Western Australia skipper Marcus North and his NSW counterpart Dominic Thornely have predicted higher honours for Steve Magoffin after the paceman led the Warriors to a comprehensive eight-wicket Sheffield Shield triumph.
Magoffin set up the win with career-best match figures of 10-102 and North said it was just a matter of time before the ex-Queensland quick won Test selection.
“Steve Magoffin has to be close to getting a call-up for this country,” North said.
“He’s not a bowler who’s had one good season or five good matches, this guy has put in season after season after season.
“He’s Mr Reliable and he bowled beautifully this game.”
Magoffin’s 6-66 restricted NSW to 310 in their second innings after the Blues were skittled for 177 on day one.
Set 223 runs for victory, WA resumed play on day four at 0-52 and cruised to the win 33 minutes after lunch, with Shaun Marsh (74 not out) and master-blaster Luke Pomersbach (78 off 74 balls) combining for a whirlwind 112-run stand.
But it was 28-year-old Magoffin’s heroics with the ball that pleased North the most.
The 194cm speedster’s consistent line and length even led North to draw comparisons with Test great Glenn McGrath.
“(McGrath) kept it simple. (He) hit line and length, the odd one seamed, the odd one didn’t, but the pressure never let up,” North said.
“And that’s something that Steve Magoffin does and he’s doing it better than anyone else in this country at the moment.”
Thornely felt Magoffin, who claimed 35 scalps last season at an average of 25, was at the top of his game.
“He’s an exceptional bowler here in Perth and looks to have gained a yard this year … and developed a new ball going away, too, from the right handers,” Thornely said.
“As Justin (Langer) said on TV the other night, he’s a captain’s dream. He’s in terrific form.”
Blues spinner Beau Casson, who was surprisingly overlooked for Australia’s Test tour of India, endured a nightmare return to Perth.
The 25-year-old suffered a minor shoulder injury while fielding early in the match and was restricted to five overs in the first innings and just one in the second.
He also returned scores of zero and two with the bat.
“He hurt his shoulder, not a major injury so he’ll be right the next few days,” Thornely said.
“If you watched him bowl those six balls today he was in a fair bit of pain.”
Spiro
Guest
This is an interesting point that Greg Russell makes. Most fast/swing bowlers fit into two major categories, bangers (like Glenn McGrath, Dennis Lillee) and skidders (Harold Larwood, Richard Hadlee). Height is the defining factor. Although Hadlee was over 6 foot, he did not leap and sort of bent his knees, like Brett Lee, at the moment of delivery thereby reducing the height of the release. I've just come back from the USA where I watched a lot of baseball going into the World Series finals. The thought occurred to me that if the Americans had taken up cricket in a big way they would have devised systems where certain bowlers, for instance, were selected for certain conditions. This brings us back to Greg's point. They would have picked taller banger bowlers for india and skidders for,say, England and NZ.
Greg Russell
Roar Guru
One thing that was very clear from the first test in India is that the Australian fast bowling attack is not tall enough for those conditions, where the pitches are too flat for bowlers with an along-the-wicket style to prosper. Rather, a bowler needs to be tall enough, and have the right style, to exploit variability in bounce. Here are the heights of some bowlers, as given by Cricinfo: 2004 Australian pace attack in India: McGrath 1.95 m, Gillespie 1.95, Kasprowicz 1.94 2008 Australian pace attack in India: Lee 1.87, Johnson 1.89, Clark 1.97 2008 Indian pace attack: Ishant 1.93, Zaheer ?? It would be nice to have Magoffin, at 1.94 m, in India, wouldn't it? Incidentally, while the vertically challenged Zaheer would seem to disprove my point, let it be remembered that his dismissals were with umpiring assistance (Hayden in both innings) and otherwise were the result of reverse swing that the Australian fast bowlers could not match. India has never been a good place for pace bowlers who are under 1.9 m and who can't swing the ball much.