Victoria well placed at nationals

Unbeaten in the 40-over format, Victoria’s fearsome bowling line-up made it three from three when they obliterated Queensland in the morning session, but a disappointing batting effort against South Australia in the afternoon saw Victoria lower its colours for the first time in the tournament.

With a rest day scheduled for today, the side will have a chance to regroup before facing Western Australia and New South Wales in the final Twenty20 matches tomorrow.

The strongest opposition Victoria had faced so far; South Australia batted with flair and dare from the outset, racing to 2-53 from nine overs.

Opening batter Eliza Doddridge (42 from 38) set the platform for South Australia, which capitialised on its start to finish with 6-125 from its 20 overs.

The large target was always going to be a challenge, but at 2-40 and with batters in the shed, Victoria seemed in the game.

However, a slump of 4-6 put Victorian hopes of a fourth victory on ice as South Australia took regular wickets to run away with the match.

“South Australia are one of the stronger sides…they played pretty well and they certainly had some good players,” Victorian assistant coach Nat Schilov said.

“If we win all our games then we’ll make it through to the final and coming in we said we wanted to play in the final.

 “We’re just looking for everybody to chip in and hopefully we can keep winning.”

The day’s earlier performance was much more encouraging for Victoria, chasing down Queensland’s total of 67 with seven overs in hand.

The Victorian bowlers showed their worth again, bowling economically as a unit to keep the Queenslanders to under 70.

Wickets were spread, with two each to Wrexham and Molineux, and one a piece to Nolte, Brennan and O’Donnell.

Sophie Molineux’s game was not over, however, smashing a quick-fire 20 in a 50-run opening stand with day two star Makinley Blows (19).

A couple of quick wickets for Queensland were of ill consequence for Victoria, passing the total in the 13^th over. 

Victoria batted on to finish at 6-108 during a strong all-round performance.

Overall, Victoria remains every chance of vying for the title at the Under-15 National Championships.

To see full results, click here.

Image kindly supplied by Mark Blows.