MacRobertson Shield Day 3: England trail Australia 5-7

[<<] [>>] by Dr Ian Vincent at Mission Hills
21st April 2017 (The MacRobertson Shield)

Australia extended their lead by taking the first two doubles today, but England clawed a vital point back by winning the third, to leave them two behind in the best of 21 contest. It is definitely getting hotter, with only a light breeze. The club kindly entertained the players to a "wickets and wine" event, a social, with rather more wine than wickets, which provided a good crowd to watch the resumed NZ v USA doubles match ... which was pegged down again once a three ball ending (NZ 1 and peg; USA 2-back) had been reached.

• Maugham & Hopgood lost to Hockey and G. Fletcher -19tp(F) -26tp(F)
• Death & Burch lost to R & M Fletcher +26tp(D) -26tp(M) -26tp(M)
• Mulliner & Patel beat Forster & Dumergue -14otp(M) +17 +15

England and Australia play their remaining singles tomorrow: we need to win at least half of them to stay in the test match. The line-up is:

• Burch v R. Fletcher
• Mulliner v Hockey
• Maugham v Dumergue
• Patel v M. Fletcher
• Death v G. Fletcher
• Hopgood v Forster

New Zealand and the USA shared their singles to leave the USA leading 7-4. If the USA win all their doubles tomorrow, including the pegged down one, they would clinch it.