Cricket 1899

June 8 , 1899. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 181 ENGLAND y . AUSTRALIA. THE FIRST JIATCH. EIGH TH OF THE AUSTRALIAN TOUR. Played at Nottingham on June 1, 2 and 3. Drawn. Never was a match between England and Australia anticipated with greater interest than that at Nottingham in 1899. The urceitain*y as to what the bowling of our visitors was really lik e; the extreme difficulty o f choosing a satisfactory team to represent England; the in and out form shown by nearly all the men on either side ; and the anxiety felt by Englishmen about their own bowlers all tended to arouse the popular excitement. There was, more­ over, peculi-r interest in this match, because the Australians were most anxious to keep up the repu­ tation which they gained by their four victories out of five over Mr. Stoddart’s team, while the Englishmen were just as anxious to regain their supremacy. If the odds on the result were given in the sporting paptrs as they are on the boat-race, it is pretty certain that they would have been about 5 to 4 on Australia (if the match were finished)—possibly 6 to 4, since there was a distinct feeling o f uneasiness among Englishmen as to how their team would perform. W ith fine weather almost assured, the ] rospects of a good match were blight when play tegan on Thurs­ day. It was considered a piece of great good fortune for the Australians when ih ty wou the toss. They held winning cards, and it was anticipated that they wuuld make the very most of their opportunity to bring the match to a finish. But to a great extent they threw away their chanc* 8 on the Urst day, by takii g up ihe whole time in making a total of 238 runs for the It ss of eight wickets, which Aery con­ siderably increased the proba' ilities that the game would be drawn. It is possible that it was their desire to aim at a draw, and if to they plajed exactly the right game, but with England placed at a decided disadvantage by the want of a fast bowler, it seems certain that ‘‘ drawn game ” vas not the A us ralian watchword. Be this as it may ttu y would most likely have won ihe match if they—or some of the tenm—h*d s ored at a fairly quick rate. Even as things lurntd out, they seemed to have victory well wi hin their grasp a coup e of hours before time on Saturday. The cricket on Thursday was noc of great interest, ex> ept in so far as it showed that the England bowling was not as weak as had leen feared. A t the begin­ ning of the game Heai ne bowled maidens with a frequency which is unusual in the^e days when the >»icket is hard, and the batsmen found great difficulty ia playing both him and fthodes. Indeed, all through ihe day these two Eng i-h bowlers were treated wi h the greatest respect Although Iredale failed to make double figures, there seemed the prospect of a long score when Darling. Noble, Gregory and Hill ail made runs in a steady but certain way. Jbut fcr once the tail did not distinguish itself. W hen Bix wickets had fallen the total was ‘229; the remaining four only put up 23 runs between them. The most noticeab.e points in the innings weie the catch by which Hay­ ward disposed of lreda e, and the misunderstanding between Oregory and Hill which brought about the downfall of the latter when he was going very strong indeed. On FiiJay morning the innings was soon finished off. Nearly all the wickets fell to Rhodes and Hearne in equal shares ; the other bowlers wtre quite unsuccessful. The flist ball in ti e Ei gland luningsw asof the kind whith is described as sen- s ttional; indeed, if Grace had not Dt en to some extent prepaied by previous experience i f the pace at which Jones’ first two or three balls are delivered there plight have been a bad accident; as it was he ducked in time. To the consternation of Australian vit ito 8 Titchmarsh cal ed “ no ball,” and immediately eveiy- one jumped to the conclusion that Jones was to be placed on the index expurgatorius; but it was found that he had only gone over the crease. Then came an­ other sensation, for Fry was bowled neck and crop by Jones bef jie he had scored; but again Jones had gone overthe mark. Fry was obviously put off his gam ely the cry of •no bail,” and there is no reason to supp or e that he would have been bowled if Titchmar«-h had ■passed*’ tie ball. After this ail went well with England for more than an hour. W .G. was not quite at home, but Fry was in no way incommoded by the 1owl ng. W ith the total at 76 W .G. was out for 28, *hi«h he had put together in an hour and ten nunutes; it was not one of his finest efforts, but as far as could be seen at the time it had raved the way for a fine score by Eogland. In about an