Arthur Morris - Difficulties Against The West Indies

Difficulties Against The West Indies

The 1951–52 season saw the second tour to Australia by the West Indies. Morris experimented with his stance during the winter in response to criticism about his footwork when facing Bedser. Morris felt that his problems had arisen because he attempted to play excessively on the leg side. He opened his season by punishing the Queenslanders with a score of 253 in a Shield match and then scored 210 against Victoria. In the first of these innings, Morris had been ill but he struck 253 of his team's 400, with the last 50 coming in only 17 minutes of batting. His Test form was unimpressive though; he started steadily, with 122 runs in the first two Tests, which were won by Australia.

The Third Test in Adelaide was Morris's first Test as captain, after Hassett withdrew on match eve due to a strained hip muscle. Australia were already one batsman short after the Australian Board of Control had earlier vetoed the selection of Barnes "for grounds other than cricketing ability", which was widely believed to be a result of Barnes' previous clashes with authority. Under board's regulations at the time, a replacement player needed the approval of the entire board. Since it was the weekend, some of the members could not be contacted by phone, and as a result Hassett could not be replaced by another specialist batsman from outside the twelve man squad. Instead, his place was taken by a specialist bowler already in the squad. This left Morris leading an extremely unbalanced team with four specialist batsmen and Miller as the all-rounder. Morris had a long tail with wicketkeeper Gil Langley and five specialist bowlers all with batting averages less than 23, and was reportedly "in a state of shock". Morris won the toss and elected to bat on a sticky wicket. Because of a leak in the covers, one end of the pitch was dry and the other was wet. Australia were bowled out for a low score of 82 but managed to restrict the West Indies to 105. In all 22 wickets fell on the first day, the most in a Test on Australian soil in 50 years. Morris proceeded to reverse the batting order in the second innings, with bowler Ian Johnson and Langley opening the batting. They were followed by bowlers Geff Noblet and Doug Ring, in order to protect the batsmen from a wicket that was still wet. Ring made an unexpected 67 and Morris scored 45 as Australia compiled 255, but it was not enough; the West Indies reached the target with six wickets in hand.

After scores of 6 and 12 in the Fourth Test, he missed the final Test due to injury, ending an unproductive Test summer in which he managed only 186 runs at 23.25. The series was noted for Morris' difficulties against the spin duo of Alf Valentine and Sonny Ramadhin, who bowled left arm orthodox and leg spin respectively. The pair was responsible for five of his eight dismissals on the tour. Morris did not play a match after the new year and ended the season with 698 runs at 53.69. He topped his state's Shield batting averages, leading from the front as New South Wales regained the title.