James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1885

T H EF O U R T HA U S T R A L I A N T E A M. 1 1 werereally the superiors of the Fourth Australian Team. It is one of the natural conditions of such a tour considering , especially , all the circumstances under which it was carried out , that there should be some surprises , and those of Huddersfield , Brighton , and Canterbury would generally be classed under this category. W eare still loth and unwilling to believe that the best Australian team is superior to the pick of our own cricket . Underfavourable conditions nothing has as yet occurred to prove a superiority , though we are ready and willing to admit that the struggle is a close one, and the balance not unevenly weighted . N o impartial critic , though , but would honour the brilliant all- round cricket shown by the team which visited us last summer, or acknowledge with pride the skill and energy which has brought Australian cricket to such ahigh state of perfection as to enable it to reach the level of the best of the Old Country. It is no intention of this article to enter into any discussion on the status of the Australians , judged by the line which separates the two great elevens of English players . As cricketers , the team wichlast visited us, certainly added to, rather than lowered , the reputation of the Colonies , and Englishmen generally will congratulate them most heartily on the marked success which attended them, particularly in the matches in which it wastheir great ambition to figure to advantage . It has frequently , and apparently with some reason , been argued that the victories of Australian teams have been mostly won by the superiority of their bowling. In some respects the same argument might again be adduced for manyof their triumphs in 1884 were due in great measure to the wonderful skill of that great master of the art of attack -Spofforth . In batting , despite the extraordinary show against England at the Oval on those two scorching days of August, it might fairly be argued that , as a whole, the Australians ' batting did not prove itself to be quite as good as the best of English production . Theyshowed themselves frequently enough to be possessed of little or no tail , and Blackham's pluck more than once stood them in good stead whenthe gameseemed to be almost lost . Still , at the best , we are inclined to think that English batting will compare favourably with the best display of Australian cricketers on English grounds . Murdoch, at the commencementof the tour , was altogether out of form ; and, though later on he played some fine innings , he was not of quite the same value to the team. Still , his score of 211 against England at the Oval will rank as the finest of many fine exhibitions , and he is yet beyond a doubt without a rival at home, as with very few here . McDonnell showed a very great improve- mentonany previous form in England. His hitting wasgenerally brilliant ; but there was more judgment in the use of his powers , and some of his innings were remarkably good . Blackham, though suffering at times from a bad hand, batted consistently well ; and he was frequently , as already remarked, of the greatest use in anemergency. Bonnor, though he hit in great formagainst the Players , was, onthe whole, not quite as successful as was expected ; and Midwinter, though hardly of the value hoped as an all -round cricketer , showed fairly good cricket without any large scores to increase his average . Giffen , the best all -round m a n in the team, batted with creditable results ; but Bannermanwas by no means in his form of 1882, though it will be seen his average is a fair one. Palmerproved himself more than once to be a much better batsman than he is generally accounted , andhis innings at Lord's against the Gentlemen, and at Derby against Derbyshire, were the result of really good cricket Spofforth , too , towards the end of the tour proved of great use as a bat, and with a great increase of discretion in his hitting he was of muchmore value . One of the best features of the tour was the great success which attended Scott's inclusion in the team. H eproved himself to be one of the soundest and most reliable batsmen through- out, and everyone was highly pleased at his good fortune . H e has not a taking style , but he watches the ball very carefully , and he never lost heart whenhe hadto go in at the greatest emergency. His innings at Lord's , the Oval, and Cliftonwill notsoonbe forgotten.