Week two of the Sheffield Shield is in the books and as we look to make sense of the first six rounds of the competition, let’s track who is doing well, who needs some more improvement and who might be a chance in the refreshed Australian Test setup.
Queensland vs Victoria Great Barrier Reef Arena, Mackay
3 Sentence Summary
Queensland dominated a match that was decided on the first day. Matt Short proved he can bat in the long format as well as the short formats making an even 100 for the match. In response, Queensland dominated with centuries to Matt Renshaw and Jack Clayton as well as a 90 to Michael Neser setting the pace.
Who pushed Test claims?
Matt Renshaw: Making 135 and showcasing his ability to read the situation and to score accordingly must go a long way towards helping him push his case for David Warner’s position.
Michael Neser: What more does Neser have to do to edge ahead of some of the exhausted quicks that have served Australia for so long? Despite his form, the selectors will undoubtedly find a reason to keep him out.
Michael Neser. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
Who did not push Test claims?
Marcus Harris: Harris probably needs a few more runs than 0 and 10 to solidify his spot as “next cab off the rank”. Todd Murphy: He lacked consistency in his bowling, but he will want to work on bowling his best ball more consistently in the right areas. He failed to either build pressure (just 4 maidens in 36 overs) or take wickets (1/109).
South Australia vs New South Wales Adelaide Oval, Adelaide
3 Sentence Summary
New South Wales regressed from its Round 1 performance, stumbling into two collapses in both innings. South Australia made enough runs and bowled exceptionally well to win the match. Both sides have work to do for Round 3 to build consistency.
Who Pushed Test Claims?
Nathan McSweeney & Nathan McAndrew: The Nathans drove South Australia’s push for victory, McSweeney with 100 and McAndrew with 10 wickets. Both are prospects to watch for the future.
Who did not push Test claims?
Kurtis Patterson: Something is wrong with Patterson. He looks lost when he bats and may need some time away from the game to reset and refresh. Hopefully, he can turn his season around very soon.
Western Australia vs Tasmania WACA Ground, Perth
3 Sentence Summary
The winner in this game was the 22 yards of dirt dug up from the road in front of the WACA and placed in the middle of the square. Unusually for the WACA, Corey Rocchiccioli found turn on Day 1. Western Australia’s slow batting squandered its chances of winning.
Western Australia’s Cameron Bancroft. (Photo by Steve Bell/Getty Images)
Who Pushed Test Claims?
Cameron Bancroft: 91 added to 122 makes for good results. Bancroft has taken full advantage of two batter-friendly surfaces to make two good scores. Now if only Western Australia batted faster to give him further chances to push his claim. Just a thought.
Jordan Silk: A first-class average of 32 speaks more to the leanness of his past few seasons, but Silk has begun the new Sheffield season strongly. He is probably a fair way down the pecking order, but if he builds consistency, then anything is possible.
Who did not push Test claims?
Caleb Jewell: He received a gem of a delivery first ball from Lance Morris in the first innings. However, with a golden opportunity handed to him in the second innings, he got a start and, once again, failed to handle Morris’s pace. He will need to improve that aspect of his game if he has a shot at the international arena.
Round 2’s best XI
This looks at the best players in each position and fits them in where appropriate. Players can be moved down a rung in the batting order from where they normally bat, but they cannot move up. For example, Matthew Renshaw could open or bat at 3, but since he did not make runs in the middle order, he would not be eligible to bat in the middle order. The objective of this is to track consistency across the Shield season. At least one player from each side should be selected unless one team utterly dominated that round.
Cameron Bancroft
Matt Renshaw
Sam Whiteman
Jordan Silk
Jack Clayton
Matt Short
Matt Gilkes
Michael Neser
Nathan McAndrew
Jack Nisbet
Mitchell Swepson
Stay tuned for Round 3!
Doctor Rotcod
Roar Rookie
You do realise that half of all games Renshaw plays are away from the Gabba? Do you know his average at the Gabba ? If you paid any attention to games played by non-Qld players, you would know that Bancroft's non-WA averages are better than his WA averages not by much but... Besides Renshaw comes from Yorkshire..
Tom
Yes, 43 compared is certainly a significant difference when comparing 2 players with a large amount if FC cricket under their belt. Tougher pitches? Are you really suggesting WACA shield decks are have been tougher over the course of Bancroft’s career than the Gabba decks that Renshaw has played most of his shield cricket on? The WACA has been an absolute highway at various times since Bancroft’s first class career began. Clearly not paying much attention to shield cricket away from the WACA if you have somehow come to that conclusion. Well yeh, Bancroft has a lot a lot more run because he has batted 75 more times in FC cricket, what an irrelevant point. Renshaw’s average is now higher than Bancroft’s, not by much but still higher which is a more relevant stat than total runs.
