TOPIC:

WA's turn to fightback today. Things were looking grim just before lunch with Victoria on 3-233 and 2 set batsmen. Thankfully the new ball did the trick and a good combined effort by the bowlers saw them lose 7-73.

Victoria struck back in the last session to take 3-91, but with a lead of 171 I think WA would still be the happier at the end of day 3. 
They would need to push that to 250 + tomorrow, preferably 300+ to feel comfortable. This is a real opportunity for Josh Phillipe to show his credentials in the long format and play an innings of real substance. He can only do this if he plays his natural game rather than poking and prodding around as he did in the first innings.

How valuable was that 50 by Corey Rocchiccioli on day 2?  Just about the difference in the game at the moment.

Outstanding partnership by Whiteman and Hardie which has all but parcelled up the Shield for WA. I must admit, like others I had my doubts about Sam Whiteman as an opener but he has proved me wrong as he batted for a total of 517 balls in 2 innings for a match total of 208 runs. I'm sure Hardie will play for Australia one day, he has risen to the occasion with both bat and ball in the biggest first class game of the year. When they came together WA were 5- 110, a lead of only 191 and the Vics had a sniff, the subsequent partnership of 174 put the game out of realistic reach for Victoria.
So where is the game heading tomorrow? With a lead of 393, WA already have more than enough runs. If they declared overnight Victoria would need a run rate of 4.36 per over to win but I reckon Shaun Marsh should not give them anything. I'm sure he remembers that final a number of years ago that Victoria hosted on a complete road in Tasmania where they batted WA out of the game and played for a draw from the start. Be ruthless, make them bowl us out and then chase whatever target they have.
Barring a complete calamity tomorrow, WA should break their 23 year shield drought and give Shaun Marsh a great send off in what I suspect will be his last first class game. It will be a great achievement for a team that is missing at least 5 of its best players.

Well done WA, you have made one happy, to say the least.

Totally agree Mikeh, the priority is to secure the shield, if that means a boring batathon today then so be it, going for a win and creating any risk of a loss is just silly, give those Vicco's nothing, as they would have done if positions were reversed.

Well done WA on securing the shield....been a while between drinks. Time for S Marsh to retire, go out a winner and let the next generation take over....some talent in the wings that just need some opportunities to show their wares. Well done Voges on securing the treble....

Well done WA......we have finally ended that bloody Shield drought!

And not only the Shield but the One Day 50 over & BBL comps as well, the triple crown in one season!

Kudos time, hats off to the following-
Sam Whiteman who batted superbly in both innings and duly received the man of the match.
Aaron Hardie who's 174* in the second dig coming in with WA delicatly placed at 5/110 and a lead of only 190 at the time played one of the great Shield Final knocks coming in at 7 after bowling 24 overs for 3/54 in Vics innings. If he could find another 5km with his bowling he could be a definite Test match all rounder.
Corey Rocchicccioli who's hard counter attacking 50 off 29 balls gave WA some momentum after a horrific collapse from 2/287 to 9/344 and frustrated the Vics in the humid weather. Then took a handy 2/24 off 12 overs with the ball to help wrap up the Vic tail.
Cam Bancroft's 145 in our first innings and his opening partnership of 188 with Whiteman was a god send after Handscomb won the toss for the Vics and sent us in.
Joel Paris did a great job with the ball both in restricting Vic getting the bonus point which proved very costly with some tight bowling and picking up crucial wickets with the second new ball, was also handy with the bat scoring some runs and just as importantly soaking up balls to tire the Vic attack.
The others all played cameos as well whether in the field, bat or ball.
Also to the coach Adam Voges who I have bagged before but he certainly had the last laugh with all 3 titles won this summer under his tutelage.

For the Vics Boland was his usual consistent self, tough to get away and always at the batsman. Young Perry looks a talent can bowl brisk outswingers and is more than useful with the bat. Sutherland impressed me, I hadnt been a huge fan of his before the last 2 games but his bowling has really come on and he never gave up putting in all day both with the ball and in the field. Handscomb & Pucovski batted well as you would expect from 2 who have played Test cricket for AUS.

