So that' s how it ended up, an epic last game.
When the players went to sleep before the last day 3 teams could have dreamt of playing Vic in the final, in the end it was a nailbiter between NSW and SA. Well done to all, it was a fanastic day for the followers of cricket.
Vics last 2 wickets put on 63 runs after another midorder collaspe, which turned out to be enough when Pattinson took 5/7 and had the Bananabenders at 7/21.
Tas would have been happy with their bowling performance against SA with only a stand between Carey and Sayers getting them over 200. Some solid midorder batting with MacDermotts century and Websters 50 giving the Apple eaters a 100 run lead.
The Croweaters put up a better show in the second dig led by Ferguson, Cooper and Dalton but even then only a 69 run last wicket stand by Zampa and Worrall made a decent target to defend, until their pacers got to work,Mennie had a fine return for the game 9/88, Worrall 7/130
WA set the pace against NSW A century to Bancroft and runs down the order also highlighted NSW lack of penetration by their bowlers. Cowan and Hughes made 69 but a 42 run last wicket stand helped keep them in it. Cartwright with 170 (173 balls) out of 275 put up the target for NSW, Hughes 110 and Cowan 80 got them into a winning position, Henriqiues, 66, kept them in it but Neville, out for 63 in the second last over, just couldn't get them the win.
Runs
Vic Harris 667, Dean 532
SA Cooper 720, Lehmann 677
WA Cartwright 869, Turner 742
NSW Cowan 959, Henriques 775
QLD Burns 724, Labuschagne 626
Tas Bailey 839, Milenko 517
Cowan is the leading run scorer with tremendous second half of the season,700 runs in 8 innings with 2 not outs and a duck,
Cartwright also improved as the season went on, (keep an eye on him), Turner was the surprise of the season more a batsman than a bowler now.
Bailey had another good year, Burns did well, Cooper had a season of high and low scores while Lehmann was consistent throughout.
Harris was the leading run scorer before Christmas has averaged low 20's since.
For the Vics Harris was 10th on the list while Dean is 18th, White 22nd, they had some low scoring games in the second half.
SA Cooper and Lehmann are 7th and 8th,
WA Cartwright 2nd, Turner 5th. Well13th, bancroft 16th
NSW Cowan 1st Henriques 4th Patterson 9th,Neville 12th Hughes 15th, 3 in the top 10
QLD Burns 6th Labuschagne 11th with Hartley next 17th
Tas Bailey 3rd Milenko 20th This shows up Tassies poor season, For example, Doolan made a 202no early on, only made 155 runs in 13 other innings.
Bowling
Vic Tremain 42, Holland 42
SA Sayers 54, Richardson 32
WA Behrendorff 37, Mackin 35
NSW Someville 37, Copeland 26
Qld George 28, Feldmann 23
Tas Milenko 25, Stevenson 22
Sayer is the leading wicket taker with 54,
Holland the leading spinner with 42, last year the leading spinner (Ahmed ) took 24, Somerville was NSW's leading wicket taker with 37.
Spinners Holland (3rd) 42@ 21, Somerville (5th)37@23, Zampa (11th) 27@32, Agar (25th) 16@27- only 4 games
Overall a better year for the spinners
SA were missing Mennie and Worrall for several games, Behrendorff for WA and Feldmann for Qld also missed several games.
VIC Tremain 2nd, Holland 3rd, Boland 8th,Pattinson 18th
SA Sayers 1st, Richardson 7th, Zampa 11th, Mennie 14th, Worrall 16th
WA Behrendorff 4th, Mackin 6th, Moody 10th,
NSW Somerville 5th, Copeland 12th, Bollinger 24th
Qld George 9th, Feldmann 15th,Wildermuth 19th
Tas Milenko 13th, Stevenson 17th, Rainbird 20th
Vic and SA have the leading bowlers and also the depth, NSW, QLD just didn't have any depth to their bowling.
Tassie poor old Tassie, not one bowler in the top 10, while Milenko had a good year with bat and ball, their bowling wasn;t strong to win games.
WA had a strong second half to the season and will be the team to watch next year with several players approaching the prime of their careers, while other teams will have players in the veteran class.