Under-19s: Walker dominates with bat and ball
Walked starred with the bat as he rescued Victoria’s innings, before ripping through South Australia with the ball later in the day.
After suffering a confidence shattering outright defeat in its previous game against Queensland, Victoria won the toss and elected to bat first.
Despite coming off two sub-100 team totals, the Vics saw this as an opportunity to dig themselves out of this batting rut.
On this occasion, things instantly resembled their two most recent batting efforts however, as early wickets fell and partnerships failed to settle.
Tanner Stanton (27) was given the opportunity to open the batting and held up an end momentarily, as teammates came and went around him.
When Sam Harper (6) was dismissed, Victoria was again languishing in a difficult position at 4-42.
Liam Banthorpe (19) and Jonty Rushton (13) looked capable of building a significant partnership, but another Victorian collapse was soon triggered when Rushton was run out.
With the score 8-85, Jake Wood joined Guy Walker at the crease.
The pair confidently established their roles within the innings and set out on building a partnership while they seemingly ignored the scoreboard.
Walker was simply brilliant, approaching his innings with aggression, taking risks and not being overwhelmed by the situation that his side was in.
He scored at a run a ball from the outset, while Wood played the perfect supporting role, turning over the strike and not giving his wicket away.
The 90-run partnership eventually came to an end with Wood’s dismissal (28 off 68), but Victoria was right back in the game.
Walker was the final wicket to fall – he made 72 off 75 balls and hit 10 fours and two sixes.
Victoria finished with 182 runs after going from what was looking like another below-par total, to setting a competitive target that would give its bowlers something to play with.
Walker took the new ball and was immediately in the action again, crashing through South Australian opener Jake Winter’s defence with the first ball of the innings.
Wood (1-11) also continued his good day by picking up the second wicket of the innings as South Australia fell to 2-12.
Rushton and skipper Ejaaz Alavi also chimed in with a wicket each and Victoria soon found themselves on top, the home side struggling at 5-54.
South Australian Daniel Drew (32) looked to be the most threatening batsman, but the pressure that was built through the tight bowling of Alavi (1-5 off 9 overs) soon led to another flurry of wickets.
Walker was brought back into the attack and as he had done all day, took no time to have an impact.
He quickly snared the vital wicket of Drew, before knocking over both Damon Kerr and Spencer Johnson for zero.
This collapse of 3-1 in short time put Victoria in the prime position to capture first innings points with South Australia finishing the day’s play on 8-89 – still trailing by 93.
Walker finished with 5-26 (9) but will look to build on that early today.
It was an incredible day for the Bushranger rookie and he has surely brought a great deal of confidence back to the team after a tough defeat in its last outing.
Victoria’s first priority on day two will be to secure first innings points by getting the two remaining South Australian wickets cheaply.
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