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It’s been a bowling-friendly round of the Sheffield Shield, but Hilton Cartwright has again sent a message to selectors, top scoring for Western Australia in the second innings against Tasmania.
After scoring a strong 61 in the first innings, he built on that in the second. With Tasmania’s attack, led by an in-form Jack Bird reducing the Warriors to 7 for 202 at stumps – or a lead of 292 – Cartwright was again the standout.
Batting under plenty of pressure at No.3 he played a patient knock of 38, more than any of the other batsmen could manage in the second innings, which is yet to be completed.
Rotating the strike was again an issue for Cartwright though, and something that will be found out at Test level. He finished having faced 84 balls, scoring six boundaries – meaning only 14 of his runs were not from boundaries in 84 balls.
Even though Cartwright hasn’t bowled in this opening round of the Shield (there really hasn’t been a need yet, given Tasmania were knocked over for 231 in 72 overs), none of the other all-rounders have made a strong claim so far with a day to play in Perth, two in Adelaide and the match between Queensland and Victoria already finished.
Coming into the round, it appeared Cartwright’s biggest rival for the No.6 spot was Glenn Maxwell, who held a place in the Test team during Australia’s tours of India and Bangladesh earlier this year. Dual failures as Victoria fell to a shock 110-run loss at the hands of Queensland have left that up in the air though.
While there’s still two rounds to go before the Ashes squad will be picked, Maxwell failed dismally to make any indents on a match which has finished inside three days. He made just seven in the first innings, and then played aggressively in the second – something that, given he is batting at No.3 probably wasn’t needed – before falling for 20 from 17 balls.
With just two overs to his name throughout the match, going for 13 runs, there is nothing at this point to suggest Maxwell is going to make much of a claim on the No.6 spot.
(AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)
The Australian selectors are not likely to go with a spinning all-rounder – and Maxwell is making that decision a lot easier than it needs to be after his performance at the Gabba.
With that being said, Cartwright’s Western Australian teammate Marcus Stoinis has started to build his case for inclusion. While he didn’t take a wicket with the ball, he only went at two runs per over and then played a controlled knock to score 32 in testing conditions against the fired-up Tasmanian attack.
Even though Stoinis failed in the first innings of the match, it’s a solid enough performance that at the very least leaves his name in the conversation when it comes to the No.6 spot.
Elsewhere, Matthew Wade’s failure, which we talked about yesterday hasn’t bit him as hard as it could have just yet. While Wade will still need runs over the next five innings before the Ashes get underway to retain his spot, Peter Nevill was unable to add a great deal to his overnight score, falling for 20 to the bowling of Joe Mennie.
Meanwhile, Daniel Hughes, who has been named as a player with Test potential by Australian captain Steve Smith made a tough half-century before getting out hitting to the bowling of Travis Head.
As much as it would be a left-field selection, Hughes has every chance to mount his case over the next few rounds. Smith is clearly in favour of having him in the team, having dropped the Sheffield Shield’s highest run-scorer from last season, Ed Cowan for his inclusion at No.6.
The significance of all that though is that Nevill simply didn’t score enough runs, even in challenging conditions to move ahead of Wade in the pecking order, even if the failure of Wade closed the gap somewhat.
South Australian Alex Carey, who is a bolter for the keeping spot, hasn’t had a chance to bat in South Australia’s second innings but is due to come in at No.8 today after Joe Mennie batted as a night-watchman.
It’ll be a golden opportunity for Carey to make something though, given South Australia are 4 for 145 and still five runs from making New South Wales bat again in the second innings.
In other news to come out of yesterday’s Sheffield Shield action, both Shaun and Mitchell Marsh failed, making 11 and 4 respectively at the top of the order for the Warriors.
They both batted solidly in the first innings, but they are in need of heavy runs to push their case, rather than being an incumbent for the side who can afford failures.
At the Gabba, Usman Khawaja turned his 99 not out into a century, eventually being brought undone by Fawad Ahmed for the second time in the match for a quality 122 from 195 balls.
Of the other batsmen who appear to be locked in for the Ashes, only Peter Handscomb had an opportunity to do anything yesterday, composing the third-highest score of 34 in Victoria’s second innings capitulation to Queensland.
In the bowling ranks, Mitchell Starc announced his return from injury with a bang, grabbing 3 for 55 from 17 overs. Pat Cummins though, bowled without luck, getting through 19 overs in a little over two sessions with eight maidens and an economy rate of just 2.26.
(AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)
Off-spinner Nathan Lyon grabbed 1 for 18 from 11 overs, while Jack Bird continued his push to be called the first reserve, taking two for 69 to go with his four first-innings wickets at the WACA.
Peter Siddle, Chris Tremain and Scott Boland were all amongst the wickets for Victoria though, so if there was to be an injury or reason to replace anyone in the starting attack of Cummins, Starc and of course Josh Hazlewood, it’s hard to say who’s leading the race at the moment.
The next two rounds though should reveal plenty in that battle.
South Australia and New South Wales will resume their match at 2pm (AEDT), while the start of play has been brought forward to 4pm (AEDT) for the final day of the match between Western Australia and Tasmania after more rain.