Cricket 1900

“ Together joined In Cricket’s manly toil.” — Byron. 54 9 . v o t . x ix . THURSDAY, AUGUST 2, 1900. p b ic e aa. CHATS ON THE CRICKET FIELD. E. H. D. SEWELL. For a long time readers of Cricket have been familiar with the doings in India of thisyoung cricketer who isnow qualifying for Essex with the most promising pro­ spects. He was beyond a doubt the best cricketer in India after Major Poore went away, and against all the best bowling which could be brought against him he continually made big scores, while as a bowler he met with great success. The best judges were agreed that if he had the opportunity of playing in really good company he would develop into a first- class cricketer of more than ordinary merit, and the up­ shot of this was that he was offered a temporary engage­ ment by the Essex committee which he accepted. Before he went to India and while still at school he played four or five times for Bedfordshire in 1891, when this county was doing its level best to come to the front. His best performance in thesematches was against the Surrey Second Eleven, who were beaten for the first time for many years, not a little through his excellent all­ round play: he took five wickets in the second innings for seven runs, scored 17 and 29 (the highest score in the second innings) and made four or five catches. At school in his last year he had an average of nearly 50, scoring a hundred and several innings over fifty. In India his highest scorejwas 246 for Madras at Bellary on a matting wicket, while he also made 225 not out at Ootaca- mund. Both of these scores were records for the ground, and he is the only man who has ever played two separate innings of two hundred in India. Another Indian record of his was the playing of three successive innings of over a hundred in successive matches in 1898, viz. : 180 for Madras v. Yercaud in May ; 246 for Madras v. Bellary in June; and 120 for Bangalore v. Bellary in July. His total record for matches in India is 7,832 runs in 160 completed innings (135 matches), and 713 wickets for 6,494 runs. He scored twenty-one innings of over a hundred, four of which were'ground records. His R. H . D. SEW ELL. {from a Photo by R. W. Thomas, Gheapside , London. record for a season (1st August, 1897 to 31st July, 1898) is 2,665 runs in nineteen innings, average about 140; and 152 wickets for 9-5 runs apiece. Since he has been in England he has several times made a big score for the Essex Club and Ground, and his runs were generally made when they were badly wanted. As to the advisability of Indian likely to good as had the cricketers visiting England, as was talked about last winter, Sewell said: “ If they came for purely educational purposes it might be a good thing, for they would most certainly learn a great deal. But if they were to come for the purpose of showing their abilities I feel sure that they would not do even as well as the West Indians. They don’t know enough about the game yet. It is true that they have three or four undoubtedly fine cricketers, but as a team they could not distinguish themselves. It would abso­ lutely kill them to have to play six days a week. At present Jayaram and Mistri would be expected to make all the runs, and no man can do that sort of thing.” “ Do you think that Jaya­ ram is the best man among the natives ? ” “ Jayaram is said by the best judges to be turn out almost as Ranjitsinhji if he chances. I haveplayed a lot of cricket with him, and I should say that when he was in form he would be good enough to play in any county team. His bat is always at the right place at the right moment, and the middle of the bat too, and if he is caught it is off the middle of the bat. He uses a very heavy bat for his size, but this does not prevent him from cutting tremendously hard. He can bowl and keep wicket as well as most cricketers, while he can take any place whatever in the field equally well. He is very eager to come to England. But he gets no practice ngainst first-class bowling, and indeed the i nly time that he ever played against it was in one of the matches against Lord Hawke’s team, when he had such a bad elbow that he waB not fit to play at all.” “ What of the other good native cricketers ? ” “ I should say that when he is at': his bestRajagopalchari, aBrahmin of Madras,