Date-stamped : 31 Jan97 - 14:22
Day 1: Electronic Telegraph

Silverwood on his mettle for prime Test role

THIRTY-SIX hours after the emotional highs and lows of the
Auckland Test, England found themselves in a hard day's cricket,
albeit in delightful surroundings, at Wanganui, writes
Christopher Martin-Jenkins.

No sooner were they celebrating an excellent piece of
fast-medium bowling by Chris Silverwood, whose career-best
figures of six for 44 more or less demanded a place for himself
in next week's second Test at Wellington, than they found
themselves batting in a noisy and hostile atmosphere which was
more Australian than Kiwi.

In 10 overs of committed, fast and bouncy bowling by Geoff
Allott and Heath Davis, three of the four specialist batsmen in
the England team were blasted away, all to catches close to the
wicket. England ended the day at 30 for three in reply to the A
team's 181 all out.

To some extent, however, this game is about giving those who
have been left out of the Test team a chance to shine and the
summary dismissal of Mike Atherton, Nick Knight and John Crawley
certainly opened up opportunities for others.

If yesterday's rate of progress were to continue, the game would
be over inside three days, which would only reinforce David
Lloyd's strongly made point that touring itineraries should not
ask teams to play two days after a Test has ended.

The intervening day between the last day of the Test and the
first one of this game was spent in travelling and though that
is often a joyous experience in New Zealand, especially when the
journey is made by road through glorious scenery, Lloyd was
right to describe this as "a potentially difficult day".

England, at any rate, buckled down well to their challenge in
the field, despite losing the toss on a pitch which was reputed
to be a beauty. In the event it allowed the new ball to go
through with a firm smack into the wicketkeeper's gloves and
though the bounce soon died, there was a little turn for Robert
Croft and Phil Tufnell, a tendency which will no doubt increase.

Silverwood will look back on this as one of the happiest days of
his career. He took two wickets in his first four overs; another
three in an exemplary spell with an older ball after lunch; and
a sixth to pass his previous best figures for Yorkshire, thus
finishing another potentially embarrassing last-wicket stand
which had already lasted 47 minutes.

His wickets came from accuracy and persistence, qualities not
associated with any of England's recent fast bowlers, except,
perhaps, Angus Fraser and Peter Martin. If Silverwood does not
achieve the same steep bounce off a length of Fraser in his
prime, nor as much outswing as Martin, he is quicker than both.
He tries, he says, to "make the batsman play, hit the deck hard
and put it in the right areas".

His bowling certainly achieved that yesterday. It seldom veered
from the off-stump, though it did so off the pitch or through
the air sufficiently often for three of his wickets to be caught
behind the wicket: two by the reliable Knight at second slip,
one by Jack Russell, who is relishing his first first-class
match since the end of the English season in September. It was,
as Lloyd said, "good, honest, strong bowling".

It would be unwise to suggest that he is a world-beater, but a
reliable bowler is emerging, one who will get stronger and
better if he keeps his feet on the ground. Silverwood is that
ideal, a keen yet calm cricketer and it was a pleasure to see
him sometimes running towards the umpire with his cap before he
started an over. Three of his victims have played Test cricket
but only Darrin Murray, sound but limited, and Matthew Horne,
who looked a good batsman in form, put together innings of any
substance.

Andrew Caddick bowled better than at any stage of the tour. He
had Murray missed at short leg and got past the bat as often as
his young opening partner without finding the edge. The only one
England's six bowlers could not shift was the slim and
highly-rated wicketkeeper, Jason Mills.

Mills, however, missed a couple of difficult chances during
England's torrid 16-over session at the end of the day. Had he
caught Nasser Hussain, who battled it out well, they would have
been 33 for four, which would not have been the best way to end
the day.

Atherton edged a hook at the speedy Davis, who has added more
control to his considerable pace, and Knight and Crawley were
caught respectively at short leg and third slip off Allott, who
bowls fast left-arm after the manner of the Australian Mike
Whitney, and has a good chance of playing in the second Test.


