Cricket 1883

APRIL 19,1883. CRICKET; A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 35 no amount of time or trouble should be spared to ensure accuracy. With young players pace seems to be the only desideratum, and what is the consequence ? In a match they bowl all over the shop , get thoroughly demoralised, and utterly lose confidence. It cannot therefore be too strongly urged upon young crioketers to place great value upon the pitch , and to make pace. entirely a secondary consideration. Space will not admit of my giving a very lengthy treatise upon practice, and to cut it short I briefly sum­ marise a few useful hints, viz :— Don’t try to make the ball do too much when learning. Don’t attempt to imitate any bowler. You will find out naturally what style suits you. Having adopted a style, stick to it, and abstain from various modes of delivery. Always hold the ball in one position, and take the same number of steps each time before delivery. Don’t continue bowling when you are tired. Accustom yourself to bowling on either side of the wicket. Endeavour to accomplish variety of pace; and when sending a slower ball, try to give it a little more elevation than your ordinary style would do. Always try to bowl a good length. Bowl rather over the shoulder than under. Vary your length according to the batsman’s play. Always stand well up when bowling. Let me conclude my remarks upon practice by telling the young player that perseverance will overcome his first difficulties ; that practice ■will make efficiency; that efficiency will establish confidence, and that confidence will command success. Matches. —Now, in a match the first point you have to think about is how you can obtain your opponent’s wicket. That being so, yon want to discover his weak points. It is plain that you cannot do this by bowling to him short pitched balls. You must therefore bowl well up to him at first, varying your pace as much as possible, at the same time taking care, as far as you can, to conceal your intentions as regards the pace of the ball you intend sending up. Assuming then that you have found out your opponent’s weakness, make it your study to continually assail it. . Agood “ yorker ’’ when a batsman first comes ln is often found to pay well. These remarks of course have reference only to the breaking of the batsman’s wicket, and I have not taken into consideration the question of the field. It is a great fault with many bowlers that they only try to bowl a batsman clean, whereas if they would only exercise a little judgment and bowl well up to the bats- J»en, fieldsmen would come in for a share of honour, and the batsmen generally would sooner be got rid of. One of the greatest Mistakes a bowler can make is to ignore his field. 5 Then again, whatever you do, be mindful to keep your temper. In the cricket field you will require great self control to preserve your temper. It is extremely annoying to have a chance missed after you have been studying <u’d, and persistently trying to get rid of a Well-set opponent; but losing your head does jjot, unfortunately, mend the mistake, and by Pitching into ” the delinquent it only makes Matters worse. You throw yourself somewhat ?“ your guard ; you completely upset player "■ 2, and thus considerably weaken your Powers of attack. Depend upon it the erring fieldsman has quite enough to bear in his own fortification ; and instead therefore of extinguishing him, encourage him with a smile, saying, “ Well, you have missed one ; make up r it by catching all the rest.” regards your field, it is useless to keep to Wie old stereotyped plan, You must, as I said before, study your batsman’s weak points, and place your field so as to take advantage of his weakness. Don’t mind a little time and trouble in the arrangement. Your daty is to get him ou t; and though your plans may be somewhat tedious to onlookers, never fail to alter the position of your men, if by so doing you think you can attain the desired end. Always have those in the long field who have been accustomed to be there ; and what is more needful still, never place a man at long slip who is not used to it, as the ball comes to him v ery quickly, with a considerable amount of “ curl,’' and an inexperienced short slip will be found costly. (I have seen Bonnor, of the Australian XI.,miss many chances at this post, whereas in the long field he would have been invaluable.) A silly-point is oftentimes of great assistance, and this, backed up by having two good men in the long field, one on either side, will be found an advantageous method to adopt. The Australians were very successful with their men in this position, because they could rely with confidence upon the precision of their famous bowlers. This precisioii was the result of constant practice, and should be an incentive to the coming bowlers to study that very essence of bowling —straightness and accuracy o f pitch. THE ENGLISH TEAM AUSTRAL IA . ( Continued f rompage 29.) IN ENGLISH TEAM v. 18 OF QUEENSLAND. This match was continued at Brisbane on Feb. 3, and resulted in a victory for the English team by one innings and 154 runs. The attendance before lunch was not numerous, but there was a very considerable accession during the after­ noon. The play was of a