Cricket 1899

J u l y 20, 1899. C R IC K E T : A W E E K L Y R E C O R D O F T H E G A M E . 287 ENGLAND y . AUSTRALIA. THE FOURTH MATCH. T W E N T Y -F IR S T O F T H E A U S T R A L IA N T O U R . Played at Old Trafford on July 17, 18 and 19. Drawn. The position of Englishmen at the begin­ ning of this match was not enviable. If they lost the game the honours of the contests would go to Australia; if the result were a draw Australia would be still ahead however much it might be in favour of England, for moral victories count for exactly as much as a so-called minor point at Rugby football; while even if the home team won it would still only he level with its opponents. In the first two matches of the series England was fighting desperately against odds; in the third match England, as in days of old, was the attacking bide, while at Old Trafford, after an ingloiious beginning, England again took the lead, while their opponents were struggling against fate and excellent bowling. Owing to the immense amount of interest which the fourth match had excited, the crowd at Manchester was so great that it was found necessary to take measures to prevent any increase of it. The weather had been perfect for some days, and as the wickets at Old Trafford have the reputation of being among the best in the world, it was felt that a great deal depended on winning the toss, so that the spectators were highly delighted when it was known that England would have the opportunity of hatting first. The Australians were obliged to leave Clement Hill out of their team because he had not recovered from an operation which had been performed on him, and they also decided to give McLeod and Johns the chance of looking on instead of playing. Doubtless, however, they would have been very glad of McLeod’s bowling towards the end of the first day. Brown would have played for England, but in the match last week against Warwickshire he so severely injured his hand that 1e found it impossible to take his place in the team. Bradley was the only man who made his first appearance in an England and Australia match. It cannot he said that the previous performances this year in these matches of the first four or five men in the England team were such as to lead to the supposition that they were all likely to come off at the same time, but nobody dreamt for a moment that they would all fail, more or less. Almost as soon as the game began it was seen that Jones was likely to be troublesome, for the ball got up very awkwardly every now and then, while, discovering that the short ball was even more awkward than any other, Jones wisely used it a good deal. Quaife and Fry began the innings very slowly and very care­ fully, and they seemed to have surmounted the preliminary difficulties when Quaife was beautifully taken at short leg by Darling— one for 14. This was bad because it was unexpected, for Quaife, even when he does not get many runs, can generally keep going for a long time. A few minutes afterwards Fry played a short one from Jones on to his wicket, and two were down for 18. Mean­ while .Ranjitsinhji had been playing in his best form, and it was a shock to the feelings of the onlookers when he, too, was out off Jones at 27. This was a commencement quite worthy of the Australians themselves, with the difference that England had no powerful batsmen in the tail who might be trusted to pull them through. It was pain­ fully exciting when Jackson and MacLaren were together, and when the latter, who could never get quite at home, was bowled by Noble, the situation was desperate. For be it remembered that Heame, Young and Bradley are not looked upon seriously as batsmen, and if they made ten runs between them they may be considered to have played quite up to their reputation ; so that the only men on whom we had to rely were Hayward, Jackson, Lilley and Brockwell. If a couple of them failed to come oft' we were likely to be in a Lole. One hardly dared to hope that Hayward, who in each of the England v. Australia matches has had to go in when his side was in great straits, would for the fourth time in succession rise supeiior to all difficulties. But there Mas no nervousness about him, and no excitement. His first business was to keep up his wicket and trust to something happening later in the innings, and for three-quarters of an hour he let the bowlers do their worst, making only eight runs. Meanwhile Jackson, while he was not always happy in his strokes, was playing a great game, and when he was disposed of he had at least placed his side in a far better position, and he had paved the way for a good score if the other men were able to make use of their opportunities. Five wickets were down for 122 : This was the state of the game at lunch time, and it will be seen that despite their hopeless beginning the English batsmen had not been remarkably long in making their runs. After lunch Hayward went on with his innings in his obstinate way, and the Australian bowlers must soon have, begun to realise that if they got him out at all it would be through accident. Meanwhile Brockwell was playing the bowling with confidence and not a little skill, but for the present he seems to have lost the art of playing a long innings, and just when hopes were greatest that he was set for a big score he was finely caught at mid-on at 154. This made six wickets down and the