Even at 35 and having played the last of his nine Tests five years ago, at the MCG, there’s no denying the class of veteran Tasmanian quick Jackson Bird.
Bird was something of an MCG specialist under the baggy green, playing a third of his Tests in Melbourne and turned his skills on a battling Victorian outfit for the second time in as many days on Friday.
After taking 4-13 to skittle the Vics for a paltry 121 first-up, Bird was back at it again in their second dig and once again ripped through the home side’s top order before a late rally raised some hopes the locals could at least be in with a chance of victory.
As Victorian captain Peter Handscomb blazed a second-straight half-century against the West Indies playing for the Prime Minister’s XI in Canberra, the batters he left behind were at the mercy of Bird, again.
First-gamer Sam Elliott, son of former Test opener Matthew, took 3-45 to help limit the Tasmanians to 220, a lead of just 99.
But batting for a second time the home team was four wickets down when they got back in front, three of those four scalps taken by Bird who had 3-14 from his first 12 overs.
Will Sutherland and Sam Harper then put together 38 to take Victoria in to the lead before Bird struck for a fourth time, finishing the day with 4-19, his match figures even more staggering, reading 8-33.
That exposed the tail and at stumps Victoria had moved to 7-162, 63 in front but with only three wickets to push towards a total their own young bowling attack might be able to defend.
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MCG DAY 1
Before taking to the MCG Victorian stand-in skipper Nic Maddinson put his own poor start to the domestic season down to “the flows” of cricket.
Those flows have turned in to a tidal wave of disappointing efforts from the former Test batter and his teammates who once again failed to come to grips with a wicket which had more than a tinge of green on Thursday.
After being rolled twice for 195 runs, total, in Queensland last week including a first innings of just 63, the Victorians, minus Peter Handscomb and Marcus Harris who have more than 800 runs between them this season, collapsed yet again to be all out for 121 before tea.
In the past three Shield innings, the Vics have lost 30 wickets for just 316 runs.
Before play began there was an emotional presentation as former Test opener Matthew Elliot presented his son, Sam, with his first Victorian cap and the young quick did his part by snaring both Tasmanian openers in his first three overs.
But the wickets didn’t fall as steadily for the visitors who made their way to 4-102 at stumps, just 223 runs scored for the day evident of batting difficulties.
Bowling first, and with former Test skipper Tim Paine relegated to 12th man for the visitors, veteran Tassie fast bowlers Jackson Bird (3-9) and Peter Siddle (2-25) turned the screws on a Victorian team carrying another first-gamer in Campbell Kellaway and a few players horribly out of form.
Last season Travis Dean was joint Shield player of the year but registered a third straight duck as he became Bird’s first victim.
Maddinson then came and went in a fashion which has become all too familiar for a batter who started the season hoping to put his name on the national selection radar.
Instead the left-hander is on the fast track to being forgotten having fallen in single-figures three-times in his seven Shield innings so far which have yielded just 85 runs.
“That’s cricket and you have to ride the flows of it sometimes,” Maddinson said of his own horror run.
“It’s disappointing in terms of runs and the way I started … it feels like a long time since I’ve made 100.
“I don’t think it’s through lack of training, I feel like I’ve got a method that’s going to work, it’s just the game sometimes.”
AND New South Wales remains anchored to the foot of the Sheffield Shield ladder after they were smashed by Western Australia inside three days at the SCG to heap more pressure on coach Phil Jaques.
The 133-run loss means the Blues remain winless after five matches following another disastrous batting display on a pitch that offered plenty of spin and reverse swing for the bowlers who took advantage of the variable bounce on a dry deck.
A day after 20 wickets fell in Sydney, a Western Australian attack missing Jason Behrendorff, Jhye Richardson and Joel Paris tore through the hosts inside 41 overs to justify their position at the top of the table after five rounds.
The Blues were dismissed for just 134 after they were rolled for 93 on Wednesday, with debutant Chris Green top-scoring with 38 not out to go with his nine wickets for the match.
NSW has one more match starting next week against Victoria before the Sheffield Shield goes on break for the BBL, and it’s in that period where Jaques’ future will come under review.
“It‘s been made public that Phil (Jaques) is in the last season of his existing contract,” Cricket NSW CEO Lee Germon said on Sky Sports Radio.
“He‘s as aware as anyone that, with the legacy and the history of the Blues, as a coach you have to get results and develop players.
“It was always planned that there‘ll be a review.”
While the pitch had its gremlins, a couple of NSW batters will be very disappointed with their shot selection with Dan Hughes trapped in front attempting a reverse sweep as the Blues crumbled to be 6-85 at lunch.
Things didn’t get much better after lunch as David Moody’s reverse swing proved unplayable, with the seamer claiming three wickets including a vicious yorker that knocked over Mickey Edwards to end the match.
Western Australia’s title defence is well and truly on track, with a couple of their unheralded players stepping up to get the job done in Sydney.
Sam Fanning was the only batter to pass 50 for the match, while off-spinner Corey Rocchiccioli claimed the best match figures of his first-class career with four wickets in each innings.
The only New South Welshman who would have enjoyed what he saw was Nathan Lyon, who missed the match, but will relish the conditions if the pitch remains the same for the New Year’s Test.
