Title beckons as South Australia peak for Shield final
Melissa Woods |
Victory in this year’s Sheffield Shield final over Victoria will be especially sweet for South Australia with coach Ryan Harris saying their path to the title decider this time around has been challenging.
Play is set to get underway at Melbourne’s Junction Oval on Thursday with South Australia looking for successive Shield titles for the first time in the competition’s history.
Last year Harris’s charges were runaway ladder-leaders before chasing down a record total for a four-wicket win over Queensland to lift their first trophy in 29 years.
This season South Australia have battled multiple injuries and squeezed into the final after drawing with the Vics in the last round of the season, while third-placed Queensland went down to Tasmania.
They will be without last year’s hero Brendan Doggett, who posted the best ever figures in a final with 11-40 – the quick missing the showdown due to a hamstring injury.
Nathan McAndrew, who has battled vertigo through the season, will lead the bowling attack in the absence of “Doggy”.
“If you talked to me after last year’s final coaching for me was easy – you get through a season with barely no injuries and I think I only had one go up to the Australian team,” Harris said.
“It’s been totally different this year, we’ve had obviously a couple of Australia A players go early in the season and then around that time a few of our backups were injured, so it’s definitely been a challenge.
“That’s probably the satisfying thing, that we’ve had those challenges but we’re here here today and for me it’s a big thing for this group, to fight through all that.”
While they had a rocky path early on, South Australia have hit timely form and are undefeated in the four-day competition since late October.
Rain is forecast during the contest and while Harris said they would pick for the conditions, it wouldn’t sway their approach.
“We’ll do what we did last week, we’ll pick for the conditions as in the wicket and then we’ll go from there.
“If you start worrying about too many other things and it doesn’t happen, then you’re short.”
AAP