James Lillywhte's Cricketers' Annual 1884

T H ES E V E N T HE N G L I S HT E A MI N A U S T R A L I A . 3 first time together as an eleven on an Australian cricket -field . The morning wasgiven up to some very sorely needed practice , the first since a scratch match at Colombo against Eighteen of the Military . After luncheon Tylecote , who was acting as Captain , wonthe toss , a somewhat doubtful advantage , as the ground wasso fast as to give but a poor chance to batsmen in such bad practice . Our first six wickets fell in rapid succession , the play being of the most tentative description , especially to the left -handed bowling of Quilter , whose laborious delivery was evidently somewhat puzzling , though at a later period in the tour some of his far-pitched balls on the off side might not have met with such ceremonious treatment as they then received . At six wickets for 66 a friendly shower put a fortunate termination to the day's play, Tylecote and Barnes being left not out with 8 and 19 respectively . Onresuming next morning the benefit of a little more practice was apparent , and the two batsmen brought up the score to 135 before being separated , Barnes then retiring for a very good and useful innings of 42. The rest did not add much, while Tylecote hit up his score to 59, an innings which, although most creditable under the circumstances , was largely indebted to a fortunate aptitude on the part of the South Australians for misjudging catches . The enemy commenced to succumb rapidly to Morley , who, however , tired after a few overs ; and on Noel and Giffen becoming partners some really good cricket was shewn , both batsmen combining good defence with resolute , clean hitting on the off side . Noel also proved himself to be a very fine field , and should be a useful candidate for a place in the next Australian eleven . Whenstumps were drawn seven wickets were down for 126, and so the first match, which should , perhaps , be regarded rather as an exhibition game than a match , ended in a draw. As the s.s. " Kaisir -i-Hind ," which was to convey the team to Melbourne, left the next day- Sunday after- noon-the visit of the team was, much to their regret , reduced to these very short limits ; and, although great efforts were made by the committee to arrange another match there later on, these two days were destined to be the only two spentb ythe teamin Adelaide. W eomitted to mentionthat the " Oval," as the ground is called , was in very fine condition , and in another year or two ought to equal any ground in Australia . A pavilion of large dimensions had been erected on the west side of the ground just in readiness to be used for the first time at this match. O nNovember14th Melbourne, the future headquarters of the team, was reached , and two days ' really hard practice showed our menin somewhat better form by the Friday , when the Second match (v. Eleven of Victoria ) was commenced. TheVictorians were greatly weakened by the loss of the members of the Australian eleven , who were still in NewZealand , but were otherwise strongly represented , including in their ranks the well -known W. H. Cooper , as towhosepowers of twist and singularity of method so muchhad been heard . The English eleven , again successful in the toss , commenced batting on a perfect wicket. G. B. Studd soon succumbed to the curly ones , but Bates and Barlow, whohad before experienced these peculiar attacks , showed that they were by no means unplayable , and increased the score by 48 and 44 respectively ; the former a fine specimen of hard hitting . C. T. Studd , Tylecote , and Leslie also showed a bold front , the last namedespecially playing in his best style , and the result showed the very respectable total of 273. The Victorian innings , which started badly on the first evening with two wickets downfor 16, showed a remarkable mediocrity throughout , the batsmen playing Steel's slows and Read's not very formidable lobs with great indecision . The first innings closed for 104, and on following on, mainly through a hard hit 40 by Bruce , a left- handed bowler of some promise , the single innings was saved by one run . Scott, in an innings of 26, showed good form, and gave evidence of powers which he displayed to greater advantage in his innings of the second Victorian match. The necessary one run, with three attached to it in the shape of byes , was obtained without further disaster , and the match ended in a victory by ten wickets . Steel and Barlow both bowled steadily and well , while the fielding , though a little uncertain , was on the whole decidedly good . The B2