Scotland v South Africa 22 & 23 July 1935 by Cricket Scotland

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Ground:	Forthill, Dundee
Scorecard:	Scotland v South Africans
Event:	South Africa in British Isles 1935

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DateLine: 4th February 2013

 

 

Day 1:
The second of Scotland's two matches with the South Africans opened at Forthill, Broughty Ferry, the ground of the Forfarshire C.C., yesterday, and the 3000 spectators saw an interesting day's cricket. The Scottish bowling and catching were excellent during the opening two hours of play, and five South African wickets were captured at a cost of only 65 runs.

 

H. B. Cameron and R. J. Williams then added 88 for the sixth wicket, but dropped catches assisted them, and Cameron was fortunate to escape from a lofty mishit, no one being able to get near enough to make the catch.

 

Cameron had another escape when Jones misjudged a big drive and ran in to find the ball carry over his head and out of reach. At the same time Cameron's powerful hitting was the feature of the day's play, though the splendid fielding of A. I. S. Macpherson, at cover-point, made him a close candidate for the principal honours.

 

Cameron hit three 6s and four 4s in an innings lasting rather less than two hours. His first hour was slow, owing to the restraint he was called upon to show, but the remainder of his stay was marked by powerful driving and pulling. One of his strokes for 6 sent the ball through a window in the pavilion.

 

Williams also played a good innings, at a critical period for his side, meeting the ball with the face of the bat and showing well timed cutting. C. L. Vincent made 59 runs in a hundred minutes, but his was a laboured and lucky innings, as he was missed twice.

 

The Scottish fielding had fallen off to a certain extent by this time, and the stand by Vincent and D. Tomlinson for the eighth wicket, which added almost 50 runs, ought not to have realised more than 10. W. Anderson missed the latter from a very simple catch almost before he had scored.

 

In all the South Africans batted four and a half hours for their 252 runs, by no means a rapid rate of scoring, in view of the fairly fast wicket and outfield. Vincent hit six 4s.

 

Scotland had almost an hour's batting at the close of the day, and they were given a much better start than in the Glasgow match last week. J. B. Jones and P. A. Gibb faced the fast bowling of R. J. Crisp and A. J. Bell with pluck and confidence, and forced the South African captain to make a change before a wicket fell.

 

Vincent had Jones lbw at 28, and with the last ball of the day he got the same verdict against Wass, this time under the new leg before-wicket rule. The total was then 34, so Scotland now need 119 runs to avoid the follow-on. Gibb has so far batted well and hit two fine 4s off Bell, a fast bowler with a somewhat peculiar action.

 

Scotland tried five bowlers, and much the most effective of these was Hollingdale, the Greenock professional, who took five wickets for 39 runs in the course of nineteen overs, seven of which were maidens. With a short run and a fluent and easy action he kept the batsmen mainly on the defensive while he was on, and, but for two missed catches, would have returned even better figures. His length was always good, and he showed a capacity to make the ball bounce awkwardly even at the medium pace he used.

 

A. D. Baxter worked hard, and clean bowled three of the South Africans in the course of thirty-one overs, but he used leg theory almost too much with the opposing batsmen all strong on that side.

 

J. H. Melville, the Forfarshire slow bowler, also got two good wickets, those of E. A. Rowan and A. D. Nourse, and was also a victim of missed catches, his final figures of two for 69 hardly doing him justice.

 

Marshall and Anderson both kept a good length, but seldom looked like taking wickets, as they could get little life out of the pitch.

 

The Scottish catching could very definitely have been better, though their ground work was again excellent, with MacPherson and Gibb most often to the fore. The former's grand work at cover-point has already been commented on, and, in addition, it suffices to say that the South Africans seldom attempted a run from a stroke in his direction.

 

His catch to dismiss Crisp from a skier was also a good effort. Gibb fielded soundly in any position, and had the satisfaction of catching Cameron after running quite twenty yards. Marshall, Wass, and Jones were also frequently conspicuous for smart stopping. So far Vincent has taken two wickets at a cost of 5 runs in four overs and one ball.

 

Day 2:
Scotland gave what was, on the whole, a poor exhibition of batting in second day in the match with South Africa at Forthill, Broughty Ferry, yesterday, though in extenuation of their weak display it must be said that the pitch was in bad condition.

 

It was very responsive to spin, and C. L. Vincent and D. Tomlinson, the South African's slow bowlers, made the most of their opportunities . The big break they were able to impart to the ball was, in fact, the chief feature of the day's play, the Scottish batsmen often shaping for a stroke in one direction, only to find that they had to attempt to play the ball in a different way.

 

Vincent, in particular, was able to keep the Scots guessing as to his intentions, the left-hander continually varying his spin, pace, and flight with disconcerting effects.

 

In spite of the cleverness of the Springboks' attack, however, Scotland ought to have made more runs, their batsmen failing to show the skill necessary to keep their wickets intact for any length of time, or the resolution to attack the bowling in an endeavour to knock Vincent and Tomlinson off their length.

 

The best batting of the day was by A. I. S. MacPherson, the Edinburgh University man compensating to a certain extent for his first innings "duck" by running up a good 25 in the follow-on. He was helped to reach that figure by a fortuitous 6 four of which came from an overthrow, but two 4s to square-leg and one to long-off were the result of excellent strokes.

 

Hollingdale also attacked the bowling during Scotland's first innings, three 4s and a 3 being included in his score of 17. The Scottish tail-end batsmen, in the second innings, were the cause of much laughter and cheering for their plucky hitting, A. D. Baxter in particular rousing enthusiasm by smiting Tomlinson for a 6 and two 4s in the same over.

 

Twenty runs were added for Scotland's ninth wicket and 12 for the last during this amusing spell, the only bright period in what was mainly a long list of batting failures. Baxter's 6 was the outcome of a really splendid on-drive.

 

At one time five wickets were down with only 14 runs on the board, and it seemed that the whole Scottish eleven might be dismissed for the second time before the lunch interval, but MacPherson and G. W. Morris kept their end up for over half an hour in a plucky stand, and delayed the inevitable result until almost three o'clock. This stand, the best of the innings, added 36 runs to Scotland's meagre score.

 

Turning to the South Africans, it can be said at once that they grasped to the utmost extent the chances afforded hem by the state of the pitch. Their bowling was always of a good length, and it was full of variety- R. J. Crisp and A. J. Bell used the new ball well, and Vincent and Tomlinson did their parts equally skilfully when the shine had worn off.

 

The quartette were far too good for the Scottish batsmen, backed up as they were by the keenest and cleanest of ground fielding and catching. R, J. Williams, the reserve wicket-keeper, showed himself to be a most useful man behind the stumps, and H. B. Cameron, the usual man, showed his versatility by holding his own in the field.

 

All over, Scotland's display was disappointing , and they were well beaten by a much superior side in every respect. MacPherson's fielding and his batting in the second innings were the most satisfactory things in the match from a Scottish point of view. In brief, the South Africans won by an innings and 85 runs.

(Article: Copyright © 2013 Cricket Scotland http://cricketscotland.com)