Cricket 1896

300 CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. J u l y 23, 1896. T H E A U S T R A L I A N S . THE SECOND TEST MATCH. (tw e n tie th m atch o f t h e t o u r ) Played at Old Trafford on July 16,17, and 18. Australians won by three wickets. Never has England entered upon a test match with the Australians with a more doubtful prospect of victory than in that at Old Trafford on Thursday last. In the first place it was g<nerally felt that the best team had not been chosen; in the second the Austra­ lians had recently been in marvellous form, whereas maiy of the Euglishmea had been showing signs of stateness; in the third place the English bowlers, without one exception, had been “ off colour” for some little time. To cap all this only one thing was necessary, viz., that the English captain should lose the toss if the wicket were good on the first day. The wicket turned out to be excellent; Dr. Grace lost the tosp, and England began to play an uphill game from the vary first. The batting of the Australians in their first innings was a repetition of the splendid displajs against Hampshire and Leicestershire, except that it was not tedious to watch. Even before the first wicket fell the English bowlers were for the most part pretty well mastered. Richardsou alone seemed to be likely to get wic'cets. and he rose to the occasion in a truly rem&r table manner. The only other bowlers who had the slightest chance of getting more than a wicket or two at t ie mo t were Heame and Briggs, and for a week or two they had been quite ineffective. There was no Lohminn and no Hayward; Dr. Grace bowled a little, without discouraging the batsmen ; Jackson, who a> a bowler has done very little this year, kept down the runs fairly well, and Stoddait and Lilley were given a trial, while brown, Ranjitsiohji, and Abel, who are excellent occasional bowlers when a wicket is badly wanted, were not put on at all. Truly an England team has never previously been so greviously weak in bowling. But Richardsson kept steadily on, and frequently only just missed the wicket by a hair’s breadth—it was one of the days, which all bowlers know so well, when the ball would do anything except hit the wicket. Every now and then, however, he broke through the defence of a batsman and a wicket fell, although he enjoyed very little roht (this could not be helped, for in him alone the hope of England lay) but he never seemed to tire, and was as uitficult at the end of the innings as when he began to bowl. On the whole the Australian batting was decidedly geo 1. but the credit of the fine toaii belongs almost entirely to the first four men, Iredale, Darling, Giffen, an 1 Trott. So completely had they got the upper hand of the England bowling that only three wickets had fallen lor 212, and just before Trott was out the scoring board showed 294 for three. At this period of the game it was quite on the cards that a record score would be made, but half the wickets were down before the 300 went up, and the remainder of the team did not make such use of the worn out bowling as might have been expected. Iredale is gr atly to Le congratulated on his very fine innings of 108. Almost equally good were Giffen’s 80 and Trott's 53. At the end of the fitst day’s play the total was 36 i for eight wickets, so that whatever was scored by the remaining batsmen, England had a most difficult task before them On Friday a stand was made by Kelly and McKibbin, and the innings closed for 412. A shockingly bad start was made by England. With the total at 2 W.G. was stump* d by Kelly off Trott, and at ‘23 exactly the same fate befell iStoddart. Abel and Ranjitsiuhji improved England’s position c insidei ably, and at lunch time no oth.*r wicket had lalltn, while the score had been Irought up to SO. This was much betttr. But Abel did not stay long afteiwards. Jackson ran himself out, and Brown only made a few. Ranjit'iuhji, after making a beautiful 62. was out to a catch by Trott at point-a very cloe thing iudeed. The rest of the innings was disappoin iug in the extreme, except for the fine batting of LilUy, who, if he could have found some­ body to siay with him, might have quite altered the appearance of the game. The two Lancashire iepre- sentatives, Briggs and MacLaren, each made a duck. The comparative failure of the Englishmen is the more surprising in that Jones was unable to bowl more than a few overs, owing to an injury to his side. Tne other regular bowlers of the team did well with­ out