Page:Out-door Games Cricket and Golf (1901).djvu/157

126 is played when the bumping ball, the hanging ball, and the shooter may come at any moment: when such an innings was played it remained fixed for ever in the memory. Now, alas, long innings have lost much of their charm because they are so common: they pall and are monotonous. A good instance of the baneful influence on batting produced by the plethora of runs might have been seen in the Australian and England test matches last year. To win a match became by the force of circumstances an object of secondary importance in the eyes of the Australians after they had won the second test match at Lord's. Their object was to win the rubber, and to effect this all they had to do was to draw the remaining three matches. Therefore the brilliant hitter had to abandon his naturally-attractive game and become a stick. In the case of the English team to score quickly was the object, and at the Oval our Maclarens and Frys were told not to play their proper game, but more or less to slog. So much for the disastrous effect on batting; and to this may be added, that often for hours, sometimes for the whole of the last day, it is so obvious that a draw is inevitable