James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1883

2 4 L I L L Y W H I T E ' SC R I C K E T E R S ' A N N U A L . P A R T II. C H A P T E R I. T H EA U S T R A L I A N T E A MIN E N G L A N D . THEdoings of the third Australian team in England have been thoroughly overdone . W e shall be excused , therefore , if we only glance briefly at the general results of the team. The record of their visit was exceptionally brilliant . Their most sanguine supporter could hardly have ventured to predict such a series of successes , it must be admitted . Their progress was, indeed , one long triumphal march. Luck was, no doubt , on their side , and in no small degree ; but no one can write a word in desparagement of their cricket ; no one can gainsay the lesson of good discipline and thorough confidence in each other , which their tour furnished , it is to be hoped for the profit of English players . Out of thirty -eight matches , they could claim no less than twenty -four victories , against only four defeats . They were lucky in manyways, particularly in winning the toss -a great advantage in the generally heavy condition of the wickets during the season . Inall pro- bability they would have been beaten by the eleven which bore the name of the Orleans Club, and by Marylebone and Ground, had time allowed . They fully proved their ability as all -round players to cope with the best of our English teams ; and the fact that they defeated every one of our principal county elevens , is sufficient evidence of their excellence . Of the three matches played against representative English elevens , they won two and lost one. They defeated the Gentlemen by an innings and a run ; but had to put up with a more decisive reverse at the hands of, by no means the strongest team of the Players . Of their victory over the chosen eleven of England, little canbe said nowthat was not said at the time. Whatever opinions maybe expressed on the play of some of the English eleven at the close , no one would gainsay the pluck of their opponents at the crisis . At the same time , a win by only seven runs can in no way be regarded as an evidence of superiority ; and , despite this success , there was nothing to show that the best English eleven is as yet inferior to the strength of Australia . In some ways their cricket was superior to ours beyond a doubt . It was somewhat singular that , used as they are to fast grounds , they should have scored so well on our slow wickets . In batting and fielding there was really little to choose between the best English and Australian team. O na hard wicket our batting would have been found the better , as was proved morethan once ; but in bowling they certainly showed to advantage ; and whenever the wicket helped their bowling at all , they came off with flying colours . Spofforth , whowas out of practice , did not begin well ; but he was quite as deadly as ever at the finish . His bowling at the close of the matchbetween Englandand Australia at the Oval, will not soon be forgotten . Boyle's bowling looked easy , but his length was excellent , and the height of his delivery made it deceptive . Garrett was always to be relied on. H e was rarely off the wicket ; knewwell how to keep about the blind spot of a batsman ; and when the ground helped him, was dangerous . Palmer bowled