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In a repeat of last season’s final New South Wales and Western Australia will do battle at Blacktown International Sports Park on Saturday afternoon. Join The Roar for live scores and commentary from 1.45pm (AEDT).
While New South Wales seems to always churn out a strong side, Western Australian were dominant in last year’s competition and eventually in the final where they beat New South Wales by 64 runs.
In fact the only game they lost was by the margin of single run against Queensland.
Yet already this year Western Australia have faltered. Their opening game on Monday seemed to be going brilliantly as Shaun Marsh and Cameron Bancroft put on a mammoth opening stand of 216, Bancroft going on to make 176.
But their bowling, which was incredibly reliable last year, was decimated by Travis Head whose double hundred, accompanied by a Callum Ferguson ton, meant South Australia chased down Western Australia’s 350 quite comfortably.
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Last season Nathan Coulter-Nile was Western Australia’s main aggressor, he finished the tournament with 14 wickets at an average of 10.07, but he is now absent through injury and the pressure falls on the other pacemen.
Amongst them is Jason Behrendorff who was named State Player of the Year at last season’s Allan Border Medal and now finds himself as one of the squads more senior bowlers.
Behrendorff was by no means exempt from South Australia’s onslaught on Monday, but perhaps deserves some leeway as he hadn’t played since the Big Bash due to injury. Regardless of the effect of that injury, Western Australia may well be relying on him for early wickets against a strong New South Wales top order.
New South Wales’ top order has certainly been strong, Steve Smith in particular has been dominant top scoring in both their games, but the fact their opposition have only registered scores of 59 and 110 shows they also have strength with the ball.
While it is questionable how strong a test the Cricket Australia XI is, having bowled the side that chased 350 against Western Australia out for 110 speaks volumes of New South Wales bowling strength.
There is no doubt that all the New South Wales bowlers have contributed to their opposition’s demise, but Mitchell Starc has been the main instigator with 10 wickets already to his name.
His start to this year’s competition looks even more remarkable when you consider his opening partner, Gurinder Sandhu, topped the wickets table in last season’s completion with 15 wickets. Both Starc and Sandhu will be responsible for making early inroads into Western Australia’s proven top order.
Even with Western Australia’s early slip up it is still fair to consider this a game between title contenders. Both sides are layered with experience and star players, but New South Wales dominant start to the competition, which has seen them pick up double bonus points in each of their first two fixtures, makes them favourites for when the two sides meet on Saturday.
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