c Nichols, b Allom BLUNT, c Legge, b Woolley 7 PAGE, st Cornford, b Barratt 21 LOWRY, b Nichols 40

ROBERTS, o and b Worthington • 5. JAMES, lbw, b Worthington .. DICKINSON, c Barratt, b Woolley 8 BADCOCK, played on, b Nichols MERRITT, b Allom HENDERSON, not out Extras Total 131 Bowling: Nichole, 2-23; Allom, 3-17; Woolley, 2-37; Worthington, 2-19; Barratt, 1-16. M.C.C. First Innings DAWSON, c Lowry, b Henderson 7 HENDERSON, b Badcock . 10 DULEEPSINHJI, o Dickinson, b Henderson WOOLLEY, c Merritt, b Dickinson . 31 NICHOLS, c Dickinson, b Page .. . 21 LEGGE, b Blunt WORTHINGTON, b Blunt TURNBULL, c Merritt, b Badcock 7 BARRATT. st. James, b Merritt CORNFORD, c Lowry, b Blunt .. ALLOM. not out Extras Fall of Wickets: 1/20. 2/20, 3/81, 4/113, 5/148, 6/148, 7/163, 8/168. 9/172, 10/181. Bowling: Badcock, 2-29; Dickinson, 1-40; Merritt, 1-48; Henderson, 2-38; Blunt, 3-17; Page, 1-3. Second Innings DAWSON, lbw, b Blunt GILLIGAN, b Blunt DULEEPSINHJI, not out WOOLLEY, not out Extras Two wickets for