Shield Round 8 - Cricket for those with long attention spans
NSW cemented their place in the final with a solid win over the Croweaters ,which has put them just about out of a chance at second place. Bottom team Tassie upset the Sandgropers, thanks to a mighty 187 from Beau Webster, WA have now dropped to third. Vic defeated a literal Qld second eleven, their bowling attack and most of their regular batsmen on international duty. The Vics have posted their only two wins so far against the top 2 teams on the table and are 4 pts from a place in the final.
5 points seperate Qld Vic and WA for a spot in the final.with SA 2 pts further behind, WA and Qld play in Perth next round, Vics play SA
Star of the round was Webster from Tassie with 187 off 187 balls which gave his team the first innings lead, Green from WA was also impressive with 158no and 45. Rainbird with 5/90 and Ellis 6/86 bowled their team to victory while Paris 5/90 and 7 wickets for the game was a good return. For NSW Hughes scored centuries in both innings, Gilke made an 83 while Copeland enjoyed using the Duke ball with 5/63 and 9 for the match. For the Croweaters Ferguson with 82 and 44, Cooper 62 and Head 57 put up a fight in the second innings. Mennie had his best return of the season with 6/103. For the Vics Gotch got another century and Short made 98 while Dean had his best score for a long time with 96 in the second dig, young Sutherland picked up 5/42. For the Bananabenderas Burns made 135 to give his team a chance in the second innings while Bartlett took 5/85 in the first innings.
Runs
SA Cooper 749, Weatherald 588
WA SMarsh 663, Green 662
Vic Maddinson 648, Harris 350
NSW Hughes 636, Henriques 512,
Tas Doolan 527, Wade 413
Qld Burns 410, Street 372
Cooper still leading.
SMarsh collected a pair this game, Green only a run behind him now in in third place
Niether of the Vics played this round
Burns now Qld's best bat and is 14th on the list.
Hughes now up to 5th overall.
With 2 games to go it looks unlikely anyone will crack the 1000 runs this year,
Bowling
Qld Gannon 31, Neser 26,
SA Sayers 30. WAgar 28
Vic Siddle 29, Tremain 19
Tas Bird 28,Meredith 20
NSW Conway 24,Copeland 22
WA Moody 21, Kelly 19
Some of the leading bowlers didnt play this round,
Gannon with 6 is back on top
Sayers now second, WAgar was wicketless this round
Copeland has passed Starc as the Bluebaggers second highest wicket taker
Siddle creeping up the list
Moody is now WA's leading bowler and 10th on the list.
Like the batting it is unlikely any one will take 50 wickets this year.
Stumpers (ct/st - runs@ave)
Qld Pierson 34/- 301@27.4
NSW Neville 28/3 386@42.8
WA Inglis 25/- 322@29.7
Tas Paine 22/2, 295 @42.1
SA Carey 15/- 386@55.1 (4 games)
Vic Harper 12/1 158@22.6
Not much news on the dismissals front,
Twirley men
O'Keefe 16@22.5, Swepson 13@28, Lyon 14@36.8, Holland 8@59, Labuschagne 4@26, T.Andrews 4@110, Maxwell
3@75.7,A.Zampa 3@88, A.Agar 3@136
O'Keefe, now 16th on the overall list, Lyon 22nd both have played 5 games,
again not much success for the spinners this round
The battle for the second final spot continues !
Next round starts Friday 6/3
