It’s been such a close Sheffield Shield season, with four sides in the mix to make the final as the final round began. Obviously only two could go through, and yesterday we looked at finalists Victoria and South Australia.
Today we are having a look at the sides that failed to make the Big Show, and who impressed or failed to fire in losing sides.
Queensland 6/10
Queensland fans must have taken a look at their team sheet at the start of the season and been pretty pessimistic about their chances this year. With Lynn injured, and Burns and Khawaja with the Test team, their batting line up was decimated. Their bowling stocks have not looked good for a number of years, with veteran trundler James Hopes being their leading wicket taker for countless seasons now.
What materialised then must have been a very pleasant surprise. Their young batting line up has been nothing short of outstanding- Heazlett and Renshaw leading the way, closely followed by Marnus Labuschagne. Both Renshaw and Heazlett ended the season with 40+ averages and in the top 10 runscorers, with Labuschagne averaging a decent 34. Backed up, as always, by reliable keeper-batsman Hartley averaging 45, the Queenslanders have consistently put up decent totals. Chris Lynn will be disappointed with the half a season he managed to play, averaging only 36.8- decent, but not up to his high standards.
In the bowling stakes, there was excitement over the emergence of big Billy Stanlake, but he only managed a handful of games before succumbing to the fast bolwer’s curse of back problems. Bowling all rounder Jake Wildermuth emerged as a significant threat with the ball taking 25 wickets at 23, while also making a century with the bat. Mark Steketee was decent, without being spectalular, and journeyman Peter George was consistent with 20 wickets at 29. Queensland will really hope that Stanlake is fit and firing for next season and that promising young legspinner Swepson continues to hone his skills and starts making a mark. Hopes has now retired, but with Wildermuth emerging as a logical replacement, Queensland now need to find one more penetrative pace bowler to complement Stanlake, as George doesn’t stand out as a big threat (probably why SA let him go).
New South Wales 5.5/10
The Blues, like pretty much all teams in the competition this year, had an inconsistent season. They welcomed back Trent Copeland to the bowling ranks and would be very pleased with his output. Combined with the evergreen Bollinger and the consistent O’Keefe, it would seem their bowling line up is in good shape.
They missed both O’Keefe and Bollinger at the tail end of their season due to injury however, and third seamer Abbott has not been as incisive as they would have wished.
Gurinder Sandhu continued his downward slide in form, eventually being dropped from the side. Young speedster Harry Conway impressed in his two games for the season and looks likely to compete for the third seamer spot behind Copeland and Bollinger next season.
In the batting department, NSW will be very pleased that their investment in young Kurtis Patterson is now paying off. The first drop averaged 52 in compiling his 738 runs for the season, currently sitting in third on the run makers table. Ed Cowan had a great start to the season and looked like continuing on from last season’s form for Tasmania. His second half of the season saw a tail off in form however, and it was his young opening partner Daniel Hughes who looked the more stable opener by season’s close. A good sign for the future.
Maddinson continues to frustrate all with his flakey batting and had yet another middling season averaging in the low 30s, despite being shown considerable confidence by the coaching staff who named him captain for the season. Ryan Carters couldn’t emulate the batting form shown in the past and while showing some flashes of form, was perhaps thrown off kilter by being asked to take the gloves, even though he publicly stated at the beginning of the season that he would rather open the batting and concentrate on that.
Western Australia 5/10
WA fans probably have the most to be disappointed about, having looked one of the strongest teams on paper going into the season and then finishing in fifth place. In the batting department, both Bancroft and Klinger performed well and Test batsmen Voges and S Marsh also did well when they came into the team. So why, then, did they not win more games?
Joel Paris and Matt Hogan took bagfulls of wickets, but still Western Australia managed to loose key moments in a number of games and dropped points throughout the season.
Injuries to key fast bowlers Coulter-Nile, Behrendorff and Simon Mackin didn’t help their cause, and having Shaun Marsh running the drinks for the Test team in New Zealand rather than playing for his state also hurt. Younger players will have to continue to improve in the next season, with Marcus Harris, Will Bosisto, Ashton Turner and David Moody having been given a chance and not fully taken it.
The all rounder Hilton Cartwright did very well in his six matches averaging 28 with the ball and 59 with the bat. Ashton Agar couldn’t buy a wicket all season and finished with a poor bowling average, but still made it on the plane for the world T20. His batting was looking great at the start of the season with back to back tons, which is a good sign for the future, but unless his bowling develops, he won’t be considered for higher honors in the Test team, or contribute to WA victories.
Sam Whiteman improved on his poor batting form from last season, but wasn’t a stand out with the bat- his keeping was tidy as usual.
Tasmania 3/10
Well, perhaps not surprisingly, Tasmania finished bottom of the table again. Despite having the two top run scorers for the season in Dunk and Bailey, the rest of their batting order was a failure.
Young NSW imports Silk and Doran failed to make any runs, Test team discard Doolan struggled all season. Up and coming Tasmanian Beau Webster showed promise and should be persisted with, as is the case with Ben McDermott, one of four wicketkeeper-batsmen used in the team all at the same time (5 if you count Doran). Tim Paine looks to be nearing a painful end to a frustrating career, having made no impact with the bat and been overlooked for Triffit as ‘keeper. In the bowling department, Fekete had the fall from grace most of us predicted, though was not terrible. Jackson Bird made a roaring comeback and earned his spot back in the Test team and looks good to continue to take loads of wickets and possibly tour Sri Lanka with the Test team in July. Sam Rainbird had a middling season and Clive Rose, the spinner preferred to Xavier Doherty for most of the season was also average at best.
A few big wins like the one against Victoria late in the season showed glimpses of what Tasmania are capable of, but they need to be much more consistent next year.
All in all, the Shield table shows how evenly matched the teams were this season, with four teams all finishing with five wins and Western Australia finishing with four This made for an entertaining Shield season that was unpredictable and notable for the large number of young batsmen making centuries, instilling confidence in the future of our batting stocks in Australia for the first time in a long while.
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