Western Australia v Victoria

Match report by David Bebb
22 January 1999




Due to early rain the game got under way 24 minutes later than was scheduled. Western Australia won the toss and elected to bat first. For Western Australia the openers were Captain Tom Moody and the currently out of form Ryan Campbell. The bowling for Victoria was opened at the Southern End by Matthew Inness and at the Northern end by Jason Bakker.

WA took 7 runs from Inness in the first over with Campbell making the lion's portion. Then in the second over Campbell was out letting an inswinger from Bakker strike him on the pad in front of off stump with the bat held aloft not playing a shot.

Justin Langer joined Moody and faced 19 deliveries before he got off the mark. Meanwhile Moody was belting them all over the ground with 4's to mid wicket, square leg, backward square, glorious cover drives, and an all run 4 which created a runout chance.

At the 9th over, Ian Harvey replaced Inness at the Southern end. Inness had been quite expensive - 4 overs 1 maidens no wickets for 29. His fourth over the most expensive as Moody struck 3 boundaries off him.

Moody created a few run out chances - none better than: - without the benefit of a TV replay; he was judged to have made his ground and was given not out by umpire Terry Prue when in fact he was just short.

Langer 10 became the 2nd wicket to fall when in the 12th over he lofted Jason Bakker to cover point where Mathew Mott took a comfortable catch. The partnership fell worth 51 runs with the West Australian score on 58/2. With 7 4's the not out batsman Moody had arrived at 36 at this point in the innings.

Simon Katich replaced Langer and proceeded to hog the strike. Four overs later - in the 16th over; with Moody getting a rare chance to face - he was out - bowled on 37 getting an inside edge onto the stumps from the bowling of Harvey with the score now on 73/3 and Katich not out on 13.

Mike Hussey joined Katich. Then at the end of the 17th over the rain came tumbling down, and the players retreated from the field. The game restarted having been shortened to a 39 over a side match with Hussey 0 (1) facing David Shepard's first over with Katich 15 (25) at the other end. Shepard, bowling from the northern end, replaced Bakker who's spell of 8 overs netted him 3 wickets for 29 runs. It was a double change because Ashley Gilbert replaced Harvey, 5 overs, 1 maiden, and no wicket for 12 runs, at the southern end.

Hussey was almost run out during the first over back out on the ground. Hussey had defensively played the ball back to the bowler Shepard. He then found himself out of his ground with the bowler throwing for the stumps at Hussey's end. The throw was just wide creating a touch and go decision when the keeper Berry took off the bails. Because there was no TV replay umpire the benefit of the doubt was given to Hussey.

First ball of the 20th over - Hussey sparked a new drama when Victorians appealed vociferously for a double hit, but were turned down. Hussey had played a Gilbert delivery into the ground, and the ball bounced up close endangering the wicket. Katich had called for and was running the single unaware that the stumps at the end to which he was running were in peril. Hussey lingered long enough to defend his stumps a second time striking the ball with the back of his bat. He then turned on his heal and ran to the non-strikers end. A shy at the stumps at the non-striker's end by wicketkeeper Berry failed to hit. The ball was backed up and no further run was possible. The ball went dead, the umpires declared the run to be invalid, and so Hussey was forced to return to the striker's end once more.

The bowling of David Shepard was quite costly to Victoria. When he was taken from the attack after only 3 overs he had conceded 28 runs without a wicket. Shaun Flegler bowled from the Northern end from the 24th over onwards.

With the shortened game the Victorian close fielding became a lot sharper. Wicket keeper Captain Darren Berry often raced around the wicket (to shot leg and silly mid off) to retrieve the ball and to have a fling at the stumps. So the West Australians countered by directing short singles to the bowlers running in off the fence. In the 24th over Gilbert was an obvious target when a third leg bye was taken on his slow progress around the boundary from third man to fine leg and a wayward throw in to the wicket keeper.

The 4th wicket fell in the 28th over. Hussey was out edging a Flegler delivery caught by Berry for 29. He and Katich had put on 58 runs for the rain interrupted 4th wicket. Matt Nicholson replaced Hussey.

The catch of the year was certainly had, when the 5th wicket of Katich fell in the 29th over. Katich hooked Gilbert to deep backward square leg where Inness leaping high and wide 5 metres from the boundary took a spectacular catch to his right side. Katich had made 39 (53) and WA were now 136/5. Rob Baker replaced Katich.

The 6th wicket fell in the 31st over. When the ball from Gilbert deviated slightly, Nicholson edged it and Elliott at 1st slip took the catch at about chest height. Nicholson had made 5 (12) and WA were 6/140. Michael Dighton replaced Nicholson.

Harvey returned to the bowling for the 35th over replacing Gilbert who finished up with figures of 8 overs 2 wickets for 25 runs. Gilbert retired from the field immediately - the big man being quite slow in the field. He was not long there when the rain came again. And so at the end of the 35th over the players retreated once more. Lightening flashed about the ground - one of the taller Perth buildings was hit sustaining minor damage. It wasn't until 21:15 before we were told we could go home. The game had been abandoned.

Western Australia had made 158 runs losing 6 wickets with an over-all run rate of 4.51 runs per over. Katich 39, Moody 37 and Hussey 29 were the main scorers for the West Australians.

For Victoria Bakker, Guilbert and Flegler bowled well.

Both teams get a single point each, out of this game.

Contributed by Dave Bebb (dbebb@cricinfo.com)