Some farcical scenes were on display as Queensland took on Victoria in the Sheffield Shield. As many as all the nine fielders surrounded the batters in a bid to dismiss them (see picture) as Victoria tried their very best to draw the match and eventually succeeded in doing so. Even Gurinder Sandhu, a seamer, tried his hands at off-spin!
Victoria had a victory target of 256 in their final innings, and they made sure they chase it with snail’s pace—defensive tactics at its very best. They did lose three wickets and that’s when Queensland handed the ball to Michael Sweepson who then called the fielders to take on close-in positions across the batter. He bowled 18 overs, but in the end it proved futile. Victoria’s Nic Maddinson and Matt Short were up for the game and defended everything with a dead bat, as the Vics scored just 52 runs in the final 20 overs, all boundaries, with the batsmen not running at all, in the uneventful final hour.
In the end, Vic skipper Pater Handscomb urged Queensland counterpart to end the game; the request was readily accepted.
Maddinson finished unbeaten on 48 to go with his 110 not out in the first innings to give the left-hander, who is on standby for the Pakistan tour, 563 runs this Shield season, in just five matches. Before the late standoff neither team was able to fast forward the match to their advantage on the final day.
Queensland resumed at 3-69 but didn’t pick up the pace until some late lusty hitting from James Bazley, who made an unbeaten 42 off just 56 balls which finally brought about a declaration.The Vics couldn’t get the breakthroughs they needed to start the day either, with Ashes hero Scott Boland and former Test quick James Pattinson snaring just one wicket between them for the match on a pitch well-suited to batting.
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