doing brilliantly, but a large share of the success of his ride is due to Trott, who, although he only took two wickets, t .ok them at a very critical stage of the game. The beginning of the follow-on was again disas­ trous, for YV.u., Abel, and Jackson failed for the second time in the match to do anything of import­ ance. Stoddart, however, scored a very useful 41, in making which he showed some very fine hitting, and Ranjitsinhji was again seen to advantage, carrying his bat for 4t. Thus four of the best wickets were down for 1<9, and Engl tnd were still 72 runs behind. Such was the situation at the end of the sccond day, and a more hopeless situation can hardly be imagined. It was quite possible that England might have to suffer an innings defeat; nobody dreamed that Aus~ tralia might have to fight with the utmost desperation for victory. Cricketers had an intuitive feeling that everything now depended on Kanjitsinhji; if he happened to 0 one of his brilliant innings he might possibly someone to stay with him and keep up his end sufficiently longto enable England to put on a score big enough to give Australia something considerable to do in the second innings. As it happened Ranjitsinhji played almost perfect cricket, but although several other men looked like staying with him, they each got out just at the time when they seemed thoroughly set, and none of them made more than 19. The Prince, however, made hay while the sun shone. By- and-bye the innings defeat was saved amid very loud cheers, which were still louder when Banjitsinhji made his hundred—the first which has been scored against the present Australian team. Gradually England forged ahead, and the excitement became great and ever greater. One longed for Gunn or Hayward at this period of the match. Every now and then one of Ranjitsinhji’s partners was dismissed, and at last the innings ended for 306- a fine total even if it had been made under the most favourable circum­ stances. The Australians had to make 125 to win. Although it was expected that they would win, there was a chance that they would lose several wickets before they could claim the victory, and twice during their innings it seemed that they would not win at all. Richardson bowled as he has hardly ever bowled before, and after Briggs had been taken off Hearne kept down the runs. The firsttwo Australian batsmen, Iredale and Darling, were just getting set when Iredale was bowled by Richardson. Immediately afterwards Giffen fell to a splendid catch in the slips by Ranjitsinhji. Trott followed him, and Darling followed Trott. Four wickets were down for 45. England had a chance at this time of wiuning. Donnan and Gregory, however, stopped the rot, and when Gregory fell 79 was up ; he had made a most useful 3J. England still had a chance, but it was not very great. Dtnnan went at 95 and Bill at 100. There was still achance—a bare chance - for England. Much responsibility lested on the shoulders of Kelly and Trumble, but they proved equal to the occasion, and the runs were slowly hit off ; Kelly was missed at the wicket when the total was 115, which prevented a more exciting finish. Richardson took six of the seven wickets which fell for 76, and altogether during the match he bowled 110 overs and 2 balls, and took 13 wickets for *244 runs a very gieat performance, since he had practically nobody who could help him. A u str a lia n s . First innings. Second innings. F. A. Iredale, b Briggs ...108 b Richardson ...11 J. Darling, c Lilley, b Richardson........................27 cLilley.bRichard- A u stralian s . First innings. Second innings. O. M. R. W. O. M. R. W. Richardson 68 23 168 7 .......... 422 16 76 6 Briggs .. 40 13 99 2 .......... 18 8 24 1 Jackson .. 16 6 34 0 ........ Hearne .. 28 11 53 0 ........ 24 13 22 0 Grace . . 7 3 11 0 ........ Stoddart . . 6 2 9 0 ......... L lley . . 5 1 23 1 ......... Richardson bowled one wide. E ngland . First innings. Second innings. O. M. R. W. O. M. R. W. Jones . . 5 2 11 0 ........ 17 0 78 2 Trott -.. 10 0 46 2 ......... 7 1 17 0 Gift'en .. 19 3 48 1 ........ 16 1 65 3 Trumble ... 37 14 80 2 ........ 29 1 12 78 2 McKibbin 19 8 45 3 ........ 21 4 61 3 G. Giffen, c and b Richard- ... 16 80 c Ranjitsinhji, b Richardson ... 6 G. H. 8. Trott, c Brown, b L ille y .............................. 53 cLilley,bRichard- son ................. 2 S. E. Gregory, c Stoddai t, b Briggs.............................. 25 c Ranjitsinhji, b Briggs . ... 33 H. Donnan, b Richardson 12 c Jackson, b Richaidson ... 