Round 3 was full of excitement and included two comprehensive wins and one victory that went down to the final over of the final day! With future spots available in the Test side, let’s see who pushed their claims or otherwise.
Victoria vs NSW
3 Sentence Summary: Victoria won by 200 runs, says the scorebook. In reality, New South Wales struggled to reach 200 in both innings and collapsed both times. Here is hoping that this young New South Wales side will learn from their World Cup counterparts and improve their poor performances.
Who pushed Test claims? Peter Handscomb made 143 to finish comfortably as the Vics’ highest scorer. Handscomb looked like Australia’s best during the India tour but did not have the greatest County Championship Series. He will be hoping that these runs vault him into Australian contention for the upcoming Test summer.
Who did not push Test claims? The entire New South Wales team. Maybe this is a little harsh, but outside of eight wickets from the ever-reliable Chris Tremain and 78 in the second innings from Jason Sangha, few others in the entire team did much to advocate for higher honours. Nathan Lyon’s long-awaited return yielded just one wicket for the entire match.
South Australia vs Western Australia
3 Sentence Summary: On first innings points, South Australia won this match. However, Western Australia proceeded to render a near full-strength South Australian attack almost impotent as they proceeded to rack up 8-377 (dec) in their second innings. They went on to win by 200 runs.
Who pushed Test claims? In his past five games (four prior to his injury), Joel Paris has taken 27 wickets at an average of 18. With 145 at an average of 20 in his First Class career, he has to be close, at age 31, to knocking down the door of Test selection. Sure, he is fragile, but so was Ryan Harris and he played 27 Tests! Sometimes, when bowlers are in such good form, they deserve a shot regardless of their injury history.
Joel Paris celebrates after dismissing Harry Conway (Photo by Mark Brake/Getty Images)
Who did not push Test claims? After a stellar last round, Nathan McSweeney demonstrated his inconsistency, getting two very good starts but failing to push on falling both times to left-arm swing bowling. To excel at the next level, McSweeney will need to improve his consistency from week to week.
Queensland vs Tasmania
3 Sentence Summary: Dominated by Queensland for three days, the game turned on its head on Day 4 when 105 from Matthew Wade allowed Tasmania to come roaring back into contention. Unlike the previous two matches which were comfortably decided, this one see-sawed back and forth throughout the final day.
With seven to win from the final over and death over specialist Gurinder Sandhu bowling for Queensland, Jarrod Freeman showed nerves of steel to clout the second ball over the rope for six to win the match for Tasmania.
Who pushed Test claims? This game had so many super performances, it is difficult to pick one. Wade’s 105 turned the match in Tasmania’s favour, but Joe Burns’ 188 runs across both innings set up the match nicely. Matt Renshaw, Jimmy Peirson, Michael Neser, Beau Webster, Jack Clayton, Bradley Hope and Jarrod Freeman all contributed to what was the match of the round.
Who did not push Test claims? Long touted as a future Australian opening prospect, Bryce Street has struggled in the past season and a half to cement his spot at the top of the order for Queensland. Street seemed to have turned a corner in the last match with a solid performance, but this match, he struggled for fluency in the midst of good Tassie bowling and made scores of just 3 and 5.
Best XI across the round
How this is selected: 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 the 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
Joe Burns
Peter Handscomb
Matt Wade
Aaron Hardie
Beau Webster
Joel Paris
Fergus O’Neill
Wes Agar
Chris Tremain
Stay tuned for Round 4!
Doctor Rotcod
Roar Rookie
Do you mean fai ry floss? Two seasons in a row he's done well. I wonder how a NSW 2nd XI with the players they're not yet trusting would go against the incumbents?
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
On balance, more experienced than most Shield sides. Just not very good.
Gibbo
Roar Pro
You're right, Micko, it was probably his best game ever, and that's why I didn't give him a shout-out. When I think of players who are "pushing Test claims", I'm considering players who've been on the radar for a while. If O'Neill has a great Shield (which I've got little doubt he can do), then yeah, he'll be right up there.
Gibbo
Roar Pro
Fair point. Dwarshuis is only 29, but Hughes (34) and Henriques (34) and Bird (37) are all reasonably old. Tremain, at 32, would be feeling fairly sprightly by comparison. Lyon (36) doesn't help the age of that attack either. Still, you've got Blake Nikitaras (23), Matt Gilkes (24), Jason Sangha (24) and Blake Macdonald (25) all in that side who are all well under 30.
