Date-stamped : 27 Nov95 - 10:39 Tour Match: Free State v England Springbok Park, Bloemfontein. 23,24,25 November 1995 ====> Preview, 22 Nov 95 England hoping to reap the fruits of match practice By Christopher Martin-Jenkins in Bloemfontein THE threat of thunderstorms persists but England are hoping that four days of urgently needed match practice against strong oppo- sition will begin in Bloemfontein this morning with the three-day fixture against the Orange Free State. Castle Cup champions for two years running until losing the title to Natal last year, the Free State remain one of the better domestic sides in South Africa, even without Allan Donald, as proved by their defeat of the New Zealanders last year. That fact and the look of a flat, yellow pitch suggest that three days may not be long enough for a result in the first-class match, but England`s priority is to give their 16 players at least one game before the return to Johannesburg for the second Test starting a week today. The weather has improved and between showers the sun was drying a moist square at Springbok Park yesterday. England had to make do with a fielding practice session and some indoor nets while net pitches recovered. Team selection was delicate but Ray Illingworth and Mike Atherton agreed that the bowlers who did not have a game in Kimberley be- fore the first Test should get a chance in the longer match, which will be followed by a one-day game on Sunday. Dominic Cork, Mark Ilott, Peter Martin and Richard Illingworth all play today, with Devon Malcolm given another chance to demand a Test place, leaving Angus Fraser, Mike Watkinson and Darren Gough to sit this game out, along with the two batsmen whose form was the most impressive in the ruined Test match, Graeme Hick and Jack Russell. Alec Stewart will keep wicket. On Sunday, Ilott, Malcolm, John Crawley and Robin Smith will be the four omitted, with Richard Illingworth the probable 12th man, depending on conditions. The decision to sharpen Donald by confining him to net practice is compounded by Franklyn Stephenson`s absence. He is resting in Barbados, which leaves Nico Pretorius, much improved since his season in the Sussex League two years ago, to lead the home at- tack under Hansie Cronje`s command. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com) ====> Day 1, 23 Nov 95 Surrey pair lift the tempo with fluent hundreds By Christopher Martin-Jenkins in Bloemfontein THE similarities between the Kennington Oval and Springbok Park are not entirely obvious at first sight but something in the pitch at Bloemfontein obviously suited Alec Stewart and Graham Thorpe yesterday. Surrey`s finest contemporary batsmen played with equal distinction on England`s behalf, making fluent and at- tractive hundreds. Because of his interrupted start to the tour Thorpe`s 131 not out was of greater significance than Stewart`s 110, whose second hun- dred in South Africa was an accomplished performance, the more valuable for the early loss of Mike Atherton to the one rogue ball of the innings. But it was Thorpe`s day. His previous four innings on the tour, after all, had produced a mere 39 runs. Such is his relish for the big occasion that this was not a matter of great concern, either to the phlegmatic Thorpe himself or to The Management, but the best batsmen need some time in the middle and the confidence that comes with it. His was an innings of high quality, including 20 fours. On an unlucky day he might have been given out leg before second ball but he hardly played and missed for the next four-and-a-half hours, rapping the ball away with crisp timing and that compact power which resembles one or two other left-handers of renown, the Australians Neil Harvey and Allan Border included. It was a good day`s cricket on an even pitch with just sufficient pace in it for class batsmen to time their strokes. An out- field shaped like an inverted saucer made for a high propor- tion of fours: 212 of England`s 316 for four came in boun- daries before Atherton declared to give his bowlers 35 minutes, albeit without profit, on a breezy, sunny evening. There was not much in the pitch for finger spinners, or indeed for anyone once the ball had lost its early sheen and hardness Credit for the purposeful nature of the cricket was also due to Hansie Cronje, who made sure that the day`s quota of 104 overs was comfortably attained within the six-and-a-half hours of play- ing time. He gave a long bowl to the tidy left-arm spinner Nicky Boje, whose springy approach and nicely balanced action are reminiscent of Essex`s John Childs, but there was not much in the pitch for finger spinners, or indeed