Bulls roar into WACA Final
There has been no disputing Queensland's dominance in most forms of State cricket in Australia this season, and there remain few reasons to question its superiority following another strong performance today. This particular triumph came in the guise of a three wicket win over New South Wales in the second semi-final of the Mercantile Mutual Cup with twenty-two deliveries to spare; a victory that has ensured that the Bulls will meet Western Australia in the competition decider in Perth next Sunday.
As they have done so many times this season, it was Queensland's bowlers who established the early platform for this win at Brisbane's Allan Border Field. Indeed, from the moment that New South Wales' most highly rated batsman, Michael Slater (6), meekly leading edged a shot back to bowler Andy Bichel (1/41) in the third over of the day, the home team consistently maintained a firm upper hand. After winning the toss, the Blues never truly came to terms with an attack which maintained much the same sort of control that has seen it torment batting line-ups for virtually the entirety of this domestic season. Accordingly, they were fighting from behind the rest of the day.
Like the outfield, the pitch was on the slow side and not altogether suited to strokeplay, but the New South Wales' score of 6/210 never looked quite challenging enough. The loss of Slater was compounded by the disappearance of Brad Haddin (12) to a loose slash at Adam Dale (1/40) in the following over and, from there, a slow and largely unremarkable rebuilding exercise ensued. Only Mark Higgs (74* off 69 balls) afforded the innings any real momentum and even he was generally well contained through the concluding stages by the wickedly full length of paceman Michael Kasprowicz (1/35).
In a tribute to how well each of them performed, the Queenslanders remarkably adopted the very rare strategy of utilising only five bowlers today. And whilst Bichel, Dale and Kasprowicz were the leading lights, both medium pacer Scott Prestwidge (1/36) and off spinner Dale Turner (2/48) also beat the bat regularly. Before an enthusiastic partisan crowd at this suburban oval (in use because the 'Gabba ground is undergoing another slight facelift in advance of hosting of Olympic soccer matches later in 2000), the Bulls' fielding was also sharp.
Matters might actually have become considerably worse for the visitors by this stage had their batsmen not enjoyed several good pieces of fortune. Early in his painstaking role in trying to stabilise the innings after the fall of the two early wickets, Corey Richards (30) was beaten persistently, and he looked particularly fortunate to survive at least one caught behind appeal from Bichel before he had even reached double figures. Later in the innings, Graeme Rummans (37) survived a missed stumping on 18 when he advanced well down the wicket to an off break from Turner. And Higgs himself was granted the most incredible slice of luck of all with his score at just 1, when he shouldered arms to a Kasprowicz delivery that hit the top of off stump but amazingly failed to dislodge a bail.
Defending their total, New South Wales' bowlers toiled gallantly but they did not ever really look like altering the balance. The relatively early departures of openers Jimmy Maher (19) and Martin Love (16) offered them substantial encouragement, even despite the modest nature of Queensland's target. A further narrowing of the gap between the two teams came when Stuart Law (33) exchanged patience for rashness, played a horribly injudicious shot, and skied a simple catch to extra cover in the twenty-first over. But from there, man of the match Clinton Perren (86*) conceived a tremendously steadfast innings and guided his team to the finishing post without encountering too many alarms.
Batting with the utmost tenacity, Perren again illustrated his liking for this ground with the defining individual effort of the contest. In an innings in which he favoured horizontal bat shots and played the ball square of the wicket on a frequent basis, he controlled the pace of Queensland's scoring intelligently, and alternated between defence and attack as the circumstances decreed. As was the case when he grafted a defiant 153 against Tasmania in a Pura Milk Cup match at the venue just over a month ago, his was not the most fluent innings by any means but it was a hand of great character and resolve nonetheless. Critical in the final analysis was his five minute burst in which he slammed eighteen runs off Stuart MacGill's bowling in the thirtieth over.
Revenge for its loss to the same opponent at the same stage of last season's competition was duly achieved by Queensland on the back of Perren's batting. It now becomes a question next weekend of whether retribution will be exacted upon their Sheffield Shield Final foes of 1998/99 as well.
