James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annaul 1897

1 8 LILLYWHITE'SCRICKETERS' ANNUAL. Mention has already been made of the fact that only two totals of three hundred were made against the team. But besides that , K. S. Ranjitsinhji and Abel were the only batsmen to makean innings of over a hundred against them . Onthe other hand , in proof of their ownrun-getting capacities , it maybe remarked that they made one total of over six hundred , one over five hundred, three over four hundred, andten over three hundredruns. A sthe averages will show, no less than seven of the fourteen members of the team obtained over a thousand runs during the tour . O fthese four , Darling , Hill , Iredale , and Donnanhad not been to England before , so that it will be seen the new men who were brought mainly for their batting all came off well . Darling's 194 against Leicestershire was the highest individual score , but in quality perhaps it was hardly as good as Iredale's 171 against the Players at Leyton, Donnan's 167 against Derbyshire , or Trott's 143 against England at Lord's . Trott's hundredagainst Englandat Lord's could hardly be disassociated from Gregory's brilliant innings of 103 during the same partnership . Gregory proved to be the most consistent batsman on the side , although just at the last he was a little bit out of luck. Darling fully upheld his Australian reputation , andconsidering that he was not yet twenty, the success of the young left -handed batsman, Clem Hill was remarkable . Iredale could do nothing right in the early part of the tour, and it looked as if he was going to falsify the high expectations rightly raised by his exceptionally brilliant record in Australia . Butafter he madefull amends, andhis scoring in July was consistently high. It wasvery satisfactory to find a batsman of such parts proving his undoubted ability after all . Trott wasthe mainstay of the side repeatedly , and he was always cool and reliable at a crisis . Giffen at the ontset was out of luck, but he batted consistently well later on, and he showed himself full of pluck and resource in an emergency . Donnan, another of the new men, was of great use with his defensive cricket . His innings of 167 against Derbyshire was a display of great merit . Illness handicapped Graham throughout thetour. It was a great pity, as he would have been one of the most dangerous batsmen in the team had he been in form, as the English bowlers found in 1893. Trumble's batting towards the end of the innings was often of great use to the side, and the samem a ybe said of Kelly. Eady's Lack of success was partially attributable to the fact that he wasnot in the best ofhealth . Jones' hitting was successful at times . Thebulk of the bowling devolved on Trumble, Jones, M'Kibbinand Giffen . Eachin his different waywas of service . Trumblehadto do the most of the work, and on every kind of wicket he met with success . Mixing his bowling with great judgment he was always an excellent length, and he proved himself to be a really great bowler throughout. His success wasthe more noteworthy in view of the slight respect in whichhe appeared to be held by some Australian critics . Jones fully upheld his character as a really good fast bowler . Hesent the ball in at a great pace andrather inclined to be short , and on a wicket that bumpedat all was very dangerous. H e made the ball come back at times a lot, and was of distinctuseto t h eside. Giffen was generally effective , and his judgmentwas as pronounced and his accuracy as marked as ever . H ewas of use repeatedly when the side were in a knot, and he was the same resourceful bowler as of old. M'Kibbin was lightly esteemed by a section of the Australian press ,