match than in any innings of 200 runs that has ever been played on the modern true fast wickets.
Our real heroes in cricket, as far as batting is concerned, are those few players who can show sound cricket on difficult wickets, and it is impossible to deny the fact that the number of such players is very few. Grace, Shrewsbury, Lucas, A. G. Steel, and Webbe—all these could be trusted not to score on every occasion, but to show good cricket more often than the general run of players, many of whom scored their hundreds on easy wickets. But in these days, independently of hitters like Jessop, there is hardly one batsman, except perhaps Jackson, who is as good on difficult wickets as Shrewsbury and Lucas, both of whom are over forty years of age.
The bowling hero is an even rarer article than the batting hero. There are natural bowlers who on any wicket may be relied upon to keep a good length; and on soft difficult wickets, they are certain to meet with success, but they are, as a rule, lacking in variety; and though on easy wickets they keep runs down and on difficult wickets get most batsmen out, they are always apt to be demoralised by the
