With South Australia inserted to have first use of the wicket, they didn’t waste it. As Alex Carey held the anchor with his 33 from 66 deliveries, his opening partner Jake Weatherald showed his class again with a fast paced 71 from 51 deliveries, which was well supported by run-a-ball innings from Callum Ferguson, who looks to have finally rediscovered his mojo with 73 from 72, Tom Cooper with 37 from 32 and Alex Ross with 33 from 37.
So far in this tournament the 38th over mark has been an interesting comparison point. We have often seen teams at around that 180 run mark, and needed 10 an over to post a par score of 300, something that never looks likely at the time but more often than not is achieved anyway. Today South Australia was cruising at 3/212 after 38 overs, and 10 an over from that point would have been a total of 332, something that they probably had to achieve to put the pressure on Victoria. And once again this target was exceeded, thanks to the final pair of Jake Lehmann and Cameron Valente. Together they added 78 runs in the final five overs. Valente hit the ball clean and long, his 36 runs coming from just 17 deliveries and impressing in its orthodoxy. He has something about him that makes you wonder just how good he could be as an all-rounder in the future. His innings was serene compared to his partner. Lehmann started off with classic Lehmann cuts and drives that could easily have been by his father in his prime such was their similarity. But then came the push, and the outrageous irregularity of his flicks and ramp shots and taking of deliveries from a metre outside off stump down to the fine leg boundary was incredible to watch. And not off spinners, this was off bowlers such as the debuting 17 year old paceman Will Sutherland, and the pacey Boland and Tremain. It was amazing stuff, and his fifty came from just 22 deliveries before finishing on 63 not out off 25 deliveries. Just incredible. That late flurry of runs pushed the Redbacks total to 6/356, and perhaps, just perhaps, out of Victoria’s reach. In all of this carnage, Fawad Ahmed again was terrific, picking up 3/62 from his ten overs, where despite the punishment on the small ground he still managed to provoke false strokes from the batsmen, and the teenage debutant Will Sutherland who is studying for his final year exams was also terrific in his first two spells, not overawed at the situation and beating the bat on several occasions. He can be well pleased with his first effort.
The reply from Victoria was as to be expected. Even without Cameron White they went hard at the total, refusing to accept it was beyond their reach. 21 year old Matt Short scored a run-a-ball 81 at the top of the order to again highlight the amazing talent in youth Australia has coming through. Travis Dean followed him, and then led him, playing his first leading innings in a domestic one day match. The loss of Harris, Short and then skipper Peter Handscomb for only 21 left Victoria at 3/203 off 30 overs, and the chase for another 154 off 20 overs was, on this size ground in this day and age, very achievable. Sam Gotch played well again before falling for 32, but Dean was advancing and dominating, bringing up his century and along with 19 year old Blake Thomson was within striking distance after 44 overs, with the score being 4/294, and 63 runs required from six overs.
One often wonders what bowlers are thinking sometimes in these run chases. Some decide short pitched bowling is the key, others think a plethora of slower balls are what is required. Most of the time we are left wondering as ball after ball disappears to or over the fence, and yet the plan doesn’t seem to change. On occasions though, there are overs that are bowled that win matches, even if they are overlooked in the final wash up of events. It isn’t always the last over heroics that wins a game of one day cricket. Sometimes a thoughtful and sensible over can be the difference, the one that changes the fortunes of the result. That happened in this match, the 45th over of the Victorian innings, and it was bowled by Cameron Valente.
What was so special about it? Simply put, six deliveries were bowled, and each was either in almost the perfect spot, or WAS in the perfect spot. With 63 runs required from 36 deliveries, Valente bowled the first ball of the over to Blake Thomson. It was full, landing on the batting crease at yorker length, just a little more than a foot wide of the off stump. Thomson played over it and was unable to get any bat on it, and it was taken excellently by the keeper Alex Carey, standing up to the stumps. Dot ball. The second ball was a dead ringer for the first, and it played out in exactly the same fashion, thudding into Carey’s gloves. Dot ball. The third ball was of the same length, but on the line of off stump, and Thomson squirted it away for a single, nothing more. Three balls down, only one run, when over ten an over was required. The fourth ball was to Travis Dean, 119 runs to his name from just 97 deliveries and in the best innings of his one day career. Valente’s delivery was again full, right up at that Yorker length, but this time it was drifting down the leg side. Dean moved his front leg toward the leg side to look to hit it through the field, but the ball just beat him for pace, although perhaps more importantly in the dip in the air. It hit his front pad and crashed back off it into the stumps, ending his innings and changing the course of the match. The new batsman was Chris Tremain, a known hitter of the ball. His first ball once again was full and straight, and all he could do was squirt it away for a single. The final ball of the over was again to Thomson, who could only block it back to the bowler. 45 overs gone, and Victoria now needed 61 runs off five overs, at over twelve runs an over, with their set and highest scoring batsman now back in the pavilion. Several of the South Australian fielders came over and gave Cameron Valente a pat on the back, but it deserved so much more. In the course of six deliveries he had taken a match that was still a 50/50 proposition, and had basically handed it to his team. It was one of the best overs I have seen in such a pressure situation in domestic one day cricket.
Victoria battled hard, and the bravado of 29 runs off the final three overs meant little when they actually required 41 off those last three overs. A final margin of 11 runs left many to ponder where the winning bonus had come from. Was it the slashing of Lehmann and Valente in those final five overs of the Redbacks innings? Was it the missing piece in Cameron White? Was it Peter Handscomb’s early dismissal? While those things, along with sending the opposition in at the toss, may have had their effect on the result, you can mark down that 45th over of the second innings as the point where the winning team claimed their advantage, through the medium paced thinking bowling of Cam Valente.
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