Page:Cricket (Lyttelton, 1898).djvu/49

Rh getting demoralised, don't hurry; take time, and put your sure catches out deep.

Cricketers are fond of saying that the highest faculties of the brain are necessary to enable anybody to become really great; and though it may appear to the ignorant that all that is required of a field is that he should be sharp and alert, in reality a judge of the game can detect stupidity in a field as easily as in a batsman or bowler. One sort of field there is who never seems to watch the play, or if he does, he can draw no inferences therefrom. He is put in a certain place, and then he stands glued to the spot as if he had taken root. This may be exactly right to one sort of bat, but is certainly not so to another, and he ought to be able to discover this for himself by observing the batsman's style. Another common form of stupidity is that when the batsmen become confused in running, the field often never thinks, but hurls the ball in wrong end, and the chance of a "run out" is thrown away. There are many other little