CRICKET.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2522, 5 February 1877, Page 2

CRICKET.

THE LATE MATCH.

The past week, has been marked by the first match ever played in Auckland between local players and an English Eleven, and as was generally supposed the latter have been victorious, though there were those who stuck to the representatives of a province which had beaten all others in New Zealand. The match being over a few remarks on it may not be out of place. To take the English Eleven first, they were, taken as a whole, a very fair lot, but to say that they were, the strongest that ever visited the colonies is simply absurd; they were better no doubt than H. H. Stephenson's Eleven, and, bar Mr W. G. Grace, much better than the last lot that came over, but they were'iiofc V patch on George .Parr's Eleven, which- was about ;he strongest that, ever left England. Their weak point was undoubtedly their batting, as they, had no really .first-class batsman among them; those who could play were deficient in hit, and thosawho could hit hard showed more iricliiUjMJi to let their hitting power degenerate io^oere . slogging, as was evinced ia the case of Dly ett And Hill. They missed' Jupp,tfo is probably the. most reliable bat bf^ne twelve, and has. not yet played a "single match. .Jupp playing, and the introduction of Daft, Lockwood, Oscroft and perhaps Wild; would "have made them about the. strongest professional Eleven in England, though' there is how no professional batsman who can be deemed p first-rate, Daft on his day. alone exempted,! Itf bowling they were very V good,/and their bowling strength, now th«t. Freeman is not playing, could hardly have been improved upon, though there are some who consider My croft and Morley better than Emmett,. but supposing they are as good, Emmett, as a bat, is worth more than these two put together. They had among-them some first-rate fields, notably. Selby, A. Greenwood"" and' Ulyett,'- and -^A*-. bhaw "• when he has a mind can field above a bit, especially at his old place of cover-point. Their weak point was their longstopping, which in'both innings: was disgraceful, not : only to a team v pretending to be nearly first-rate,- but to anordi; nary club, such as the; Auckland, 1 or . the United; In two abort innings over twenty byes were' allowed to accumulate, and this, too, with.Pooley at the 1 wickets. We cannot pass "over >ur notice of the England men without speaking in strong terms of their tactics on the third day of the match; one bowler (Emmett) who had got 7- wickets for 10. runs was taken off simply because he was getting the Auckland men out too fast! Surely this is not cricket, and it would' have been much" more satisfactory to see what England really could" do with- their best-bowling than "to have a few more runs literally given by inferior bowlers being' put on/ However, Charlwood 'will be able to go home and say that "he has oncejn his life bowled' in a match, ; bnt he will have to take the papers which record the fact with him or everyone will think he is jesting .with them. ' :Begacding the 7 Auckland men it is not too much too -say they owe their decided "beating to their wretched fielding. -Had even the very easy catches, to say nothing of hard ones, being held, the not very formidable batsmen of England would have been out for about \Q at the outside. Supposing ■Auckland made the same score as they*did make, England-would have had to have gone in again, and had they made a very long score the match would have been a drawn one; had they made only an ordinary one they, would have. won by but comparatively few runs; nothing like an innings or anything approaching it. Besides this, that is besides , the actual loss, to. the side of* having" virtually to get the same batsman out twice or three times, owing to the .iricomSetency :pf the .fieldsman, bad fielding isheartens the bowlers, who cannot;or ratherddarte t not bowl for r catches when the chances are that they will be missed, and thus bad fielding tends to bad* bowling. Taking as a whole the Auckland,bowling, was fair. * We have seen some of those' who bowled frequently bowl better, but' the wicket was a very easy, one, and sthe wind on the .first, day -very much' against the bowler at the Auckland end. The batting waa for' the most part tame, a not unusual circumstance when amateurs meet professionals of - celebrity for the first time, as was 1 the case with many of the Auckland players, for they go in expecting to get no runs, in which expectation they are. rarely . disappointed. There were two or three exceptions, and two really good innings were played for Auckland; but, in most other cases, the attempts to ; score were feeble in the extreme, and the Auckland'players by no means batted up to the form;we,know them to be capable,of showing. What must have struck every one .was the number of players out by being leg before, run out, or stumped; all three unsatisfactory ways, as they can be avoided by a little care. A man may be bowled by a ball that beats him,, or caught off a ball which, owing to the ground, gets up; or else off a good hit, and .^ in either case it is not as much his fault as his misfortune,- but the other three ways are, to say the least, unsatisfactory, as they might so easily ■ be i avoided. On the whole we do not think the Auckland*"" twenty-two played up to their best formi and if the match were played over again they would give a better account of themselves. They have this consolation,, however, lhat it is the first time .they have met an English Eleven, and have done as well as the Australian Colonies when they met a much, inferior English Eleven for. the first time,, and now. both- New South Wales and Victoria "play -England with 15 instead of 22, and win their, matches. "■■; - " t,