innings seemed practically over, always provided that Lilley could be promptly dismissed. But Lilley is a good man in a critical situation, and he proved a fitting partner for Hayward. Ten after ten went up, and then came the satisfaction of seeing 200 appear on the board—a very much better state of affairs. By this time the two batsmen were out of hand, and all the bowlers could do was to keep runs down as much as possible and hope that Fortune would soon come in their way. It was not until the total at the fall of the sixth wicket had been nearly doubled that Lilley’s splendid innings came to a conclusion after he had put on 113 runs with Hayward in an hour and forty minutes. Hayward was now playing absolutely perfect cricket, his cutting being especially notice­ able. He was joined by Young, whose only great performance with the bat was his 81 against the very weak bowling of the Gentle­ men at the Oval a short time ago. Young played an innings of which a great batsman might have been proud, hitting with very great vigour at times, but doing nothing rashly. He was in with Hayward for about three-quarters of an hour, and helped him to put on 57 runs. Then Hayward’s big and remarkable innings came to a close; it had lasted for four hours and a-quarter, and was quite free from fault. When he left the total was 324. J. T. Heame made a laudable attempt to make his famous four to square leg, but the hit resulted in a catch, and Bradley came in to close the innings—Bradley who is regarded by every bowler as a victim offered up for immediate slaughter. But Bradley has never played in an England match before, and under such exceptional circumstances he developed form which astonished the bowlers and aroused the crowd to enthusiasm. The last wicket put on 35 runs, and the innings came to a close just before the end of the day for a satisfactory total. Australia had to go in for ten minutes. Young very nearly bowled Laver first ball, and Bradley got him caught at the wicket— a clever catch—before he had scored. When stumps were drawn Australia had made a run for the loss of a wicket. The two not outs were Kelly and Howell, both men who are capable of making a big score, and it was by no means unlikely that on Tuesday morn­ ing they would take a good deal of the sting out of the bowling before they were parted. But bad as had been the commencement of the English innings, it was brilliant as com­ pared with that of the Australians. Bradley and Young both rose to the importance of the occasion, the former bowling at a great pace, and making the ball get up occasionally in the manner of Jones. By the difficulty which the Australians showed in playing him it was evident that a good fast bowler was no easier to them than Jones was to most Englishmen. Bradley followed up his success of the pievious day by promptly bowling Sowell, and was then unfortunate enough to see Worrall missed off him by Brockwell—safest of fieldsmen. A few minutes afterwards Young bowled Kelly, and three wickets were down for 14. Noble was the man for the occasion. He was not perturbed by the state of the score, and proceeded to play himself in with as much care, and unconcern withal, as if he were engaged in a match against Derby­ shire, and, like Hayward, he was not to be moved. But the other batsmen were not so fortunate. At 26 Bradley bowled Worrall, and then Young had a series of successes which was almost bewildering. At 35 he disposed of Gregory, lbw ; at 53 he bowled Trumper, and at 57 Darling. There were now seven wickets down for 57, and the excitement was intense. But there was a particularly fine tail to do battle for the Australians, for Laver, Kelly and Howell had all gone in overnight. Trumble has been the hero of many a plucky fight when runs have been sorely needed by his side, and when he joined Noble (who was going on as calmly as ever), the bowling was gradually, very gradually, mastered. After Bradley and Y oung were once knocked off there was not much to contend with, and at lunch time both batsmen were still going strong with the total at 130 for seven, so that with very much better batsmen to follow the Australians were not much worse off than the Englishmen at the same period. Soon after lunch the partnership, which had produced 82, was broken, Trumble being caught by MacLaren for a very fine innings of 44. Iredale came in and played a fine game, and helped Noble to increase the total by 56, and then the innings was soon closed. Noble, who had been in for three hours and ten minutes, was still unconquered, and looked as if he could have gone on for hours. Bradley and Young had bowled nearly all through the innings. The Australians were 176 runs to the bad, but at this stage of the game anything was possible. Noble came out again and began to play himself in once more without undue haste. Worrall, who went in with him, was not to be disposed of for a small score a second time, and he played a very fine innings for 53, the first wicket producing 93. By the end of the day the score had been taken to 142 for the loss of only two wickets, so that with eight wickets in hand and 34 runs to knock off, the Australians were not in a hopeless position by any means. Trumper, who was not out 18, was missed off the first ball which he received. On Wednesday Trumper played admirable crisket, ’ while Noble steadily laid himself out to play for a