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Victoria and Tasmania are out to book their place in the elimination final when they face off at North Sydney Oval. Join The Roar for live scores and commentary from 9:45am (AEDT).
South Australia are currently two points below Victoria and Tasmania, but are playing the Cricket Australia XI on Wednesday. So it is very likely that whoever loses today will have played their last game in the competition.
On the other hand, it is a certainty that whoever wins will play in the elimination final.
Both sides won their first games of the tournament before losing their second. Tasmania made things particularly hard for themselves when they also lost their third, falling to New South Wales after being stunned by the Cricket Australia XI.
In both those games Tasmania’s opening partnership was broken early on, yet otherwise Tim Paine and Ben Dunk have once again proved a formidable pair. If there is an early wicket, however, Tasmania have unearthed a very competent number three in Dom Michael, who made a terrific century against Western Australia last time out.
All three are averaging above fifty, and have in excess of 200 runs in this competition. Considering Tasmania’s next highest run scorer is George Bailey, with only 112 runs, it is vital that at least two of Tasmania’s top three put in a good performance.
Nevertheless, things will not be made easy for them as Victoria’s new-ball duo have proved very effective this season. Like Dunk and Paine, James Pattinson and John Hastings have heavily contrasting styles. Pattinson is quicker, yet more erratic, while Hastings is simply persistent. They are second and third for wickets taken in the tournament, Hastings with one more than Pattinson, but both are some way behind Mitchell Starc.
Victoria’s bowling is their strong point, with Scott Boland keeping Peter Siddle out if the side. They have conceded the fewest runs in the tournament, although New South Wales have played one more game.
Their batting, on the other hand, has been quite poor.
This isn’t due to a lack of talent, a top order consisting of Cameron White, Aaron Finch and Glenn Maxwell on paper seems formidable. Yet only Matthew Wade had made any runs of note until their last game.
Against New South Wales, Victoria may have been tempted to push Wade up the order to open the batting, but instead they dropped Marcus Stoinis and replaced him with Rob Quiney, who blasted 79 against a very strong attack. In doing so he passed teammates Maxwell, Dan Christian and Peter Handscomb on the tournament run scorer’s board, and set up an unlikely win.
With Tasmania’s all-rounders offering plenty of depth to their bowling, another strong showing from Quiney would be priceless for his side, even if it does embarrass the selectors who left him out for the first four games. But Tasmania will take confidence knowing that Victoria’s batting line-up is weaker than the names on the team sheet suggest.
Prediction
With both sides tied on points and possessing similar net run-rates, this game could go either way.
Yet despite having fought their way to second place, Victoria have a great deal of unfulfilled potential, having reached this stage with their batsmen doing half as well as they would have liked.
With that in mind, Victoria are slight favourites.
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