hour half the wickets were down for 117. This startling alt* ra­ tion in the appearance of the game was brought about by Noble and Jones, and from this time the Austra­ lians always had the best of it. Fry played a splendid innings for i.0. T*ie lot which had set in so badly was stayed for the moment by Kanjitsinhji and Tyldesley, but while the latter played as if he knew exactly what to do with every ball, the former was not himself by any means, and moreover he twice gave chances. But it was noticeable that he improved a little as he went on, and taken as a whole his innings of 42 runs was worthy of great praise. When thia partnership, which produced 55 runs in less than an hour, was eoded there was another fad collapse, and the Aus­ tralians held a lead of 59 runs. This was increased by 12 in the first over of their second innings, for Darling made three hits to the boundary off Rhodes, only to te bowled by him immediately afterwards. Then Hill and Noble played out time, not scoring with any great rapidity, but on the other hand not makiDg the mistake of the previous day ; in fact, during the hour and a half fcelore stumps were drawn the cricket was of very great interest. Thus on Saturday morning the Australians were in a most satisfactory position. They had nine wickets in hand and were 152 runs on. Hut the probabilities that their lead would not be of any real value to them were great unless they made runs very quickly before lunch; otherwise there would not te much time in which to get England out. r!h e overnight scoie of 93 was taken to 111 when Noble was l.b.w. The partnership between him and Hill had produced 93 luns in a little more than an hour and a half, but Noi-le himself had been in nearly two hours for his 45. W henthrte wickets were down Australia had a lead of 210 Then for a time the fortunes of the game veered round in favour of the home team. The third wicket fell at 151; the seventh at 180—chiefly on account of some excellent bowling by Jackson. Among the batsmen who were out was Hill, who had played perfect cricket for his 80 in the course of a stay of two hours and 40 minutes. He was brilliantly caught at point by W .G. A line stand by Trumbie and Kelly once more placed the Australians on a sounrt footing, but the result of their collapse was that they could not declare until lunch time, leaving England with three hours and a half before them to make 290 if they could—which was not vtry likely against Australian bowling on a wicket which w^as not particularly easy. Never was there such a shocking opening of an inn­ ings since the day when B ojle and -pofforth startled Englishmen at Lord’s. W ith one run on the boaid W.G. and Jackson were loth out. Thia at once did nway with all thoughts of trying to make the runs, and thereafter England wisely enough simply played for a draw, without taking thought about runs, ihirty-flve minutes were passed by Fry and Gunn in raising the total to If runs, and at this rate a draw seemed the easiest thins? imaginable. But at 10 Jones towledGunn. At 14 Fry was bowled by Trumble, and England had to fight for existence. It may be pretty safely said thar-no two batsmen were ever placed in a more trying position at this moment than Hay­ ward and Banjitsinhji. The Australians were now playing up for all they were worth. Everyone knows that in similar circumstances bowlers are fifty per cent, above their usual form, while the field are capable of doing the most brilliant things. So Ran­ jitsinhji and Hayward prepared to hold the fort. If fault had been found with Kanjitsinhji’s performance in the first innings because he seemed uncertain, there was no fault to be found with him now. He stood out master of the situation. Hayward did not lose his nerve, and when the turning point of the innings came, and he was missed at short leg, he played exactly the right sort of criiket that was re­ quired. Buns were of no value whatever, and no effort was made by ei’ her batsman to do anytbii g biiiiiant in the way of quick scoring. But time went ty, and the danger setmed to be almost past, when Hayward was at last out about an hour before time. Ihen Tyldesley once more showed that he is a good man for a cri is. 1 heie was still an hour to be got through s<mehow or other, and he kept Banjitsinhji company uniil only a few minutes remained for pl<y, an^ the game was saved. Ranjitsinhji carried lis bat for a superb innings of 93 ; he might have made his hundred, but he would take no risks. One more wict et fell before time, but the game was saved. A u st r a l ia . First innings. J. J. Darling, b Hearne ...47 F. A. Indale, c Hayward, b Hearne................................. 