Source :: Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk)

Day 2 Report - Electronic Telegraph

England have their fragility exposed again

ENGLAND'S potentially difficult day, as their coach described
the first day of the match against New Zealand A, turned
yesterday into an extremely difficult one, writes Christopher
Martin-Jenkins.


Not to put too fine a point on it, they are likely to be beaten
fair and square by the New Zealand second XI.

If this is far from the debacle it might appear, it is
nonetheless a far from ideal preparation for the Wellington
Test, starting next Thursday. In the last four days, New Zealand
have gone from being down and out at lunch-time to a team in
firm command of what might be called the morale high ground.

Bowled out for 107 on a dry pitch, which appeared to be littered
with mines when England were batting, the touring team were then
in all probability batted out of the game by more highly
motivated opponents.

Robert Croft, and an under-used Andrew Caddick apart, they
bowled poorly. John Emburey stoutly maintained that "the pitch
might have flattened out a bit" and there is only one small part
of it, the size of a cricket ball, where the surface has gone,
but England were quite unable to hit it and it looks as though
Steve Rixon, who is coaching this side as he does the Test team,
is on the way to a hat-trick of wins against England in these
sort of matches.

He coached New South Wales when they thrashed the otherwise very
successful team in Australia in 1986/87 - a shambolic
performance by a side he remembers as being much less in harmony
than this one - and guided his former state to a four-wicket win
at the same ground, Newcastle, on the last tour of Australia, in
1994/95.

Another of those quietly impressive, thoughtful coaches from
Australia, who have proved their worth elsewhere, Rixon is
making his mark on New Zealand cricket already.

England would have been hard pushed to win here with the first
XI on duty, so well did Geoff Allott and Heath Davis, two very
fit and strong young men anxious to win back their Test places,
direct their aggressive fast-bowling, on the first evening and
again yesterday morning. They have so far heavily outgunned
their English counterparts on a pitch which rewarded quick 'hit
the deck' bowling.

The discrepancy might have been less obvious had Darren Gough
been playing, he being the only man in the party capable of
bowling at a genuinely fast pace.

The occasional ball from Craig White might be the exception, but
his stock has fallen so rapidly in the last 10 days that he has
gone from being The Management's idea of the pivot of the Test
team to the sixth bowler.

When he came on, at 151 for four, it was against two batsmen
well set and neither he nor anyone else could part Llorne Howell
and Chris Harris, who made 251 for Canterbury 10 days ago and is
one of two or three playing here who might get into the Test 12.

Chris Silverwood failed to repeat his excellence on the previous
day and Andrew Caddick, who would have been a real menace in
these conditions at his best, was mis-used by Mike Atherton,
bowling too little and initially from the end which suited him
least.

There was an element of planning for Wellington in the amount of
overs Atherton gave to Phil Tufnell and Robert Croft. There was
some turn for both, quite sharp turn at times for Croft, who
might have been given at least two of the lbws he was refused,
but the captain might well conclude that if the pair could not
take more than a wicket apiece on a dry and dusty pitch, they
are unlikely to bowl out a Test side at the Basin Reserve in
Wellington.

New Zealand's second Test team is due to be picked and announced
this evening, and Allott and Davis have both staked a claim for
the place of Danny Morrison, the batting hero in the end at
Auckland but far from his best as a fast bowler.

Allott has played two Tests to Davis's one so far and is the
likelier horse to back, but it was Davis, the powerfully built
right-armer, who caused the greatest consternation yesterday
after Allott had caused White to pop a catch to short-leg.

Bowling with far greater control than he did in England in 1993,
Davis produced a ball which hit the offending spot at the Pine
Tree end and removed England's last specialist batsman, Nasser
Hussain, to a catch in the gully off the splice.

He made short work of Croft, caught at third slip, and Jack
Russell, caught in the gully, second ball, and it was only
Ronnie Irani's willingness and ability to take on the short
stuff with some bold cutting and hooking that gave the innings
any depth at all. He was last out, clipping off his toes to deep
backward square.