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
That's right. There is no issue with the standard of cricket. NSW just needs to be more inclusive of players outside the blue ribbon pathways. WA and Qld are fine because they build from beneath and top up from outside. Victoria is moving away from the Hussey, Rogers, Stoinis, Harris, Wade import system and beginning to promote its own (Perry, O'Neil, Murphy, Harper) and is improving. Tassie, long reliant on imports from everywhere is developing great talent that is feeding in. SA, relying on imports and NSW relying on old boys and school tie youth are struggling. If NSW is to catch up, Nisbett and Hatcher should be regulars with Bird and Tremain being split so it's one or the other. WA has more than 10 first class level quicks, 7 or 8 of them are Test-ready. WA rotates them so they are all experienced at this level.
jamesb
Roar Guru
I comfortably stand by with my original post. Just because one state is doing ok, doesn’t mean that the other states are going along fine and dandy too. The potential good news for NSW, is that there is some good youngsters coming through in the under 19’. A few of them did alright for Australia against England. Let’s see how they develop in the coming years. With the current NSW side, I just hope selectors reward players who do the job, and drop others who are not delivering. The other day, Jack Nisbet got a fiver on his debut. The next game, he was dropped. While inconsistent players like Sangha and Edwards keep getting picked, while a few of the older ones should’ve been pensioned off. At the moment, this NSW side is weak. The comp only has six sides. SS can’t afford to have one state well off the pace, particularly the most populous state in the country.
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
Surely NSW is not going to rely on veterans like Bird and Tremain until players like Silk, Hunt and Sandhu come home. Play your new talent. You have almost half the population of Australia. Your original post is wrong. Shield cricket and Marsh Cup is the most engaging of all cricket. Just terrific contests with great talent. NSW is just a poor relation.
jamesb
Roar Guru
And those peripheral players are spread to other states. It gets back to my initial post around the standard of the Sheffield Shield. Although tbf, a peripheral player could have a breakout season, or slowly become a key member of a team.
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
Very few NSW are at the forefront. They are peripheral players.
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
Which state do you want a second eleven for; WA? NSW? Australia?
jamesb
Roar Guru
Depth has gone to other states
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
This is WA's 3rd/4th best side. They have more first picked players out than NSW does. Where is the NSW depth?
jamesb
Roar Guru
The article is about the Sheffield Shield...
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
We have 4 elevens that can win test championships. Do you want a white or red ball eleven? I'll get back to you after my 18 holes in 35°heat. No cart today after Maxi's accident.
jamesb
Roar Guru
Select a second xi then.
jamesb
Roar Guru
Hypothetically WA thrashes NSW. What do WA players get out of it? Not much. Now if WA were to beat a competitive NSW side, then that would be more beneficial. We would have a more accurate idea on the players ability from WA, rather than cashing in on a dead horse. But sport is all about cycles. WA are strong today, but had a long drought of winning the SS.
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
Surely that's "weak". Other states are doing well. James reckons it's every state.
Tom
NSW cricket in general isnt weak, their Blues team certainly is though. It’s their commitment to their pathways process that NSW cricket have placed their egos on, playing favourites while ignoring grade cricket results that has made their squad rubbish. Dan Solway got the flick after a few bad matches despite averaging 40. Most recent example is Lachlan Hearne who was their most prized pathway player in 2019. Gave him 4 matches then gave him the flick after playing 4 matches at 18/19. He looked good for an 18 year old, but they stuck with the old boys and their prized possessions of Jason Sangha and Jack Edwards despite having received little return for years. Hearne moved to Qld at the start of the season, has made premier cricket double 100’s and 100’s, made his Qld 2nd XI debut this week and made a tidy 84. NSW selectors find pet projects when they are 16 and try to make them stars with nothing to go by but a few net sessions. They still have players coming through in NSW but they keep forcing them out (Hunt, Nivi, Ellis, McAndrew, Manenti, Hearne and the list goes on) to keep their pets and the old boys on the books. They have even run Dylan Hunter, who was a prestigious white ball talent, out all the way to NZ where he is now playing for Canterbury in the Plunkett Shield. NSW desperately needs a review, at the end of last season they claimed they were going to change things up but then they still rolled out the same side. Getting Blake MacDonald in is a good start, been a grade and 2nd XI gun for years now but time will tell if they actually give him a decent amount of time to find his feet.
Tom
Shame Paris is made of dental floss. Would have played more cricket for Aus if he wasn't injured every month. Such a shame.
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
You refer to this, " young NSW side", Gibbo. Henriques, Lyon, Bird, Tremain, Dwarshuis, Hughes...how young? This is the oldest attack in Australian cricket in 2 centuries of Shield Cricket.