6 M. A. Noble, b Rhodes ...41 S .E Giegory, b Hirst ... 48 Clem Bill, run out .......52 V. 'I rumper, b Hearne ... 0 J.J.K elly,c Biist, b Hearne 26 F. Laver, b Rhodes ......... 3 W . P. Howell, c Hayward, b Rhodes ........................ 0 H. Trumble, not o u t .......16 E. Jones, c Fry, b Rhodes .. 4 B 8, lb 1 ................ 9 Second innings, b Bhodes .*. ... 14 run out ...........20 lbw, b Rhodes ... 45 c Grace,b Jackson 80 b JacVson ...........11 not out................. . 11 b Jackson ........... 3 not out........... ... 4 c Ranjitsinhji, b Fhodes ...........38 c Ranjitiinhji, b Hearne ........... 3 Leg-bye........... 1 Total .................. 252 Total (8wkts) *230 * Innings declared closed. E n g lan d . First innings. W.G. Grace, c Kelly, b Noble 58 C. B. Fry, b Jones ...........tO F. S. Jackson, c Darling, b N o b le ................................... 8 Gunn ( W .), b Jones ...........14 K. S. Jt.anjitsinbji, b Jones 42 Hayward, run out ........... 0 T) ldesley, c Laver, b Howell 22 8torer, b Jones ................... 4 Hirst, b Howell .................. 6 Rhodes, c Ke.ly, b Jones ... 6 Heame (J. T.), not out ... 4 Lb 3, nb 6 ................... 9 Second innings. b How ell ........... 1 cJones,b Trumble 9 b Howell . b Jones not out .. . b Trumble . 0 3 !):$ 28 cKelly.b Trumble 10 lbw, t>Jones ... 3 Total ................193 A u str a lia . B 5, nb 2, w 1... 8 Total (7 wkts) 155 O. M. R. W . O. M. R. W . Rhodes ... ... 35 2 13 58 4 ... ... 20 3 60 3 Hearne ... ... 69 28 71 4 ... ... 29 10 70 1 Grace ... 20 8 81 0 ... ... 2 0 6 0 Hirst........... ... 24 9 42 1 ... ... 11 4 20 0 Jackson ... ... 11 3 27 0 ... ... 26 8 57 3 Hayward... ... 3 0 14 0 ... ... 6 2 16 0 E n g la k d . Firsi ionings Second innines. O. M. R. W . O. M. R. W . Jones ... 33 6 88 5 .. ... 22 9 81 2 Howell ... ... 28 4 12 48 2 ... ... 37 is 54 2 Trumble ... ... 13 7 17 0 ... ... 29 16 39 3 Noble ... 16 4 36 2 ... ... 11 5 23 0 Jones deliver* d five n.»-bal s, Trumble three no-talls, and Noble one wide. M.C.C. AND GROUND v. KENT. Played at Lord’s on June 1, 2 and 3. M.C.C. won by two wickets. The first innings of the M.C.C. was chiefly remark­ able for the batting of the three Essex professionals. Caipenter made 73 in very pretty style in two hours and twenty minutes, while Mead put up 72 in an hour and a quarter, and Young trought up the rear with a very useful 48. The feature of the Kent 1atting was the fine display of Mr. Burnup in each innings; he seems to have quite recovered his form. M.C.C. a n d G rou n d . First innings. Dr. G. Thcrnton, c Burnup, Second innings, c F. B. Brown, b B r a d e y ........... 5 b Martin ........... 0 c Mason, b Brad- l»y ................... 0 cHuish,bBradley 30 b Martin ...........................29 Carpenter, b Bradley...........r,3 A. E. Trott, c Brown, b M a r tin ................................36 F. G. J. Ford, b Bradley ... 29 H. O. Peacocs, c Hearne, b B row n.................................. 0 b Martin ....... W. B. S oddart, c Huish, b Mai tin .................................. 10 n otou t................. A. G. Archer, b Bradley ... 0 b B ra d le y......... Mead, b M a r tin ................. 72 c and b Bradley.. R. P. Lewis, b Martin ... 4 b Bradley ......... Young, c Knowles, b Mason 48 not out................. Roche, not out ................... 9 Leg-bye ................... 1 Lb 4, nb 1 .. Total ..291 Total (8 wkts.) 101 K e n t . First innings. J. R. Mison, c and d Roche 2 A, Hearne, lbw, b Roche ... 10 C. J. Burnup, c Stoddart, b R o c h e ...................................61 W . L. Knowles, lbw, b Trott *8 H. M. Braybrooke, c Car­ penter, b M ead................... L. J. LeFleming, c Peacock, b T r o t t ................................ Martin, c Trott, b Roche ... Brown, b Roche ................... F. D. Brown, b Trott........... Ilui8h, not out ................... W. M. Bradley, b Trott ... B 13, lb 6 ................... Second innings, c Trott, b Roche 16 b Young ...........18 c Lewis, b Trott 79 b Stoddart...........42 8 lbw ,b Stoddart... 4 b Trott.................. 24 c Ford, b Stoddart 19 cCarpenter,bTrott 0 c and b Trott ... 10 notout...................17 b Trott ........... 5 B 5, lb 2 ... 7 Total ...160 Total... . 241 Bradley... Mason ... H eaine... Martin ... Brown ... Burnup... Roche ... Young ... Trott ... M.C.C. a n d G rou n d . First innings. Second innings. O. M. R. W . ~ ................ 26 . 14 , 17 . 18 . 19 3 O. 17 , 6 M R. W . 3 60 6 3 10 0 3 26 2 16 0 Martin bowled a no-tall. (). 18 10 . 16 . 8 K e n t . M. R. W. O. M. R. W 62 6 ........... 18 2 63 1* 9 0 ...........11 3 19 1 29 4 ........... 24-2 2 95 5 31 1 ...........10 1 31 0 Stoddart 14 1 36 3 1