Doctor Rotcod
Roar Rookie
Strike rate significantly higher ? 43 vs 49. And on tougher pitches. Test and FC averages are close enough for no statistical difference. And Bancroft has a lot more runs.
Panthers
Roar Rookie
Isn’t virtually the whole SA bowling attack from NSW?
Gibbo
Roar Pro
Interesting. That first innings in the most recent game, though, was well below that average.
DTM
Roar Rookie
Just worked out manually. Only 2 games so not that hard. I couldn't be bothered going back to last season.
Gibbo
Roar Pro
Me too, DTM. For me Renshaw’s knock in Mackay was more impressive because the pitch was offering something to the quicks at the time and he weathered the storm early on. He got lucky as well with a dropped chance.
Gibbo
Roar Pro
Speaks to the lack of depth in NSW at the moment. Wouldn’t they love to have Nathan McAndrew, Usman Khawaja, Charlie Stobo, Jordan Silk and plenty of others from the NSW diaspora back!
Gibbo
Roar Pro
Rotcod, Renshaw struggled in India because he was brought into an unfamiliar position and he looked really unsure of himself out there. He’s a natural opener, and he’s looked really good as an opener. He deserves next shot.
Gibbo
Roar Pro
Interesting. Where’s the rpo stat come from? I’m curious to look at this more closely.
Doctor Rotcod
Roar Rookie
The curators are on record as saying that they just couldn't save the grass for both games, so no grass. And against Gibbo, most of the games WA played last year were well over 3/over even in losses. Both losses... Renshaw made runs against NZ C side. Struggled in India. Bancroft made some runs in England but not many. Likes the Shield though...
Micko
Roar Rookie
Thanks. Great article. :thumbup:
DTM
Roar Rookie
Plenty of batsmen picked for Australia based on performances on flat decks then found out whilst playing for the big boys. I'm more concerned about the SS competition and why pitches are prepared to be so batter friendly.
DTM
Roar Rookie
I agree but WA is actually going at 3.14rpo this season compared to their opponents 2.64 rpo. Of course, that is skewed by Vic trying to save the first game and Tas batting cautiously to save the 2nd game. WA's 3.14 rpo is a bit inflated because of a few of the lower order batsmen scoring quick runs (but that's what happens). In summary, I think Bancroft, Whiteman and Wyllie tend to bat slower than most but it's hard to be too critical of the first two who have an average around 100 this season. Whiteman's tactics as captain are too conservative for me but I guess he might have expected Vic and Tas to be the biggest threats this year (looks like Vic wont be after two innings defeats). Most of my criticism is really for the curators and the WACA. The pitch for the Tassie game was poor. For Shield games we want a reasonable chance of a result.
Tom
Kurtis Patterson has made 1200 shield runs at 24 since the start of the 2019/20 sheild season. Who knows what has happened, but he is lucky to still be getting picked for NSW.
Tom
Pretty ordinary pitches, hard to gauge just how well Bancroft is going if we only have those performances to go by. His other recent performances in county and for Aus A the other month have been pretty poor.
Tom
Failed miserably in county cricket during the off season (for the same team Renshaw averaged 50 for last county season) and then failed again for Aus A against NZ A (the same bowlers Renshaw averaged 83 against early in the year). Renshaw is the go. Also interesting that Renshaw still gets criticised at times for batting too slowly while Bancroft seems to escape it despite Renshaw having a significantly higher career strike rate than Bancroft.
Gibbo
Roar Pro
DTM, the curators produced a lot of roads last season as well. If Whiteman was prepared to be a bit bolder in his declarations to try to set up a game, then it might work out ok for them, but he's not, and WA bats at less than 3 rpo most games.
Gibbo
Roar Pro
Totally! Bancroft and/or Renshaw should get the nod over Harris every day of the week.
Doctor Rotcod
Roar Rookie
The unseasonably hot weather cooked both pitches. Which makes Rocchiocolli's performance even more meritorious. Tassie bowling was pretty tight, but Bancroft looked better as the innings went on. The wobble in the Tasmanian second dig, with Haskett and Rocchiocolli having figures of 2/8 & 2/6(from 16 overs!) respectively , added a moderate degree of interest.