TOPIC:

The body might have made the decision for him mate.
If it is the end in all formats for S.Marsh congratulations on a fine cricket career over 23 years.
When he was on song with the bat he was a genuine delight to watch.

yes I'd say so mate but it looks like there could be T-20 only for a year two

Great career from Shaun. Probably saved the WA selectors an awkward decision as well because they would have had to drop someone like Teague Wylie to facilitate his selection in the shield final

As expected WA are resting Paris and Kelly from the game starting tomorrow and have bought in Gannon and debutant Haskett to join Stobo, so the Victorians will have it easier against that attack. Unfortunately all the talk about Morris coming home early to play in this game proved to be untrue and now the WA selectors will have to decide whether or not to risk a guy for a final who has not bowled in a competitive match for nearly 2 months.

Looks like WA are playing the Vics in the final as they are all over us in the current game and Queensland are struggling in Tasmania. 

Of course Boland was the chief destroyer yesterday as he was given a leave pass by the coach ( who also happens to be a Victorian) to play in this game while Morris was held in India.
Double standards again. 

It is a concern that WA are playing so poorly in this game even though it is a dead rubber and their two best bowlers are being rested. It is important that they fight this game out even if they do end up losing outright. That means batting big when they get a chance in the 2nd innings and definitely not rolling over by an innings in 3 days. Ideally they would want to give the Vics as little momentum as possible going into the final and make them work hard for their place.

I assume Handscomb will be back from India to play for Victoria and the decision for WA will be whether to play Morris or not given his lack of cricket.

While Morris hasn't actually been on the field, I would assume he would have done plenty of net work, I know it's not the same but he will be fit and ready to go on a pitch he knows and will suit him. Do they still play the same rules where the top placed team (WA) only need to draw to win the shield and the challenger must win outright?

Senior Seagull wrote:

While Morris hasn't actually been on the field, I would assume he would have done plenty of net work, I know it's not the same but he will be fit and ready to go on a pitch he knows and will suit him. Do they still play the same rules where the top placed team (WA) only need to draw to win the shield and the challenger must win outright?

They changed that a few years ago SS in response to home teams that produced roads and made it virtually impossible for the away team to force a result.

In the event of a draw, the match is decided on first innings bonus points.

The bonus points are allocated in the first 100 overs of both teams first innings. The batting team gets 0.01 of a point for each run they make over 200 in the first 100 overs. The bowling team gets 0.1 of a point for each wicket they take in the same time.

So for example say WA make 5-300 in their 100 overs, they would have made 100 runs over the 200 mark so they would get 100 x 0.01= 1 point. Victoria would get 5 x 0.1 = 0.5 for their 5 wickets. 

When Victoria bat they get bowled out for 270 in 90 overs, they would get 70x 0.01= 0.7. WA would get 0.1 x 10 = 1 point for bowling out Victoria within the 100 overs.

So the total first innings points in this situation would be 
WA  1 point( Batting) plus 1 point (bowling) = 2 points
Vic  0.7 ( Batting) plus 0.5 points (bowling) = 1.2 points
So in the event of a draw WA would win the shield.

There are no points allocated for anything that happens after the 100 over mark or in the 2nd innings of the match. Also first innings points ( for leading on the first innings) are not allocated so a team that was behind on bonus points would be advised to declare behind to try and set up an outright win. Hopefully this makes some sense.

I tried to get my head around this last year when I was following the shield final and even though it is a better system than the previous one, it can lead to some boring second innings cricket when a team is in front on bonus points. WA won the first innings "battle" last year and then proceeded to bat Victoria out of the game on a placid pitch to the extent that the game was called off at lunchtime on day 5. Maybe the introduction of 2nd innings bonus points could spice up the contest somewhat? 

On your other point I would roll the dice and play Morris in the final. He might be a bit underdone and may leak some runs but he could also break the game open in one spell.
 

Yes it will be interesting to see which bowlers they pick. I think this will be their lineup

Cameron Bancroft,
Sam Whiteman (c),
Teague Wyllie,
Hilton Cartwright,
Aaron Hardie,
Ashton Turner,
Josh Philippe (wk),
Joel Paris,
Lance Morris,
Corey Rocchiccioli,
Matthew Kelly

I think Stobdo (not sure how you spell it) will be 12th man

I am extremely worried about our current batting with too much reliance on Bancroft to score big runs.
Whiteman is either a century or a duck no in between, Wyllie has been a bit disappointing this season, Cartwright hasnt gone on to score 100s, Hardie has been average since the BBL, Turner hasnt scored decent runs in the Shield for years, Phillipe has had a shocker with the bat in red ball cricket this season.
If all fit then in batting order I think the team will be-

Bancroft
Whiteman (C)
Wyllie
Cartwright
Hardie
Turner
Phillipe (wk)
Paris
Kelly
Rocchiccioli
Morris

Stobo (12th man)
Gannon & Fanning (13th/14th)
Green, M.Marsh, Inglis, Agar & Stoinis (all in India for a meaningless white ball tournament)
J.Richardson (injured)
S.Marsh (retired)

The VICs side in batting order will probably be-

Harris
Dean
Handscomb (c)
Kellaway
Short
Harper (wk)
Sutherland
Perry
Murphy
O'Neill
Boland

Holland (12th man)  

The Vics are the form team in the competition at the moment with 4 wins in a row. They were near the bottom of the ladder at christmas time so they have timed their run perfectly. They also get Handscomb and Murphy back and would be very confident of overturning last years result. Some of the WA players appear to have gone off the boil as well whereas last season the Warriors were in peak form having just thumped Victoria at the WACA. 

Both teams have excellent bowling attacks and solid batting line ups so I think it will be a very hard fought contest. Given the pitch is a good one, batting first would be an advantage as runs on the board in finals is always a bonus. Last year Cam Bancroft batted the whole first day for a ton and a repeat of this would be welcome. As BH said Aaron Hardie and Josh Phillipe have both been down on form recently and if both of them could make a meaningful contribution to this match it would make a huge difference to the outcome I believe.

Fingers crossed WA can make it a hat trick of titles for the 2nd year running.