The Importance of the Toss in Deciding the JLT Cup Outcome

Two games began yesterday with the captain who won the toss electing to field first, as has become the norm in this competition. It was a tactic that was heavily used in the 2015 World Cup, another competition where I was screamingly critical of the decision. Despite the overcast conditions to start both matches yesterday, surely the old ‘runs on the board’ strategy is one that should more better utilised? We’ve already seen this week in South Africa where Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim has twice won the toss and sent the home team in on roads, and accordingly lost both Tests convincingly. In the long run the final result is what counts, and on this day there was a win and a loss for the two captains and teams involved.

Peter Handscomb returned from India as both captain and, somewhat surprisingly, as wicket-keeper for Victoria in their match against the CAXI, and while his decision to bowl may have irked me, it was soon validated as his bowlers ripped through the young batting line-up. The CAXI fell to 6/45 after 15 overs thanks to the firepower of Peter Siddle and Chris Tremain, and it looked for all money that it would be an early finish at Hurstville Oval. But what has impressed most about this collection of talented young cricketers has been their resolve in even the most difficult of predicaments, and again they fought their way through the adversity to regain some possibility of fighting for a win. Wicket-keeper batsman Harry Nielsen played a most impressive innings, initially holding the innings from falling apart completely, building to a half century off 68 deliveries that showed resolve and poise under the pressure of the situation. As first Mac Wright (30) and Mark Steketee (28) played exorbitantly, Nielsen stuck to his tact, until the final overs crept upon the team. Charlie Stobo’s 25 at number ten improved everything, as Nielsen aimed at getting the total to a winning one. Two consecutive sixers off Short took him to 94, and his attempt at a third consecutive six to bring up his century was only thwarted by having the tallest man in the Victorian team on the boundary, and even then Chris Tremain had to jump to his full height before bobbling the ball from the wrong side of the rope to the field side, ending Nielsen’s exemplary knock. From a position of disaster, the back end of the CAXI batting had pulled their final total to 9/232 from their fifty overs, and impressive effort.

The reply from Victoria was pugilistic. The loss of three wickets for 74 may have caused a ruction in other dressing sheds, but skipper Handscomb, now battle hardened after nine months of solid international duty was having none of it. Along with Seb Gotch, who LOOKS to be the heir apparent to the keeping role, the two added 159 runs in 22 overs to claim victory by seven wickets with more than 11 overs remaining. Gotch was assured with 51 not from 59 deliveries, while Handscomb dominated the partnership and the bowling, scoring 103 runs off 73 deliveries, with ten boundaries and four sixes to complement it. It was the innings of a man who is better than first class cricket, something which we have already seen in recent times. He looks set to be a dominant force this summer. Jackson Coleman deserves credit for his 0/32 from 10 overs, the Victorian doing his best in front of his captain to press his claims for the summer ahead.

Final mention of this match must go to the People’s Champ, Peter Siddle, who continues to have a hold over all of the batsmen in this competition. Today his ten miserly overs brought forth the figures of 2/20, and he again had all of the batsmen in trouble. It may only be one day cricket, and it will be interesting to see if he can translate this to the first class game, but he is doing everything in his power to get himself selected in the Ashes team come November.

Scorecard: JLT Cup Match 13: Victoria vs Cricket Australia XI

Over at North Sydney Oval, the replica of previous matches drew itself together once again. Having been sent in to bat, Tasmania has made a reasonable fist of setting a target, but after 38 overs they sat at 3/184. With the size of the ground and the trueness of the pitch, most teams would consider that you would need at least 300 runs in order to be able to defend. With this in mind, the Tigers had to score at ten an over for the remaining 12 overs to do this, and as had been the case in previous matches here with other teams, it didn’t look likely. History repeated itself however. George Bailey (86 of 62) blazed, Matthew Wade, in his first outing with his returned state, cobbled along with 46, and James Faulkner scored 34 off 19 balls at the end to help Tasmania reach a final total of 6/315 – an amazing 131 runs from the final 12 overs. The South Australian attack had been exposed again for its lack of discipline, although Joe Mennie was again terrific with 1/37 from his ten overs.

One still expected a contest the way the Redbacks had batted in its last two matches, but it wasn’t to be. Alex Carey and Callum Ferguson made a good start from one wicket down, forming a base to go on with. Unfortunately, all of the batsmen tended to throw their wickets away with poor shotmaking rather than penetrative bowling. Catches that were basically just bunted to fieldsmen from Carey and Ferguson, Cooper and Ross, and rash shots from the rest of the order against the spin bowling duo of the well credentialed Cameron Boyce (an excellent 3/27) and the sheer part-time offies from keeper-in-every-other-match-so-far Ben Dunk (an incredulous 3/14) meant the Redbacks collapsed to be all out for 186.

This match again proved the theory of the unpredictability of this tournament so far. South Australia was on a rise, Tasmania was unable to find their feet at all. And yet, the Tigers won convincingly. One wonders if the result would have been the same if the captain that won the toss had chosen to bat first and set that target that seems so difficult to run down.

Scorecard: JLT Cup Match 12: South Australia vs Tasmania