As a batting side on their Australian form they are a very formidable lot, but I shall be surprised if they do anything like well with the bat in England as they did gainst us in their own country. Their great strength in my opinion lies in their bowling, and that is how I expect them to win their matches. On previous occasions batsmen who have come over for the first time with great reputations have on the whole been the disappointments which have been the exception with the bowlers; in fact our wickets in some instances have made their bowlers, and the medium pace howler in Australia who comes along so easily on their billiard table wickets can tet break the ball enough to beat our st batsmen, and success asa rule improves a bowler. Spofforth, Turner, and ruble were all far and away greater bowlers in England than in Australia, the reason being, I should say, due to the fact that in Australia the great head bowler and the mechanical bowler are more brought together by the perfect wickets, if a head bowler and a mechanical bowler ever can be brought together, whereas in England these great head bowlers, when given a wicket favouring neither bat nor ball, never make a mistake, and when the wicket assists the bowlers make the best batsmen appear as if they had never played cricket.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.