James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annnual 1881

T H EA U S T R A L I A NT E A M . T3 judge erroneously as to score . Certainly no man ever did himself justice with an inferior style of play ; for style implies an upright bat , a com- mandingattitude , and the free use of arms and wrists . Nay, to the critical eye, something above all this is required , namely :- acertain natural and habitual form of play , which alone conveys that idea of ease and efficiency whichexperience imparts ; still , as few batsmenindeed are perfect in every point , wemayobserve that we have seen manymenwith bended knees and cramped arms play with so much judgment , and, above all , with such care- ful watching of the ball , that , making up for other deficiencies in other points , they would poke away through half the innings , disgusting the bowler anddoing good service to their side . W ehave seen one manscore seven while his partner made65. W eourselves once scored 30 while our partner madefive , whenthat partner had more than three times as many balls , therefore he should have scored anhundred instead of five ! So it is easy to understand that the Australians , though most of theminferior byfar to the form of Murdoch, might, bydaily practice , andbeing perfect in a style of their own, prove worth far more runs than appeared to lookers on, whotake a one-sided view of things . As to fielding , the Australians , from playing continually together and knowingeach other's play, had some advantage over all elevens , but a de- cided advantage over all but the best elevens . W ecannot say that at the Ovaltheyhadmuchsuperiority in that respect . Their competitors all knew eachother, and were all so good, andcould readily place themselves correctly ; butonnearly every other occasion wewere remindedof whatGeorge Parrsaid to theoncefamousSurrey Eleven-equally well drilled in playing together— whenthey appeared at Nottingham . He said , ' You ought to give us forty runs to start with. Your bowlers knowevery man's place and capability and we don't .' W eshould prefer to dwell rather on the distinctive form and style of the Australian fielding . The first thing that seemed remarkable w a stheir very quick return . Here our m e nm a ytake a lesson , andnote à point for special practice . The second point was, that they were good and accurate throwers . They threw low as well as straight , and therefore fast, and with little time lost in the act of throwing. This is truly noteworthy . W e have few fieldsmen but would improve if they would pay attention to these two points . M e n practice and makė a study often enough of batting and bowling, but fielding is treated as if it required no special study and attention . Yes, one m a n I could mention, whose good judgment and perseverance readily recur to m y mind-one m a n who, while others were batting, was satisfied to stop behind wicket. W e fancy at this momentw e see him stand further and further , nowto the right , and now to the left ; so would he practise crossing the ball and scooping it up with two hands cleanly in his run, and quite sorry if he staggered and lost the balance for a quick return. PoorFred. Grace ! whenshall wesee his like again tomeasure the distance and correctly judge a square -leg hit ? Witness that skying ball hit by Bonnor at the Oval , and the precision with which Fred. judged and caught it. All this depends on practice . Amanwho means to play long- field or distant points should have balls hit high and difficult for him to practise , andnever should be satisfied till his throw is arrow-like-no time lost in the parabola whenthrown or in the act of throwing. There are few matches in which there are not chances missed enough to determine the issue of the game, so valuable is the safe and reliable fieldsman . A t slip or short -leg a miss is often the result of inattention . The B 2