Western Australia 244 (Boland 4-41) and 168 (Bancroft 58, Inglis 45, Boland 4-51) beat Victoria 144 (Brief 53, Gannon 5-42) and 130 (Kellaway 53, Haskett 3-12) by 138 runs
Western Australia booked a 3rd straight home Sheffield Shield final after defeating Victoria and leapfrogging Tasmania to prime spot on the ladder.
The twin defending champions wanted every little thing to go proper in their final regular-season sport to maintain alive their hopes of a Shield three-peat. They rose to the problem, defeating Victoria by 138 runs in a digital elimination final on the Junction Oval in Melbourne.
Set 269 to win, Victoria had been skittled for 130 late on a rain-affected day three of the match. The home aspect by no means appeared like pulling off the unlikely run chase on a tough pitch, stumbling to 31 for 3 with their three most skilled batters – Nic Maddinson, Marcus Harris and Peter Handscomb – already dismissed.
After coming in at No. 3, Kellaway survived the carnage round him as WA’s bowlers labored in tandem to full the match on Wednesday.
Victoria captain Will Sutherland nearly broke down when describing the ache of the defeat.
“Our batting allow us to dow …the boys ran out of steam a bit of bit with the ball,” he mentioned. “We’re nonetheless a younger group, however I feel this one does damage fairly a bit …nearly hurts greater than making the final and dropping, I do not know why.”
WA will host the five-day final towards Tasmania on the WACA Floor, beginning on March 21, after the Tigers blew a golden alternative to make sure the decider was performed in Hobart.
Tasmania began the spherical in the field seat to safe a home final, solely needing to defeat South Australia at Blundstone Enviornment to lock it in.
WA are aiming to develop into simply the third group this century, after Queensland (2000-02) and Victoria (2015-17), to win three straight Shield titles.
Tasmania received the final of their three Shield finals again in 2012-13 when Ricky Ponting was nonetheless taking part in.
“The pleasing factor about this group is there isn’t any actual discuss three in a row,” WA captain Sam Whiteman mentioned. “It is nearly successful this yr, and we have discovered this yr that Shields are so onerous to win, lots of issues want to go your means.”
