Under-19s: Victoria back on winners list

Resuming day two at 8-89 and trailing Victoria by 93 runs, South Australia lost its last two wickets after adding just 15 more runs.

Guy Walker finished with a match-winning 6-31, while Jake Wood, Ejaaz Alavi, Sam Grimwade and Jonty Rushton all took a wicket each.

Walker and Wood were fresh off a batting partnership that swung the game in Victoria’s favour on day one, Walker hitting an intelligent 72 (75 balls) and Wood (28 off 68) playing his part at the other end.

The pair came together with Victoria reeling at 8-85 after lunch, and pushed the total to a competitive 182.

“They just played the percentages, they played smart and got us into a position to give us something to defend,” coach Jarrad Loughman said of the partnership.

“‘Tex’ Walker is a good player, he works on his batting a lot as a (Bushrangers) contracted player.

“He recognises situations really quickly – he saw that we were eight down and that we had to play pretty positively.

“He did it smart, he put away the bad balls, hit the ball along the ground, but if he went over the top he went hard and cleared the field.

“But that doesn’t happen without a guy at the other end.

“Jake (Wood) is obviously a bowler but he’s a really determined character and prides himself on his batting.”

Walker and Wood then set out to keep the match on Victoria’s terms with the ball.

“Guy knocked over Jake Winter first ball (of the innings) with a pretty good in-swinger and that set the tone,” said Loughman.

“With Jake doing a job at the other end, the same pair had a good bowling partnership following up from their batting.

“It was our best bowling performance because all the bowlers contributed.

“Grimwade bowled a good spell, Alavi bowled really tight and everyone that got thrown the ball put pressure on the batters.

“You reap the rewards later and that’s when Walker came back and ran through them after the pressure had built up.

With a lead of 78 early on day two, Victoria’s top-order batsmen looked to find some form and set South Australia a new target.

“We batted really well – we talk about playing positively, playing our game and playing straight, but the first session was pivotal,” Loughman said of the Vics’ second dig.

“To get to lunch at 0-68, the runs weren’t really important to us but we were scoring at three per over anyway.”

Tanner Stanton (25) and Zach Allen (80) put on 84 for the first wicket.

“It was really pleasing that the two openers played really straight, they left the ball well and ran really well between the wickets.

“It set us up to be able to have a launch pad to set a total and send them back in.

“(Jacob) Serry came in and got 49 off 55 – he hasn’t got going this tournament so it was good for him because he’s a good player.

“We didn’t want to give them anything that was easily obtainable but we wanted to have a dabble at an outright”.

Victoria declared at 4-192 with a lead of 270, before sending South Australia in to bat.

Walker picked up where he left off from Victoria’s first bowling innings, amazingly picking up the wicket of Winter again off the first ball of the innings.

South Australia’s batsmen soon knuckled down however, and Patrick Page Junior (59) and Johnathon Dalton (80) amassed 136 for the second wicket.

“The pitch didn’t deteriorate too much, it held together,” Loughman said of the batting conditions.

“They played us pretty well, but we stuck at it and when Stanton got a couple of quick breakthroughs with his ‘leggies’, it went from ‘well maybe they could do something unbelievable and get 270’ to ‘we might be a sniff here’.”

With time getting the better of them, Victoria went on the attack in the last 15 minutes to no avail, as runs again began to leak and the game petered out into a simple first innings result.

Victoria will face NSW in the final match of the tournament on Wednesday and Thursday, and Loughman is being realistic about a potential championship win.

“We’re sitting fourth (on the ladder) but we’re only a game off the top.

“It’s going to be difficult to win the tournament, but you obviously want to finish as high as you can.

“We just want to play good cricket and hopefully that leads to a win – to beat a side that’s currently on top it’d be a really good effort.

“It’s a really good opportunity particularly for our batters, some of which haven’t really fired yet, to hopefully perform against a good attack.”