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DAY 3 AT THE SCG
Ugly batting collapses have become all-too regular in the Sheffield Shield this season and now NSW and can be added to the list with only a late rally from Western Australia avoiding a complete horror for both teams at the SCG.
After rolling through ladder-leaders Western Australia for just 233 on a spinning Sydney pitch on day one, the home team was rocked by fast bowler Matt Kelly who tore through the top-order before they were all out for just 93 after lunch on day two.
But given their chance to bat again the visitors also fell victim to an SCG pitch Australia’s Test players will be crossing their fingers is overgrown and nothing like the wicket served up when they play South Africa in January.
Veteran NSW quick Chris Tremain fired early and WA slumped to 3-6, then 4-11 and 7-45 before D’Arcy Short (39 not out) and tailender Charlie Stobo (36)stopped the rot.
But after their 60-run stand was ended by Chris Green, who added five second innings wickets to four in the first, WA was quickly all out for 127
All told there were 20 wickets taken for 220 runs on the spicey SCG deck which replicated a few of the other difficult wickets teams have encountered all around the country in the first half of the Shield season.
Earlier WA quick Matt Kelly snared three wickets inside the opening 10 overs of the NSW innings to have them 3-17 then 7-65 at lunch before spinner Corey Rocchiccioli took the final three wickets, including Hughes for a team-high 30 to dismiss the home team in just 38 overs.
The limp effort with the bat comes after NSW was also rolled for just 76 in a one-day game against WA last month, and 18 months after they were dismissed for a record-low 32 by Tasmania in a Shield game in March, 2021.
NSW have been dismissed for under 70 four times since the turn of the century, including being all out for just 64 against Tasmania in 2020.
In the last round of Shield games Victoria were bowled out twice inside two days by Queensland, racking up just 63 in the first innings.
A Queensland line-up featuring Test batters usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne was also dismissed for only 97 in a clash against WA in Perth.
The limp effort with the bat comes after NSW was also rolled for just 76 in a one-day game against WA last month, and 18 months after they were dismissed for a record-low 32 by Tasmania in a Shield game in March, 2021.
NSW have been dismissed for under 70 four times since the turn of the century, including being all out for just 64 against Tasmania in 2020.
In the last round of Shield games Victoria were bowled out twice inside two days by Queensland, racking up just 63 in the first innings.
A Queensland line-up featuring Test batters Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne was also dismissed for only 97 in a clash against WA in Perth.
In Adelaide South Australia’s batters dug in to force a draw with Queensland as the teams shook hands at the earliest possible point on the final day of their clash.
The home team was on the back foot from the outset, crumbling to 5-25 in he opening session on the first day at the Adelaide Oval but their second innings was more positive as unbeaten half-centuries from Nathan McSweeney (77 not out) and Jake Lehmann (68 not out) steered them out of the final day danger zone.
When the draw was called, SA was 3-246 in its second inning, 146 runs in front of Queensland with no prospect of a result.
Lehmann, who was captaining the team in the absence of Travis Head, said it was about bring “gritty” as the continued to search for their first win of the season.
“It was always going to be hard to play a positive brand of cricket when you are 5-25 in the first session of day one,” he saif.
“From then we’ve had some good chats about trying to be a little bit more gritty, a little bit more team orientated, really drive that, and hopefully you can see that through to this batting today.
“Hopefully it’s good steps forward.”
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DAY 1
Turning down a lucrative payday in Abu Dhabi for the chance of a belated Sheffield Shield debut proved a golden move for globetrotting T20 gun for hire Chris Green.
The abundance of cricket being played, including a Prime Minister’s XI clash with the touring West Indies, and international limited overs and impending Test matches has provided a catapult for some around the country into their state teams.
Green, 29, a perennial and sought-after attendee of T20 tournaments around the world, was one keen to put on white clothes and don his very first “baggy blue” after being included in the NSW side for the SCG clash with Western Australia.
And after taking 4-20 in his domestic one-day game in more than four years last week, Green was in the wickets again with the red-ball, snaring the first three WA wickets at the SCG, then added a fourth when he had Josh Philippe stumped in a star turn.
Green, who opted against playing in the T10 league this year when told he could be in line for a NSW debut, was one of two new spinners unleashed with who leg-spinner Toby Gray also playing on a seriously spinning wicket in Sydney.
Between them the pair of tweakers took seven wickets to roll ladder-leaders WA for 233, Green snaring 4-71 and Gray 3-58 on the opening day.
IN ADELAIDE former Test opener Joe Burns fell just short of the perfect celebration in 100th Shield game for Queensland when he was run out for 85.
Burns, 33, who made a century on his Shield debut for the Bulls against the same opponents at the same venue in 2011, was cruising towards a 20th first-class ton before his 237-ball stay was ended.
Queensland looked like powering away from SA’s first innings total of 240 before Nathan McAndrew got the redbacks back in to the contest with a five-wicket haul.
The fast bowler snared 5-83 to reduce the visitors from 4-213 to all out 342, a lead of 105 which the home team made a good start of reeling in.
When rain stopped play late on day three, SA was 1-69 and needing to set something for Queensland to chase on the final day at Adelaide Oval.