The 2022/23 Sheffield Shield Season is nearing its climax, largely off broadway though. The Australian Men’s team has had its up and downs in India, the Women’s team took out another T20 World Cup and now the WPL has kicked off.
And so, what of the Sheffield Shield and the talent working away in relative obscurity?
The Sheffield Shield season is split in two – pre-BBL and post-BBL. What has stood out this season has been a number of players who grabbed attention during the BBL season and have managed to continue on in the return to red ball cricket.
Two clear examples are Redbacks paceman Spencer Johnson and Vic middle-order batter Matthew Short.
Johnson didn’t take the most BBL wickets or have the best average or strike rate. However, he made an impression with his nine wickets from ten games at 31.33. Subsequently, he has made his first-class debut for the Redbacks and in his two matches with the red ball has rocketed to the top of the Sheffield Shield bowling averages. 15 wickets in two games at just 13.06; highlighted by a first innings 7/47 and match figures of 9/83 in the most recent loss to Queensland.
Short was the second-highest run scorer in the 2022/23 BBL season, 458 just two behind Arron Hardie. An unbeaten century and two half-centuries, the irony being his last two bats for the Adelaide Strikers resulted in a pair of ducks – not quite the finish he would have hoped for.
In his first two #SheffieldShield games, Spencer Johnson already has a six AND seven-wicket haul ???? pic.twitter.com/sScfgDSLL4
— 7Cricket (@7Cricket) March 4, 2023
One might have suspected the bubble to have burst, however upon return to red ball duties for Victoria, he has peeled off 27, 58, 70, 119 and now 104. Add to that four handy wickets at an average of 11.25 and an unbeaten 108 in a Marsh Cup One Dayer against Queensland. That’s 378 Shield Runs from five hits, averaging 75.6 – unlike some who score an unbeaten double hundred and their averages get skewed. In this case, that’s a very accurate and representative average.
What is astounding is that in the five matches and seven innings to start the season, Short only managed 101 runs without passing 50. Perhaps the BBL form indicated he was worth persevering with and perhaps the loss of Handscomb to the Test side opened a spot for him to remain. Either way, he is now often regarded as looking like he’s batting on a different wicket from everyone else.
Scoring successive Shield 100s is no mean feat given the 119 against South Australia was his maiden Shield ton. His only other first-class century was an unbeaten 134 against England in November 2017. It’s taken a while however at age 27 he looks to have found his ‘game’.
Cam Bancroft is another one who grabbed attention during the BBL, finishing third in the averages with 357 runs at 51 with four half-centuries including an unbeaten 95. Since returning to the red ball longer format he has gone okay with 27, 80, 1, 176*, 28 and 30*.
342 runs for just four outs, an average of 85.5 however skewed by the unbeaten 176 which was in a phase of batting towards a declaration so sometimes we can take these scores with a grain of salt. The first half of the Shield season for Bancroft saw six matches and ten innings returning 483 (1 not out) at 53.67. Three centuries showed a feast or famine trend.
Cameron Bancroft of the Perth Scorchers. (Photo by Will Russell – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images)
Batting has been tough, with recent matches showing the bowlers tending to dominate. Perhaps this is the trend of another La Nina season, with more moisture in the fields and in the atmosphere. It’s no surprise then with Johnson now joining them that there are eight bowlers with ten wickets or more and season bowling averages below 20.
The most wickets taken are 40 by Michael Neser (@17.27) and 37 by Bulls teammate Mark Steketee (@18.56). Wes Agar has 35 but at the relatively expensive (tongue in cheek here) expense of 25.02 runs per wicket. Agar has recently turned 26 another latecomer to first-class cricket. Working through the bowling average leaderboard, Joshnson is 27, Steketee is 29, and Neser nearing 33. WA’s Matt Kelly is 2nd on the averages and he is 28 and New South Welshman come WA paceman Charlie Stobo turns 28 this week. Joel Paris rounds out the ‘senior’ sub-20 brigade at age 30. The two ‘young guns’ are spinner Todd Murphy and WA quick Lance Morris. Both are currently on tour in India. Morris turns 25 next month. So he’s not so green behind the ears.
The Victoria side has two interesting quicks in Fergus O’Neill and Mitch Perry. O’Neill was arguably the better performer at just 22 years old, and in seven matches into this season, he has 23 wickets at 21.95. He very much found his groove with match figures of 6/64 against the Bulls followed up with 4/22 in the One Day match; then followed by a bitter-sweet best outing in the recent win over South Australia at the Junction oval. A brilliant 4/28 in the first innings and again on fire in the second with 2/3 until he went over on his ankle midway through his fourth over.
Step up Perry who until then had been working in O’Neill’s shadow. Perry is almost a year older and turns 23 in late April. Perry debuted for the Vics in late 2020 and has now compiled 23 Shield matches. O’Neill debuted at the start of this season having played his first List-A game for the Vic in March 2022. As O’Neill was helped off, Perry who had bowled well enough for his 3/56 in the first innings was required to carry the load and the result was 5/64 off 17 and a half overs.
8/120 for the match and fast forward to Albury this week and with O’Neill perhaps not 100% it’s been Perry who produced 4/24 and 4/30 for match figures of 8/54. 16 wickets for just 174 in his last two matches in contrast to a rather modest 10 wickets from the previous five matches for 412 at 41.2
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His season stats are now far more complimentary with 26 wickets at 22.53, Perry has also performed wonderfully well in the night watchman role. Coming in at number four in last season’s shield final, he produced 74. In the recent match against Queensland, he came in at number three in the 2nd innings and top scored with 75 off 217 and recently in Albury came in at one done and got through to stumps and kicked on for 45 in a 30 over 71 run partnership with Marcus Harris.
The trio of Murphy, Perry and O’Neill – all still just 22 – are arguably some of the most exciting young talent coming through our system. And that’s without looking at the current stand-in Victorian skipper Will Sutherland who is still just 23.
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