Well done to 91.3 for a great call of the game yes from a predominately WA viewpoint but at least they were invested in the game unlike those on Fox Cricket as I couldnt listen to those Eastern States tossers any longer with their bullshit talk about NSW or QLD, the Crows or NRL, why are not WA taking the game on more etc etc who no one from the competing finallists WA or VIC for that matter could give a shit about!
Lehmann who sounds like he's sucking on a mouthful of marbles is a flog and no wonder AUS were a rabble under his coaching, whilst Symonds was not much better!
 

Freezin wrote:

Well done WA on securing the shield....been a while between drinks. Time for S Marsh to retire, go out a winner and let the next generation take over....some talent in the wings that just need some opportunities to show their wares. Well done Voges on securing the treble....

Isnt it funny Freeze with the likes of M.Marsh, Agar, Inglis, Green, Behrendorff, Stoinis all missing on Australian duties for the bulk of the season and even Richardson injured we have finally broken that long awaited Sheffield Shield drought.
Even Gannon, Short, Moody etc who have all had plenty of opportunities in the past have been pushed aside by a younger more hungry group.
I do agree S.Marsh should retire on this winning note from the Shield side and it is now up to the younger brigade of the likes of Wyllie, Connolly, Goodwin, Fanning, Wasley etc to take up the mantle if they are good enough with the bat. The likes of Hardie, Morris, Rocchiccioli, Kelly, Phillipe etc have certaily done that with those more experienced players being away who could not get the job done for WA previously.

Wouldn't it be great to have all Shield teams with a full complement of players including national reps for one season. Obviously NSW would be hard to beat with Cummins, Starc, Hazelwood, Warner, Smith and Lyon being injected but reckon WA could give them a run with those others coming into WA you mentioned BH. It's never going to happen I know but I reckon it would get the Sheffield Shield back to centre stage if it did.

Agree with all the comments made. Fantastic season for WA cricket and a wonderful reward for a Shaun Marsh's long standing service to the game here. Kudos to the hierarchy for selecting young promising players in the game instead of going back to guys like Turner and Short who have consistently failed at first class level but may have been seen as a safer option in the absence of so many first choice players. The last 17 year old to play in a shield winning side before Teague Wylie was Pat Cummins so he is in good company. Certainly a bright future for cricket in this state and hopefully Voges can lead them to a few more titles yet.
From a spectacle point of view, I felt that the game reached its peak on day 3 and early day 4 when both sides were still in the hunt for an outright win. However the Hardie/Whiteman partnership while great for WA completely killed the game as a competitive contest and the intensity of the first 3 days fell away as the Vic's realised they had no hope.
I was thinking that maybe to keep the spice in the contest longer that bonus points could still be live in the first 100 overs of the 2nd innings to keep both teams interested. I went back through the scorecard in WA's 2nd innings and their score after 100 overs was 5-225., so if the bonus points system remained in the 2nd innings , the Vics would have scored 0.5 to WAs 0.25 which would have put Victoria in the lead in the game. Now I know WA would have scored quicker if they knew that they needed to, but it could have also led to more wickets which in turn increases the chance of a result. As the system is now, WA had no incentive to declare and try and win the game so they just batted and batted which was the right thing to do but it made for a boring end to what was a brilliant game of cricket.

I reckon the WA boys have long memories.
The 2014/15 Shield Final vs the VICS where they batted out slowly for a draw on a flat Bellerive pitch that they asked to be served up and also the 2013/14 Final vs NSW.
No way were we ever going to set Vic a target to chase (like the muppets at Fox Cricket wanted), I enjoyed every single ball watching us demoralise the Vics into the ground under the warm WA sky!

Interestingly looking back on that 2014/15 Final the Vics had 3 WA boys in their team in Rogers, Stoinis & D.Hussey.
Why would a state the size of Vic the supposed sporting capital of the world as they so boldly claim need to have 3 boys from a state with a third of their population?
Both Harris & Mackin who played for WA in that match also were poached by Vic after.
Whiteman & Bancroft actually made runs in that Final as well whilst S.Marsh fell to spin cheaply like in both innings in this match.