Day 4: Blues end season with 8th loss
New South Wales's worst season in almost a century and a half of first-class cricket came to a conclusion this afternoon at the Sydney Cricket Ground in the most dismal of circumstances. Needing to bat out two sessions to save their Pura Milk Cup match against Western Australia, the Blues lost 8 for 76 in an hour and a quarter after tea to suffer their eighth outright loss of the season (ninth, if you include the tour match against India). Western Australia won by an innings and 34 runs.
With fine weather on the final day, unlike the rain that affected the earlier days, cavalier batting by the Western Australians saw 199 runs scored in the two-and-a-half hour session before lunch. Starting the day on 1/239, WA declared on their lunchtime score of 7/438.
Michael Hussey and Simon Katich resumed batting at the start of play and immediately launched into the attack against an uninspired NSW bowling lineup. Katich brought up his half-century from 67 deliveries, followed in the same Bevan over by Hussey raising his 150.
With the score on 348, Hussey departed after having scored 172, driving Trent Johnston uppishly to be caught by Jamie Heath at mid-off. Hussey, who was named man-of-the-match, faced 242 balls and scored 19 fours and two sixes.
Katich fell lbw in Johnston's next over having made 76 (93 balls, 8 fours). The fall of wickets did nothing to curb the WA scoring, with Matthew Nicholson producing an explosive cameo for an unbeaten 32 from 21 balls, smashing Stuart MacGill onto the roof of the Member's Stand.
Nicholson added a further six off MacGill in the last over before lunch, a straight hit four rows back into the vacant Noble stand. MacGill finished with 2/112 from seventeen overs, while Jamie Stewart, in his first first-class appearance for NSW, took 1/126.
The Blues started their second innings in modest fashion following the lunch break, needing 193 to make WA bat again. Mail (21) and van Deisen (24) failed to capitalise. When Phelps (6) went cheaply, NSW's most experienced pair, Bevan and Lee, shared the crease. Their partnership was cut short when Lee (10) fell to a brilliant one-handed catch at deep backward square by Michael Hussey, charging a full-speed.
Bevan, who passed Mark Waugh to become the third-highest run-scorer for NSW in first-class cricket (after Alan Kippax and Mark Taylor), was on 49 when he popped a ball from off-spinner Marcus North to Michael Dighton at short leg.
Brad Haddin and Michael Clarke came together at 5/118, almost exactly the same total as when they joined forces in the first innings. Clarke did not last long this time, falling to a sharp catch by Simon Katich at mid-off to become Hogg's third wicket of the innings. The Australian Under-19 World Cup captain made 5.
Stuart MacGill, batting at number eight at the head of a long NSW tail, was bowled first ball by a Brad Hogg delivery that came in from the off. Trent Johnston survived the hat-trick ball, but the final three wickets fell in the space of four more overs. When Jamie Heath pushed the ball to Katich, again at mid-off, Hogg had his fifth wicket and the match was over.
New South Wales were all out for 149 about 25 overs before the scheduled end of play. Haddin, who was probably the Blues' best player all season, remained 19 not out. WA all-rounder Brad Hogg marked his return from the cricketing wilderness by taking a career-best 5/53.
With South Australia not claiming any competition points in their match against Queensland, Western Australia finish in third place on the Pura Milk Cup ladder on 30 points. New South Wales, with one outright win and eight losses out of their ten matches this season, finished with 5.6 points (losing 0.4 for slow bowling in two matches) - 12.4 points behind second-last Tasmania.
The Blues have won two shield games and lost twelve in the last two seasons, and the state that produced Bradman, Benaud, Lindwall, Walters and the Waugh twins has reached its lowest ebb. The questions that must now be posed for NSW are which heads will roll, and what changes must be made to improve the depth of NSW cricket in both the short and long term.