for anyone once the ball had lost its early sheen and hardness. Atherton, therefore, can consider himself very unlucky to have got a ball in Nico Pretorius`s second over which lifted sharply to the splice much like the delivery which Shaun Pollock produced to dismiss him in the Test match. If the captain had any fear that he might have misread the amount of moisture still left in the pitch after five days of rain, Stewart`s comfort for the remainder of the morning session soon reassured him. Cutting and stroking off his legs with relish, he fed liberally on Pretorius`s tendency to bowl too short on a pitch allowing no margin for errors of length. Ray Illingworth had made it plain only on Wednesday that Mark Ramprakash will play in the second Test next week, come what may. For over an hour he had played himself in again without any prob- lems, stroking three fours, but in aiming to hit a short ball outside his off stump from the medium-fast Herman Bakkes, he fell between two stools, his bat being neither vertical nor horizontal as he played on. Going in later in the day against the second new ball John Crawley clearly outbatted him, but he is being forced to wait for his rewards. Smith was the victim of a brilliant wicketkeeper`s catch off a thin leg glance There was a time, indeed, when Crawley, back down the order at No 6, must have wondered if he would bat at all. Thorpe and Stewart were firmly entrenched by lunch at 102 for two off 38 overs, Stewart already 69 not out. There were 10 fours in his 50, four more to come before lunch and another six in the hundred he reached out of 159. It was Stewart at his perky best, and with Thorpe also moving smoothly into top gear the unfortunate Pretorius went for 44 in his first six overs after lunch. Boje brought some order with his gentle variations of pace from left arm round, but the Surrey pair still added 141 in as many minutes before Boje finally broke their partnership, 12 overs be- fore tea, when Stewart heaved across the line for the first and last time. Thorpe was 58 not out when the third wicket fell and 83 at tea when Robin Smith, 20 not out and looking confident, was promising a big innings too. Cronje took the new ball at once, however - it is available after 80 overs in these first-class games as well as in the Tests - and for the second time in three games Smith was the victim of a brilliant wicketkeeper`s catch off a thin leg glance. This one, taken at the fullest stretch of Philip Radley`s left hand was perhaps the more remarkable because he wears glasses to keep wicket, a rarity in any era of cricket but more so in the days of the contact lens. Paul Gibb and R A Young come to mind as those who have kept wick- et in Test cricket with glasses, the latter the more remarkable for the fact that he also played football for England in them. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com) ====> Day 2, 24 Nov 95 Crawley must wait despite stylish show By Christopher Martin-Jenkins in Bloemfontein Second day of three: England (316-4 dec & 121-1) lead Orange Free State by 212 runs AN auspicious start to the first-class career of the schoolboy Hendrik Dippenaar was of greater long-term significance than any- thing else on the second day at Bloemfontein but England have every chance of beating the Orange Free State on the last day to- day if their bowlers can ignite any spark from a flawless pitch. Their performance yesterday confirmed the form of the tour to date: Dominic Cork is by a distance the most penetrative bowler, Richard Illingworth offers a valuable, possibly indispensable variation and John Crawley continues to bat better than anyone. Crawley, opening, hit 10 fours and scored 69 not out of England`s second innings 121 for one with an ease and style which makes the commitment to Mark Ramprakash at No 3 for the second Test seem premature, understandable though it was for psychological rea- sons. Ray Illingworth confirmed that England`s top six would be unchanged and that Crawley will have to wait for an injury or somebody`s continued failure. "When he gets in he`s going to have to make the most of it," the manager said, and Crawley is playing with a discipline and as- surance which suggests that he will. By the close, however, Ram- prakash was batting with equal poise. Their partnership of 77 for the second wicket took England into the last day with a lead of 192 after Atherton had pulled the medium-paced Craven hard to short mid-wicket. Atherton would clearly have liked longer in the middle but it was of less importance with next week`s second Test in mind than De- von Malcolm`s continuing inability to find his rhythm. He