Klinger and Paine Shown the Age Card as Shield Gets Underway

Wet conditions, a pink ball and the second half of each day being played out under lights combined for some interesting first up conditions for the new Sheffield Shield season. While both opening matches are still wide open for any result, some of the individuals who are looking beyond the result of the match may still have questions of their own to answer.

Queensland profited heavily from the 53 runs that was added by the final two wickets, taking the score from 8/113 to 166 all out in a disappointing start for them. While the two big pacemen Chris Tremain and Scott Boland were the main destroyers for Victoria taking 4/36 and 4/43 respectively, it was once again the leg spin of Fawad Ahmed who made the two most crucial inroads, dismissing both Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne in his opening spell. It was excellent captaincy by Peter Handscomb to bring Fawad on against Khawaja, much as many have being doing against him in the JLT Cup as well after his inability to show any dominance again spin bowling in recent times. It worked a treat here, as Fawad beat him consistently with his wrong ‘un outside off stump, before eventually luring a prodding bat to gain an edge to slip to be dismissed for 40. He had shown enough at the crease again to suggest he is a lock for the Test team, but if I was the England captain I would be priming my spinners to warm up every time Khawaja comes to the crease this summer, and starve him of the faster bowling he prefers. The beautiful slider Fawad bowled to Labuschagne to have him plumb LBW was another beauty, beating him off the wicket wonderfully. Fawad finished with 2/52 on a first day ‘Gabba wicket with a pink ball, and words cannot express enough how good his spell was.

There was a long wait with a rain delay, and the Vics might have thought they’d get out of batting until the following day, but in the end 14 overs were deemed necessary, and three wickets fell in that time, two to debutante fast bowler Brendan Doggett. Nightwatchman Peter Siddle, brought in to shield Glenn Maxwell who was slated to bat at three could only buy him six deliveries. Maxwell and Handscomb are not out overnight, and have a tough task today not only for their State but in Maxwell’s case in scoring enough runs personally to ensure the selectors he is still the man they need in the Test team. At 3/43 and still 123 runs behind, it shapes as an interesting day’s play.

At the W.A.C.A. another captain won the toss and elected to field, and despite an excellent start by Western Australia the game had pulled back to level pegging by the time stumps had been called. Wet weather hampered the start here as well, but the Warriors looked to be in a powerful position at 1/146 half way through the day, so the fact that Tasmania was able to fight back to have them 7/285 at stumps was quite an achievement. The two batsmen who are the most likely to be pushing for a Test spot in Brisbane – Shaun Marsh and Hilton Cartwright – both did their cause no harm, except that after making a good start they were unable to go on and make the big century both would have been looking for. Marsh fell on 63 and Cartwright on 61 and no doubt both of them thought they left some runs out there. Following this there was only Mitch Marsh’s 36, Ashton Turner’s 32 and Nathan Coulter-Nile’s slashing 36 not out that progressed the innings to their point they are at. While the bowling was probably steady at best, the conditions favoured the pink ball and probably helped their penetration as the evening wore on. The second day will probably answer the question as to the potency of both teams bowling attacks.

The biggest news from the W.A.C.A. was the omission of Michael Klinger from the Western Australian team and Tim Paine from the Tasmanian team. Klinger hasn’t missed a match in the four years he has been a part of the Warriors team, and form didn’t seem to be an issue. Does this follow in the trend of Ed Cowan’s omission by New South Wales? Klinger at 37 is on the older side of the cricket community, but he has barely slipped a notch in his batting over the years. Instead we have inserted players such as Cartwright, Marcus Stoinis and Ash Turner into the top six, all of whom are all-rounders rather than the specialist top order batsman. Once they had decided that Cartwright was going to bat at three it did probably spell and end to Klinger’s current chances. Whether or not this comes back to bite them in the arse will only be seen by the end of Day 4. Tim Paine’s omission was probably more likely, despite the fact he had just returned from India as Australia’s chosen T20 wicket-keeper batsman, and (to be honest) without question the better gloveman than chosen wicket-keeper Matthew Wade, who has transferred from Victoria in the off season. Tasmania has a hundred wicket-keepers to choose from, apart from Wade and Paine, both chosen batsmen Jake Doran and Ben McDermott have done the job, and Ben Dunk remains out of the first class squad for the moment. How Paine takes this rejection will be interesting, because had he been playing these initial Shield matches he would have been right in the frame for the Test keeper’s spot. With the country’s tenth or twelfth best custodian playing in from of him in this match, one wonders just how he feels about his current position.
And just for good measure, let's add in the fact that Jason Behrendorff, who must be an outside chance of making the Test XII for Brisbane, isn't playing in this match because apparently he has 'bowled too much' in recent times in his comeback from injury, so he has to be 'managed'. I mean... we're building up to an Ashes series, and one of the main contenders can't play because he may re-injure himself. Did anyone ask Behrendorff what HE thought about that? All in all, it has been one of the strangest starts to a Sheffield Shield, possibly ever. Let's hope the rest of the cricket can compensate for some of the strange things happening behind closed doors off the field.