15 C. Hill, c Jackson, b Richardson........................ 9 cLilley.bRichard- son ................. 14 H. Trumble, b Richardson 24 not out.................. 17 J. J. Kelly, c Lilley, b Ricliaid'ou..................... 27 notout.................. 8 T. R. McKibbin, not out ... 28 E. Jones, b Richardson ... 4 B 6, lb 8 , w 1............15 Leg-byes .. 3 Total................. 412 E n o lan d . First innings. W. G. Grace, ht Kelly, b Trott ... ................. 2 A. E. Stoddart, st Kelly, b Trott ............................... 15 K. S. Ranjitsinhji, c Trott, b McKibbin ................. 62 Abel, c Trumble, b M cK ibbin........................ 26 F. S. Jackson, run out ... 18 Brown (J. T.), c Kelly, b Trumble ........................ 22 A.C. MacLaren, cTrumble, b McKibben ................. 0 Lilley, not out .................... (5 Briggs, bTrumble ............ 0 Hearne (J. T.), c Trumble, b Giffen ........................ 18 Richardson, run out .......... 2 Bye ........... 1 Total................. 231 McKibbin delivered one wide. E S S E X v. W A R W IC K S H IR E . Played at Edgbaston on July 16, 17, and 18. Drawn. This was a match in which big scores were plenti­ ful. Mr. Perrin made his first hundred for Essex. Diver also made i hundred for Warwickshire, and Mr. Fane, Mr. Owen, Russell, W. G. Quaife, Welford, and Mr. Glover all improved their averages. The bowling haidly ever had the better of their batting, although Mr. Koitright and Santall had fair analyses. At the beginning of the match it was thought that Essex had a good chance of winning, but in the end it was lucky for them that time came to their retcue, for with only two wickets down Warwickshire were within measurable distance of winning. Tne batting of the Warwickshire men in the second innings was altogether admirable, and the stand made by W. G. Quaife and Diver, who both carried their bats, was the feature of the match. It is very pleasing to see that Mr. Owen and Mr. McGahey are both in gieat form again. E ssex . First innings. Second innings. F. L. Fane, b Santall............. 47 c Diver,b Forester 26 Carpenter, b Forester............. 26 c W. Quaife, b Santall .......... 5 P. Perrin, b Pallett ........... 139 run out.................. 14 C. McGahey, c Santall, b W. G. Quaife .................... 27 b Santall ........... 30 H. G. Owen, c Forester, b W . G. Quaife ................. 71 lbw, b Pallett ... 23 J. W. Bonner, c Diver, b Pallett ........................... 27 c Bainbridge, b Pallett ........ 25 Russell, b Forester ............ 12 c Welford, b Pal­ lett ................. 55 C. J. Kortright, c W . G. Quaife, b Pallett .......... 1 c W. G. Quaife, b Santall .......... 38 Mead, not out ................. 6 c W . G. Quaifc, b Santall ......... 7 F. G. Bull, b Forester ... 4 not out................... 0 Pickett, b Forester .......... 7 c and b Forester 3 B 12, lb 9, w 7 ............28 B 7, lb 7, w 2 16 Total (7 wkts) 125 Second innings, c Trott, b Jones 11 b McKibbin ... 41 not out.................154 c McKibbin, b Giffen ......... 13 c McKibbin, b Giffen .......... 1 c Iredale, b Jones 19 cJones,bTrumble 15 c Trott, b Giffen 19 Total ...395 W arw ic k sh ir e . Total.. 242 Santall, b Bull .......... 0 Pallett, b Kortright... 8 A. C. S. Glover, b Carpenter ......... 56 Forester, lbw, b Mead 13 B 14, lb 2 ..........16 Total ...347 H. W . Bainbridge, c Carpenter, b Pickett 20 Quaife (W.), b Koit­ right ........................ 0 Diver, lbw, b Mead ... C7 Quaife (W.G.),not out 81 Welford. b Kortright 83 Devey, b Kortright ... 0 Rev. E. J. Pereira, b Kortright .......... 3 Second innings:—H. W . Bainbridge, b Bull, 47 ; Quaife (W.), c Russell, b Kortright, 4 ; Diver, not out, 112 ; Quaife (W.G.), not out, 51; b 21, w 1.—Total (2 wkts), i36. E ssex . First innings. O. M. R. W. Pallett ..........31 Santall ..........31 Glover ......... 14 Forester ... 37’1 Quaife (W. G.) 14 Devey ......... 5 Pereira ......... 2 Welford......... 2 Second innings. O. M. R. W. ... 21 4 49 3 8 £9 4 2 14 0 7 75 2 1 23 0 6 6 0 27 6 . 321 . 8 10 Quaife bowled five wides and Pallett three wides. W a rw ick sh ire . st Kelly, b McO. M. R. W. O. M. R. W. Kibbin ..........16 Kortright .. 26 5 96 5 . . ... 11 2 54 1 Bull ... .. 27 15 55 1 . . ... 12 1 40 0 c Kelly, b Mc- Mead ... .. 21 2 86 2 . . ... 21 5 75 0 Kibbin ......... 9 Pickett... .. 22 5 70 1 . ... 15 i 45 0 cJones,bTrumble 1 Penin ... 1 0 1 0 B 2, lb 3, w 1... 6 McGahey .. 1 0 7 0 — Carpenter .. 5 1 16 1 Total .,,305 I Kortnght bowled a wide.