Irani, who has displaced White in the pecking order, bowled a
decent spell too, having Craig Spearman caught at first-slip,
driving, but not before Spearman had again shown a talent for
stroke-play, which will no doubt re-emerge in the one-day
internationals.

The improving left-hander Paul Chandler also likes to hit the
ball, but he buckled down according to the team plan. He
appeared to be thrown out by Hussain shortly before Croft had
him caught at slip, one of several frustrations for an England
whose body-language told the story.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk)

Allott edges into contention

By Scyld Berry in Wanganui

CRICKET always delights to rub in the dirt the noses of those
who do not make the most of the luck when they have it. When
England entered the fourth day wanting 197 to beat New Zealand
'A' with only four wickets left, they were on the verge of
losing only their second first-class match in this country
outside Tests.

Only one thing did England succeed in doing, and that was
playing Geoff Allott into the New Zealand Test side. Just as all
the Murrays in cricket seem to be wicketkeepers, all Pringles
and Allotts are pace bowlers. This one, Geoff, is a solidly
built left-armer of simple action who has only lacked a ball
swinging into the right-hander, and has been two cuts above all
others here.

Every Allott over, when England set out to make 366, brought an
outside edge of some kind as he seamed the ball across the
batsman. Heath Davis, having just heard he had not made the Test
12, could not summon the inspiration of first time round, but
Nasser Hussain still had to admit afterwards: "They've played
better on this wicket than we have. Their two bowlers,
especially the left-armer, got a lot more out of it."

Even if England's cricket was not glorious, Victoria Park was,
on its hill overlooking Wanganui: the best of both hemispheres
as the weather was as bright and warm as in Australia, and the
vegetation as lushly green as in England. But when a touring
team does not take the chance to go ahead in a series, it tends
not to appreciate the bucolic setting of a practice game.

New Zealand 'A' made England even more fed up by extending their
second innings until an hour after lunch. The first ball of the
third day, from Chris Silverwood, raised a puff of dust as most
did thereafter, and hit Llorne Howell in the neck, but Mike
Atherton saw no reason to bring in a short-leg, and sure enough
the ball did not take off again until Allott appeared. By
doggedly top-scoring with 71, Chris Harris regained his Test
place.

While most of Allott's deliveries seamed away, Atherton was
yorked by one which held its line and turned him chest-on,
whether or not he hit it.

Nick Knight is belying his first name - he has not reached 50
since Bulawayo - and while he had to play at a ball pitching
around off-stump and swinging away, he did not have to drive at
it. John Crawley chanced his arm - 38 from 34 balls - and Craig
White hung around until caught at silly point, but the most
composed was Hussain, who is reaching a plateau of excellence.

Hussain was virtually faultless in his selection and execution
of stroke, though rapped on the gloves by Davis and deposited on
his backside by Allott, until he upper-cut to third man. The
mercy for England was that the off-spinner Paul Wiseman bowled
mostly to the end with a hole 17 feet from the popping crease on
off-stump. A sprinkler ban in town helps to explain why the
pitch is underprepared.

Whereas young New Zealand cricketers of the past have looked
like a limited edition of English ones, these 'A' players have
the same aggressive cut to their jibs as the Australian Academy,
with the difference being that they are mid not early-twenties.
Ronnie Irani had his off-stump knocked out just after surviving
a massive appeal for caught behind off Allott, and after
starting to walk off he returned for a chat with the fielders,
without being publicly censured.

The highly promising left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori, of 18
years and two first-class games, has also been called into the
Wellington 12, but is not expected to play. England's contenders
have meanwhile not put forth much of a case. Silverwood bowled
himself into contention in the first innings, and out of it in
the second when the pitch had dried.

To judge by the amount of bowling he has been given, Andy
Caddick appears to be the leading contender for a place - either
White's or Alan Mullally's. Who England play, however, does not
matter half so much as how.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk)

Day 4:- Electronic Telegraph

England's failure brings day of reckoning closer

ACTIONS spoke louder than words as England went down in Wanganui
yesterday to another of those defeats by more strongly motivated
overseas teams which have been too common for too long, writes
Christopher Martin-Jenkins.