bowled only one ball which bore any relationship to his famous demolition of South Africa at the Oval. Malcolm is trying hard, as he always does, but he is falling away so quickly after releasing the ball that the impetus which ought to follow the turn of his mighty frame is not there On a pitch as flat as this one, all he did was to come invitingly on to the bat of players not inclined to be overawed by his repu- tation. His one wicket was a lucky one, he conceded nine fours and a six in his 15 overs and only a single snorter, which came from the blue and hit Hansie Cronje on the shoulder, gave hope that if a fast pitch is produced anywhere on this tour the in- spiration might return. Malcolm is trying hard, as he always does, but he is falling away so quickly after releasing the ball that the impetus which ought to follow the turn of his mighty frame is not there. Despite his disappointing lack of form and confidence, the Free State looked like being genuinely bowled out at 159 for five and 176 for six, but a spirited stand between Dippenaar, whose first appearance for his home province was delayed by the equivalent of his A-levels, and his former prefect at Gray`s College, Nicky Boje, enabled Cronje to declare at 245 for nine, 71 behind. There was a delightful sight at the tea interval of Dippenaar, a slim 5ft 9in lad looking no older than his 18 years, surrounded by his first X1 team-mates and perhaps 30 other Gray College boys. The hero of the hour, as The Wizard might have captioned their drawing. The outstanding batsman on the under-19 tour of England last sum- mer and captain of his provincial under-19 side, yesterday sug- gests the result of his matriculation exams will not be of im- mense significance, to his first career at least. He was lucky to survive his first over from Cork, who had him ap- parently plumb lbw with the second of three appeals, but fortune has a way of smiling on special talents when first they take the big stage, and he stayed to hit nine fours and a hooked six off Malcolm. In time the chances are that he will succeed two dis- tinguished past pupils of Bloemfontein`s most famous cricket school, Cronje and Kepler Wessels, into the South Africa team. Martin also bowled well, in spells both before and after lunch, although his best deliveries were not the ones that took his wickets Gerhardhus Liebenberg is further down the road towards Test cricket. He caught the eye at the start of the day in company with his sturdy left-handed opening partner, Deon Jordaan. A fierce over from Cork, in which umpire Cyril Mitchley allowed him three bouncers, was the only time that Liebenberg looked troubled until Peter Martin had him beautifully caught low to the ground at short mid-wicket by Crawley in his first over. By now Illingworth had embarked on a 12-over spell before lunch which cost only 28 runs and might, with luck, have earned at least one wicket. He finished with three despite getting minimal turn. He has become a shrewd and reliable bowler. Martin also bowled well, in spells both before and after lunch, although his best deliveries were not the ones that took his wickets. A second fine catch by Crawley, this time at extra cov- er, earned him his second. By then Jordaan had gone unluckily, given out caught behind driving at a wide ball and apparently striking the ground rather than the ball, and Cronje had become the first of two throughly merited wickets for Cork. He needed a change of ball, however, the first one having gone soft and out of shape as the current batch of Kukkaburra balls frequently seem to do, before he started to get some swing. Cronje lost his off stump to a length ball which pitched middle and off and straightened, and the left-handed Venter was lbw to one which swung in late. Ilott, swinging the ball less than usu- al, nevertheless bowled tidily and had Wilkinson caught off an outside edge, driving. Allan Donald will play against England in the 50-overs-a-side match tomorrow, which replaces the originally scheduled fourth day of the current match. