Victoria Wins Futures League T20
4 matches, 4 pretty comprehensive wins for the Victoria U23 Team. Match reports and player analysis by Jarrod Potter.
There’s something very relaxing about watching cricket at small grounds with a handful of people (and their dogs) all the while watching the cultivation of new cricket talent. Plenty of youngsters were on offer from all states, but the runaway winner was a dominant Victoria. They barely looked troubled in their group stage matches and even when New South Wales ramped up their scoring in the Final, cooler heads prevailed to take the tournament victory.
Match One: Victoria vs Cricket Australia Centre of Excellence at Junction Oval
Victoria 8/137 (Carters 31, Salpietro 29*) def CA COE 81 (Boland 3/21, Rose 2/17) by 56 runs
Unfortunately I didn’t get out to see this match. Was under the idea that the rain had ruined the entire day, with the majority of matches rained out. Seems they got some gameplay in brighter skies after the unexpected deluge. Thankfully I did follow it online, so here’s the report.
Carters, Gulbis and Salpietro helped post a competitive score, with all CA COE bowlers chipping in with timely wickets. This score seemed low at the time yet proved to be well beyond the CA COE’s reach. Boland, Rose and Salpietro forced the hand of the opposing batsmen, with no answers to their guile. Bundled out for 81 doesn’t quite befit a side that is housed at the Centre of Excellence so I don’t particularly regret not seeing this match. Chalked a necessary win for Victoria, but nothing worth significant comment.
Match Two: Victoria vs Western Australia at Toorak Park.
Victoria 7/177 (Maxwell 52, Stray 50, Stoinis 3/31) def Western Australia 6/161 (Swart 61, Fawcett 55, Doropoulos 4/29) by 16 runs
The skies didn’t look any clearer at Toorak Park Tuesday afternoon, with light drizzle forcing the covers off and on during the player warm up. Victoria took full advantage of the ominous weather by raining sixes and fours throughout a very powerful display of batting.
Maxwell and Carters opened the innings aggressively, Maxwell taking Dixon for 26 runs in the second over of the game. A cameo innings of 21 by Carters lead way to Stray coming in and stroking the ball around the park. Stray and Maxwell continued along until Maxwell foolishly threw away his wicket through a careless full-blooded shot which missed a Fawcett straight delivery. Maxwell’s rapid fire 52 off 21 balls proved to be a significant platform for Stray and Keath to work off, as the two compiled a 52 run partnership before Stray was run out by Adams. The tail contibuted what it had to as Victoria moved to 177 off it’s allotted overs.
The Western Australian innings started off poorly as Doropoulos dismissed Harris for four. That was the last Victorian highlight for a while as Fawcett and Swart went about compiling a massive partnership of 120. The issue for WA was the runs didn’t come quickly enough and as the overs ticked off Swart and Fawcett started to play rash shots to catch up to the run rate. They were both dismissed playing careless shots in pursuit of the total; both dismissed by Doropoulos as he ran out Swart and had Fawcett hitting one straight to Keath. Once those two went out, the asking rate became too much for the WA middle order and forced a lot of needless wickets to fall. Inevitably, Doropoulos struck twice more picking up impressive figures of 4/29 from his four overs as WA fell short of the total by 16 runs.
Match Three: Victoria vs Queensland at Harry Trott Oval
Victoria 1/135 (Carters 56*, Gulbis 41, Stray 30*) def Queensland 7/134 (Michael 35*, Cutting 31, Boland 2/18) by 9 wickets
Easily the most relaxing of the grounds, with grass embankments surrounding the field, forcing fans to sit agonisingly underneath picturesque trees and soak up the shade provided. It was a tough match to report, but it’s a job I take on for you the reading public.
Queensland won the toss on a cloudless day and chose to set the score by opening the batting. All eyes went to the English import, Michael Lumb, to see what he is made of leading up to the Big Bash competition. He and Ben Dunk opened and were not around for long. The top order was dismissed cheaply, as Queensland collapsed to 3/24. Some resurgence through Jason Floros started a fightback, but he and the rest of the middle order likewise fell apart as Queensland slumped further to 6/54. To avoid a total embarrasment, Dominic Michael and Ben Cutting set about posting a respectable total, hitting the bad balls and ensuring Queensland batted out their overs. Their 62 run partnership brought the total to 7/134.
The Victorian run chase never looked troubled, nor felt as if they were going harder than second gear. Carters, Gulbis and Stray were the chief wreckers once again as they stitched up the win with 3.1 overs to spare.
Victoria vs New South Wales at Junction Oval
Victoria 2/152 (Carters 85*, Gulbis 52) def New South Wales (Armstrong 47, Cruickshank 33, Reid 3/15) 8/151 by 8 wickets
The weatherman told me not to show up, but he was well and truly wrong as an immaculate, cloudless day greeted the players at the Junction Oval.
NSW won the toss and chose to bat on a wearing but durable pitch. Cush and Colley were out early to the Victorian openers Herrick and Boland. This brought together Armstrong and Cruickshank who went about composing a solid score and in the process a 73 run partnership. The were dismissed by the excellent bowling of Rose and Reid and a last ditch flurry from Ryan took NSW to the highly competitive score of 8/151.
Victoria in reply batted surely and safely, never pushing the run rate too hard. Gulbis and Carters profitted again from a well earned opening partnership of 115. Their partnership was brought to an end when Zampa had Gulbis trapped LBW for 52. By that stage the match was out of NSW’s reach as Keath and Doropoulos stood at the non-strikers end watching Carters put on a show. His 85 not out coming off 55 balls, with 9 fours and a six. The Victorians got home with an over to spare and not too much work from the batsmen.
Next post I’ll go through the players to watch over the upcoming weeks for Bushrangers positions.
Jarrod Potter
Editor of the True Allrounder
Twitter: @JarrodPotter & @trueallrounder
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