Peter Handscomb and Todd Murphy return to Victoria’s squad to take on WA in the Sheffield Shield Final, starting Thursday.
Peter Handscomb and Todd Murphy return to Victoria’s squad to take on WA in the Sheffield Shield Final, starting Thursday.
It is back-to-back Finals for Victoria, who will be hoping to go one better as WA were crowned Sheffield Shield champions last season after achieving more bonus points in the drawn Final.
Victoria return to the WACA for the Final, where they defeated WA by seven wickets last week.
Todd Murphy made an instant impact in his first Test series, taking 14 wickets at an average of 25.21 across the four Test matches, which included a five-wicket haul on debut.
Peter Handscomb also returns after the Indian Test series and will resume his Victorian captaincy duties.
Cricket Victoria’s Head of Male Cricket, David Hussey said the run of five successive wins has the group full of confidence.
“To win five matches in a row to qualify is a special feat, everyone is really excited to get back over to Perth and hopefully return with the Shield,” Hussey said.
“The way that the side performed last week was outstanding, the bowling group was well led by the returning Scott Boland and the way that the batting group, particularly Marcus Harris and Matt Short were able to bat through tough periods and execute plans was a credit to them.
“Beating WA is tough in any conditions but to do it over there and qualify for the Final gives us great momentum heading into this week.
“It was so great to see Pete and Todd performing on the world stage, we’re very fortunate to be able to call them back into our squad for the Final.”
James Seymour has been omitted from the squad that defeated WA last week.
Squad:
Peter Handscomb (c) (St Kilda)
Scott Boland (Frankston Peninsula)
Ashley Chandrasinghe (Casey-South Melbourne)
Travis Dean (Footscray)
Sam Harper (Melbourne)
Marcus Harris (St Kilda)
Jon Holland (Frankston Peninsula)
Campbell Kellaway (Melbourne)
Cam McClure (Essendon)
Todd Murphy (St Kilda)
Fergus O’Neill (Melbourne)
Mitch Perry (Richmond)
Matt Short (Northcote)
Will Sutherland (Prahran)
Marsh Sheffield Shield Final
Western Australia vs Victoria
March 23-27, 1.00pm AEDT
WACA Ground, Perth
Live on Fox Cricket, Kayo Sport & cricket.com.au
Sheffield Shield Bonus Points System (If the match is drawn, the team with more bonus points will be named the winner)
Teams get 0.01 of a bonus point for every run over 200 they score during the first 100 overs of their first innings (ie: 350 after 100 overs nets you 1.5 bonus points) and 0.1 of a bonus point for every wicket a team takes during the first 100 overs of their opponent’s first innings (ie: 10 wickets before 100 first-innings overs elapses nets you 1 point).