very uninterest­ ing nature, as none of the local eighteen were able to make any stand against the English bowling, partially owing to the wicket being very difficult, and partly from want of nerve. Steel, as it will be seen from the analysis, was in particularly good form with the ball, taking in all nineteen wickets for 44. It is only just to the Queenslanders to state that his bowling on such a wicket was almost unplay­ able, and that the low scores were expected. Shortly before twelve o’clock the match was resumed by Leslie and Steel, the two not-out batsmen of the preceding day, facing the bowling of Wearne and Hobbs. The score was then 248 for nine wickets, and with seventeen added Leslie was bowled by Wearne, and the innings thus closed for 265. After the usual interval the Englishmen took the field,Wearne and Nisbet facing the bowling of Steel and Bates. A t luncheon time the score showed seven wickets for 27, and on the resump­ tion, the batsmen made no better show. Stiick- land carried out his bat for ten, but no one else got double figures, so the innings closed for 62. As the Queenslanders were over 200 runs behind, they had of course to follow their innings, and after the ground had been rolled, Wearue and Strickland came to the wicket, it being now about five minutes after four o’clock. If the stay of the Queenslanders at the wickets during the first innings was short, it was now destined to be shorter. None of them at the second attempt could get beyond single figures. Steel and Barnes bowled unchanged, and they were all out for 49. The Englishmen thus won by an innings and 154 E ngland . Hon. Ivo Bligh,c SylvesG. B. Studd, cGregory, b ter, b Hobbs .. .. 3 Wearne .. .. . 11 C. T. Studd, c D. Scott, b Barnes, c Smith, b Petrie.............................36 H obbs.................... . 1 Barlow, c D. Scott, b Bates, b Wearne .. . 41 C.H.F. Leslie, b Wearae 40 E. F. S. Tylecote, 1b w, A. G. Steel, not out . (5 B 7,1 b 1 .. .. W . W . Read, b Smith .. 84 G. F. Vernon, b Hobbs 2 • Q ueensland . First Innings. Wearne, b Steel.................... 0 Second Innings. , 3 Nisbet, c G. B. Studd, b 2 c and b Barnes .. . 1 Nettle, b S teel.................... 2 c G. B. Studd, b Steel . 1 Roberts, b Steel.................... 4 Dixon, run o u t.................... 3 c Barlow, b Baines c Tylecote, b Barnes . 3 Smith, b C. T. Studd 8 2 Cowan; b C. T. Studd 7 c Barlow, b Steel .. . st Tylecote, b Steel ! 0 Noeson, c Tylecote, b Steel Pratten, b C. T. Studd .. 0 . 8 4 c Steel, b Barnes .. . . 8 Voller, b S t e e l.................... 4 E. Baines, st Tylecote, b C. T. S tu d d .................... 0 st Tylecote, b Steel . 0 W. Hobbs, st Tylecote, b Steel..................................... 1 . 9 Petrie, st Tylecote, b Steel 1 c Bates, b Steel . . . . 0 Egan, st Tylecote, b Steel 0 . 0 D. Scott, c and b Steel .. Gregory, c Barnes, b C. T. Studd ............................. 4 c and b Barnes .. . . 0 4 Strickland, notout .. . . 1 0 . 3 Sylvester, b Steel .. 4 c Steel, b Barnes .. . . o B 3,1 b 1 .................... 4 T o t a l....................62 Total.................. 49 B. Hobbs.. ..101 Wearne ..144 Petrie.. .. 72 Sylvester .. 64 Baines .. 26 BOWLING ANALYSIS- E nglish I nnings . M. It.W. •4 61 8 79 2 32 Gregory Pratten Scott .. Smith.. Voller.. B. M. 8 0 12 0 R .W 12 0 12 0 6 0 3 fr- V 11 0 ’ 18 Q ueensland . First Innings. Second Innings. B. M. R.W. B. M. R .W . Steel .. ..167 24 2810 ........................ 77 10 16 9 Bates . . . . 86 4 6 0 C.Studd ..124 17 22 6 Barnes.. . . 4 0 2 0 ........................ 76 8 29 8 ENGLISH ELEVEN v. EIGHTEEN OF MARYBOROUGH. The Eleven started in the steamer Leichart for Maryborough, to meet eighteen of that district on Thursday and Friday, February 8th and 9th. They arrived on Wednesday, the 6th, at half-past ten a.m., and were met by a depu­ tation, including the Mayor and the principal people living in the neighbourhood. On the 8th, in very unsettled weather, the match was commenced on the racecourse, where a fairly good but wet wicket had been prepared. The home team, having won the toss, elected to in, and at a quarter-past twelve o’clock the Englishmen went into the field. Chappie and C. Powers were first to face the bowling of Steel and Barnes. After two wickets had fallen for as many runs, rain began to fall very heavily, and play had to be discontinued until half-past two. The ground was then really still unfit for play, but as the Eighteen expressed a great wish to commence again, the English captain con­ sented, and again went into the field. It was only for a very short period however, as another slight shower took place in a fewminutes, during which timeWarry played a ball back to Bates, and had to retire. No stand was made by any of the local batsmen except Gaskell and Halpin, and the innings closed forthe poor score of 4'2. The small total was not surprising, as the wicket was very difficult, and runs came very slowly. After the usual interval, during which a fresh wicket had been selected, Steel and Bates faced the bowling of Halpin and Roberts. A most disastrous start waj made, and four such English wickets as Steel, Bligh, Bates, and Barlq\y were dismissed for five runs. Steel was wel] caught by C. P^ ers, at deep long-on oft flft]-