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by The Management (help@*ogi.edu) ====> Day 3, 25 Nov 95 Cork the exception for slack England - Scyld Berry Final day of three: England (316-4 dec & 239-4 dec) drew with Orange Free State (245-9 dec & 110-3) CRUNCH time is at hand as four Tests lie ahead of England in the next six weeks, a spell of cricket which will decide whether they are going to become a considerable force or remain congenitally bad tourists. And yet they paced themselves yesterday against Orange Free State: you couldn`t honestly say more than that of their part in a feeble day`s play. So slackly did England drift through the morning that in 130 minutes they added 60 runs for the loss of three wickets on a belter of a pitch against nondescript medium-pace. By the time they were able to set the state 310 to win, they had only 55 overs in which to bowl them out and the match ended in the stalest of mates. If England are to be consistently successful in Test cricket it can only help if they try to be so in their other games. In their batting and bowling yesterday, Dominic Cork was the zestful ex- ception. The state`s fielding was neat and orderly, just as everything is in the broad streets of Bloemfontein and its suburbs; the light was clear as it can be only in the southern hemisphere. Yet the electronic scoreboard`s capacity to flash `Great Shot` went un- tested and Robin Smith scored a duck so protractedly gruesome that by the end of his 42 minutes he had lost what form he had. A specified target - to add, say, another 140 runs by lunchtime to the overnight lead of 182 - might have instilled England`s batsmen with purpose. The state`s bowling should have been ir- resistibly appealing too, as it was led by the medium-paced Nico Pretorius in the absence of Allan Donald (due to play today) and Franklyn Stephenson. Smith did not deign to wear a helmet to protect his recently shattered cheekbone, just his England cap. Then he scratched around for 30 balls in all and he shouldered arms to a ball from Pretorius that looked far more likely to knock all three over than the ball which dismissed Mark Ramprakash, who had stretched far forward. Finally Smith played defensively back to a long-hop, then attacked the yorker next ball and missed his drive. Were there another first-class game before the second Test at the Wanderers in Johannesburg, not just today`s one-dayer against OFS, John Crawley would surely have squeezed into the Test side. He has scored 311 runs for an average of 103 on this tour. As it is, given such limited evidence against them, neither Smith nor Ramprakash deserves to be omitted yet. When England bowled, Cork was again the redeeming feature Cork was not going to waste a sunny day and fresh air. He hit 67 robustly so that England, having scored 60 off 31 overs before lunch, added 57 off 15 afterwards. The declaration coincided with slow handclaps from the thousand or so spectators on the grassy embankment. The main stand was empty but will not be so for the second of the seven one-day internationals to be held here after the Tests. Cork entertains the ambition of opening the batting for England in the World Cup, as he does for Derbyshire on Sundays. As no more than two fielders can be outside the semi-circles for the first 15 overs, his aerial strokeplay would exploit the open spaces. He might be worth a go when rain-affected games are re- duced to 20 or 30 overs a side. When England bowled, Cork was again the redeeming feature. He so huffed and puffed that he almost blew the batsmen down on this all too amiable turf, but Cyril Mitchley, the man who granted him two-thirds of his hat-trick in the Old Trafford Test, would not oblige when inswingers rapped half-forward pads. At the end of one over the ever-competitive Cork ran through to the batsman to give him the benefit of a glare. Devon Malcolm`s rhythm was all awry as he fell away to the off and speared down the leg side. His run-up was that of a man who knew he was not going to be seriously considered for Thursday - which will leave only Durban as a venue expected to suit him. The rest of the evidence points to an unchanged England eleven: Mark Ilott was steady, Peter Martin plain. Richard Illingworth`s back needed attention at lunchtime - it might have seized up for want of activity - but he returned to bowl, accurately as ever, without anyone mistaking him for Paul Adams. OFS could have been called Grey College Old Boys as there were seven of them in this team. Afrikanerdom`s elite school - strong on sport, more free-moving than free-thinking - is not half a mile down Zastronstraat from Springbok Park. When the state bat- ted a second time, their alumni demonstrated the school motto of `stabilis`. This week England will find that the chief characteristic of the Wanderers ground is its amphitheatrical nature. Lying in an ex- pensive suburb, where land prices are high, it has steep but shallow stands. One-third of the ground still consists of the original stands of wooden seating. England`s task will be steep too. They have played good cricket on this tour, until yesterday, but so far it has counted for nothing. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by The Management (help@*ogi.edu)