It was less the 90-run win by a New Zealand A XI - who won an
important toss and played determined, cohesive, aggressive
cricket throughout - than the manner of its achieving which
increased the stock of New Zealand cricket and did damage to
England's.

How serious it will prove in the long term will be clearer in
eight days because the win, parcelled up by lunch yesterday
despite a typically stoical 61 not out by Jack Russell, has made
it all the more likely that the Wellington Test, starting at the
Basin Reserve ground on Thursday, will prove to be the decisive
game of the tour. If England win, this will be an episode in the
overall drama which is rapidly forgotten. If they lose it will
be a damning piece of evidence against the players, the captain
and the managers for a half-hearted performance.

The fitness on which David Lloyd has rightly insisted since he
took over as coach was supposed to be proof against the lack of
mental and physical stamina which contributed to this setback.
His own qualities are supposed to include the ability to
motivate. Yet he gave quite the wrong vibes from the start of
the match, making no secret of his belief that he did not think
England should be playing the game so soon after a Test,
although they had known from the moment that the itinerary was
published that they would be doing so.

The mood, of course, would have been entirely different had
England finished off New Zealand in Auckland last Tuesday. Had
that happened and New Zealand A gone on to win here in the same
way, it would have said more about the failure of New Zealand
Test XI in Auckland than about England's form or state of mind.
But in the context of the crucial failure to take the last
wicket, this subsequent defeat should not have been so lightly
dismissed by the coach. His players showed indecent haste to be
off to Wellington and that was simply inappropriate to a
performance in which too many of the England team, from Mike
Atherton down, played without sufficient pride in their
reputation.

Of course, it was much easier for the five men who had not
played in Auckland and all of them made some contribution here;
Robert Croft bowled quite well and played a good innings
yesterday which ended unluckily; Ronnie Irani made top score in
the first innings; Chris Silverwood bowled well in the first
innings and Andrew Caddick throughout the game; and, as he
always does, Russell batted as if for his very life in holding
together England's fitful attempt on a target of 363 with an
undefeated innings lasting more than three hours on a dry,
tricky pitch.

He had reason to be more than disappointed by the way the tail
caved in quickly after he and Croft had prolonged their
overnight resistance into the second hour of the last day. Croft
had timed the ball beautifully against pace and spin alike until
he turned the tidy off-spinner, Paul Wiseman, off the meat of
the bat into short-leg's arm-pit where the ball, with what the
Welsh might consider to be just their luck, lodged itself
fortuitously.

Caddick, however, tried to pull a ball of full length and
Silverwood rather gormlessly ran himself out, whereupon Phil
Tufnell made absolutely sure that his roast beef was not delayed
by embarking on a slog which utterly let Russell down, whatever
the rest of the team might have been wishing in their haste to
get on the road. This is the way, alas, of too many county
championship matches. The game is as good as lost, the traffic
is building up (not that it was in New Zealand) so let's hit the
ball in the air and be on our way. Auckland was a Test match and
this, as Lloyd called it, a match in a park, but compare and
contrast Danny Morrison and Nathan Astle at Auckland.

Lloyd claimed that this was "as good a performance as could be
expected" and that defeat "was not in the slightest bit
damaging" to the prospects at Wellington. That is manifest
nonsense because England would, on the evidence of two matches
against Morrison and one against Geoff Allott, have preferred
the New Zealand selectors to stick with Morrison. Instead, the
powerfully built left-arm opening bowler from Canterbury, strong
in the shoulders and rump, lacking a dangerous inswinger but
likely to be a real threat on a quick pitch with a new ball, has
played himself into the second Test 12 with his eight wickets
for 120.

Emboldened by their new Australian coach, Steve Rixon, whose
third win this was over an England touring side after two for
New South Wales in 1986-87 and 1994-95, New Zealand's selection
committee of Ross Dykes, Mike Shrimpton and Rick Pickard have
also replaced Jeff Vaughan with Chris Harris. While this move
will make little difference, they have much more adventurously
selected the Northern Districts left-arm orthodox spinner,
Daniel Vettori, in place of the Auckland 12th man, Mark Haslam.
Two first-class matches, and his successful under-19 tour of
England last season (which Rixon neither knew about nor needed
to know about) have been insufficient for Vettori to stand out
as the best spinner in the country.

