TOPIC:

As well as the battle for the shield, this final is very important for a number of players who may be under consideration for the Ashes tour. If Cam Bancroft can produce another big score in this game, surely he is on the plane as he has had a prolific season. Aaron Hardie, Josh Phillipe, Lance Morris, Marcus Harris and Peter Handscomb will be others keen to push their claims. I am assuming that Boland and Murphy are shoo ins given their recent performances

Mike I heard the lot on Fox, headed by Julian, say that there will be some that miss out for the squad for the Ashes because they will already be playingCounty cricket. I think fellas from WA, like Bancroft and Morris awill already be there, so wont be part of the squad.
There were a few other they mentioned, but those two stood out.
I reckon that Morris, like Agar, has been hard done bywith red ball games. Obvioulsy the Aussie selectors saw him getting more benefit bowling in the nets than on a cricket oval to players in a real game.

Interesting first day in the Sheffield Shield Final.
A real old style cricket day with VIC opener Chandrasinghe batting through the whole day to be 46no at stumps off 266 balls although he was caught behind off a Morris no ball, one of 2 wickets he took that were later called no balls.
After having the VICs 6/129 at tea their lower order has dug in to be 8/194 at stumps on Day 1, but disappointingly from a WA perspective we couldnt knock them over in the last session.

Not in my lifetime have I seen an innings like that one , not even Tavare , Boycott , Mudassar or Edrich were this slow and they were legless tortoises at best
Must have had more green and grass 

I think the value of the innings will be determined on Day 2 when WA have a bat on the same pitch. Without Chandrasinge, the Vics would have only got around 150 and WA would already be well on the way to reducing the deficit  and bossing the game. As it stands the visitors still have a chance of posting a challenging total

Always thought our batting might be an issue against a very good VIC attack lead by Boland and so far proven correct.
Bancroft & Whiteman got off to a steady start but once one went the floodgates opened with Wyllie once again going cheaply, Cartwright made a duck the victim of a cracking catch by Perry and now heavily relying on Hardie & Turner as not much to come after them well thats in form with the bat anyway.
Chandrasinghe 46* carried his bat for VIC in their first innings of 195, and without him they may have been under the pump but not to be from a WA perspective.

there's still question marks around some batsmen mate - it might have been nice to have Inglis & Marsh to stiffen the side

You bloody bewdy WA are Back To Back Triple Crown Champions (Sheffield Shield, Marsh Cup & BBL).
Bancroft 39* & Wyllie 43* knocked off the 91 needed for victory pretty easily in the end despite losing Whiteman for another duck (his 7th for the season) to Boland.
Turner's 128, Paris's 5 wickets and a very handy 31 with the bat, Kelly's 6 wickets, Hardie's 4 wickets and 46 with the bat, Morris's 4 wickets, Phillipe's 28 plus 7 catches and a stumping all deserve noting but all round a team effort.
For the VICs Will Sutherland was again superb with both bat (83) and ball (5/75) whilst Boland again was his dependable self with 3 miserly wickets whilst Handscomb acored 52 in the 2nd dig and Perry was handy with both bat and ball.
Good to see those WA boys who were unavailable due to a silly hit and giggle tournament in India also show their support to the lads at the game in Inglis, M.Marsh, Agar, Green, Stoinis plus the injured J.Richardson, Stobo & S.Marsh wh has also just retired after a great career for WA & AUS.
Hats off too to Adam Voges who has turned a talented but underperforming red ball side into a force in Australian domestic cricket!

Good summation BH. I thought the Vics erred by leaving out Holland in favour of Murphy. I suppose they felt they had to given that Murphy played for Australia in India but I felt that Holland was more suited to the WACA and would have posed more of a threat to the opposition batsmen than Murphy who was ineffective. Holland had taken some wickets in the last shield game as well. One of the major differences between the teams was that WA had 5 genuine wicket taking bowlers in their group whereas Victoria were over reliant on Boland and Sutherland to keep the pressure on. Once they had a spell, WA scored a lot more freely through the likes of O'Neill and Perry who toiled hard but with little reward.
Overall WA's win was a team effort with Turner, Paris and Kelly standing out as the match winners. Sutherland was magnificent for the Vics but he had to carry a few passengers in the team who didnt contribute much. Harris in particular as a senior player had a game he would rather forget.
Whiteman mentioned in the post match that WA had used over 20 players in the qualifying rounds. It was 22 in fact. Here are the 11 players who didn't take part in the final for various reasons:

Fanning
Short
Richardson
Inglis
Gannon
Stobo
Moody
Agar
S. Marsh
Stoinis
Mitch Marsh
Also not forgetting Cam Green who didnt play for WA this season. This indicates how much depth of talent there is.

Yep, congratulations lads.