Page:Cricket (Steel, Lyttelton).djvu/368

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340
CRICKET.

come at last; and Mr. Charles Marsham's face wore a look that his friends knew well, the best description of which is that it bore the greatest contrast to his expression when Oxford's star was not in the ascendent. Mr. Butler now walked to the wicket Mr. Butler this year of grace was not a bad bat; he had greatly improved since the previous year, and had made 18 runs the first innings. He had not now to receive the ball, for Mr. Hill, who was bustling the field a good deal, stood at his place ready to play, and amidst dead silence the ball was tossed to Mr. Cobden.

We say with confidence that never can one over bowled by any bowler at any future time surpass the over that Cobden was about to deliver then, and it deserves a minute description. Cobden took a long run and bowled very fast, and on the whole was for his pace a straight bowler. But he bowled with little or no break, had not got a puzzling delivery, and though effective against inferior bats, would never have succeeded in bowling out a man like Mr. Ottaway if he had sent a thousand balls to him. However, on the present occasion Ottaway was out, those he had to bowl to were not first-rate batsmen, and Cobden could bowl a good yorker.

You might almost have heard a pin drop as Cobden began his run and the ball whizzed from his hand. Crack! was heard as Mr. Hiirs bat met the ball plumb and hard, and a yell that beat Donnybrook burst from several thousand Oxford throats. The Oxiord eleven still sat at the threshold of the pavilion ready to welcome their comrades after the winning hit was made, and they yelled louder than the rest. The ball was hit hard and low in the direction of long-off, where stood Mr. Bourne, a safe fieldsman; but that he could save this ball from going to the ropes and winning the match by three wickets nobody dreamt. However, the yell of Oxford subdued to a gentler tone, and it was seen that Mr. Bourne had got his left hand in the way and converted a fourer into a single; as the match stood, Oxford wanted 2 to tie and 3 to win and three wickets to go down: Mr. Butler to receive the ball. The second ball that