Leading Players
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack for 1928, reporting on the tour, singled out the batting for special praise. "With scarcely an exception they played an enterprising game and in most instances made their runs in a style which told of intelligent coaching," it said. Six batsmen scored more than 1,000 runs in first-class matches. The tourists' averages were led by Dempster, with 1,430 runs at 44.68 runs per innings; by aggregate, Blunt did better, with 1,540 at exactly 44 runs an innings. Lowry, Mills, Page and Dacre also passed 1,000 runs in first-class games. In all matches, Dempster and Blunt scored more than 2,000 runs each.
The bowling was less successful. Merritt, aged 19, took 107 first-class wickets with leg-breaks and googlies, and Blunt, of similar style, took 78. But no other bowler took 50 and the fast bowler Cunningham failed completely, taking just five first-class wickets on the tour as a whole. In all matches, Merritt took 169 wickets. Blunt's all-round performance earned him selection as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in the 1928 annual.
James, with 42 catches and 43 stumpings in the first-class matches, was also singled out for praise by Wisden. The rest of the fielding, it said, fell below normal first-class standards.
Read more about this topic: New Zealand Cricket Team In England In 1927
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