That does not make him a likely world-beater but it shows the
altogether new spirit of attack which is abroad in New Zealand
cricket, which England must either squash in Wellington or be
squashed by. It was evident, too, in the way in which Allott and
Heath Davis destroyed England's top order on the first evening
of this match and followed up by making short work of Atherton
and Nick Knight again on Saturday afternoon. John Crawley and
Nasser Hussain counter-attacked attractively but Crawley was
caught behind off Allott immediately after tea and Hussain
carved a catch to third-man after giving England a glimpse of
their always rather distant goal.

The defeat is not quite to be equated with the seven-wicket
reverse at the hands of Mashonaland at the start of this tour
because that took place when the side was acclimatising after a
winter break; but it is certainly reminiscent of the defeat by
South Africa's A team in the heat of Kimberley last winter and
of a feckless performance in Grenada on Atherton's first tour in
the role of captain.

THAT result was followed by the quite unexpected triumph at
Barbados and it may also be recalled that the West Indies were
outplayed by Sussex two seasons ago in England, only to win the
Edgbaston Test immediately afterwards before lunch on the third
day. To that extent, not too much should be read into this
result and it may give long-suffering England supporters some
consolation to know that there is even a recent precedent for
defeat in New Zealand. A Shell XI beat them on Mike Gatting's
tour nine years ago.

The days are long, long gone, however, when England touring
sides were able to take such games lightly and rely on the
genius of a Hutton or Compton to bail them out. When there is a
lack of class there is no excuse for a lack of pride in
performance. "Ten days' solid cricket," Lloyd claimed, including
the day of travel between matches, "is too much. The proof of
the pudding is in the eating. No sour grapes, no whingeing, just
pure facts."

The facts are that the first Test was drawn and that this game
was lost. With Lord McLaurin and Tim Lamb on their way to
Wellington, the consequences of a defeat in the second Test will
go far beyond making sure that there is more time between
matches in future itineraries.


Source :: Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk)

Post match - The Press

Murray slams English attitude

WANGANUI -- New Zealand A cricket captain Darrin Murray
criticised England's lack of fight after leading his team to a
90-run win on the last day of their four-day match at Victoria
Park in Wanganui yesterday.

New Zealand A secured the win just before lunch yesterday,
dismissing England for 272 as the tourists chased 363 for
victory.

Murray admitted he was surprised at England's lack of resolve.

"It was surprising in some respects," Murray said. "It's an
international team and at times when they were on top, like the
first day, that was okay.

"But as soon as we got partnerships going, they weren't prepared
to dig in when it got tougher and fight a bit harder.

"We were the opposite. When we got on top we made sure we stayed
on top."

Murray also noticed that England's batsmen surrendered their
wickets more easily than expected.

"Regardless of what's happened beforehand, it's always good
preparation for a test match to spend time in the middle.

"Some of the top-order batters played some poor shots in both
innings to get out."

It was the first time an international side has been beaten in a
first-class match, outside a test, in New Zealand since England
went down by five wickets to a Shell Selection XI in New
Plymouth in February, 1988.

England coach David Lloyd again bemoaned an itinerary which had
the team travelling, then starting a match immediately after a
test, as happened at Wanganui.

He believed it was too tough on his players to front up again so
soon after the physically and mentally draining drawn first test
in Auckland last week.

The New Zealand A players did their test colleagues, and
themselves, a big favour with their comprehensive victory.

The match was designed to give England a solid work-out before
this week's second test against New Zealand, starting in
Wellington on Thursday.

However, New Zealand A, in its first match under the concept
designed to give second-tier players a bridge between test and
provincial cricket, was simply too good for the tourists.

The team played with greater commitment and skill in conditions
which tested the batsmen's technique and resolve, and thoroughly
deserved its success.

Source :: The Canterbury Press (http://www.press.co.nz/)

<END> Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com)