Queensland v Victoria at Brisbane: CricInfo Report

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Queensland v Victoria at Brisbane
17-21 Mar 2000 (John Polack)

Day1 | Day2 | Day3 | Day4 | Day5

Day1: Tradition lives on as Final commences

It has a new name this season but, if its first day was any indication, this summer's Final of Australia's domestic first class competition will depart little from the tradition of tight, engrossing and competitive cricket that has been established over previous years. For the Allan Border Field in Brisbane today hosted an absorbing six hours of action, at the end of which home team Queensland found itself at a score of 5/198 following an arduous struggle against an admirably persistent Victorian attack.

To be brutally honest, many of the highest profile and most heavily promoted matches of this Australian season have abjectly failed to sate expectation. Happily, the opening day of this game (the 'Pura Milk Cup Final' under its new nomenclature) definitively broke the mould. It was also an occasion on which the respective captains, Stuart Law (77*) and Paul Reiffel (3/51), truly led the way in front of an unashamedly noisy and partisan crowd of 3618.

After their dual domination of the competition all season long, it was probably to be expected that the teams would grapple for supremacy for much of the day. And this was certainly the way it proved. For the Victorians, the fight was led by pacemen Reiffel and Matthew Inness (2/41), the general control of each of whom was impressive throughout. Each gained significant movement with the new ball but it was their nagging length which was as troubling to the batsmen as any swing or seam. It was indeed Reiffel's general ability to frustrate strokemaking which was responsible for inducing Jimmy Maher (2) to edge a ball to second slip in just the third over of the day, after the diminutive opener had been drawn forward and across by a ball cutting marginally away outside the line of off stump. The Bushrangers' captain did drop an almost impossible catch in the gully late in the day but barely put a foot wrong otherwise. Due reward for Inness meanwhile came in the shadows of the first drinks break of the match when Umpire Darrell Hair ruled that he had attracted the thinnest of outside edges as Troy Dixon (14) played a defensive shot at a delivery short of a driveable length and holding its line outside off. He also enjoyed further success just before tea when he attracted a leading edge from the bat of Geoff Foley (9) and followed it up with a fine low catch diving forward in his follow through.

For their part, the Queenslanders relied heavily on the inspiration of Law. After a scratchy start and at the end of a very lean season by his standards, the elegant right hander exhibited exactly the right mixture of skill and stoicism that was needed to hold the innings together. With a defiant Martin Love (32), he added a valuable half century of runs for the third wicket in patient fashion to steady the ship on either side of the lunch. Then, after Reiffel had dramatically tilted matters back in Victoria's favour by forcing Love and Andrew Symonds (0) to edge further catches to Matthew Elliott at second slip in the course of one over in mid-afternoon, he restored the balance again. He was squared up on numerous occasions early and somehow, Umpire Steve Davis allowed him to survive what looked an obvious caught behind decision off Inness when on 76, but otherwise he was in command. And his unbroken liaison of eighty-seven runs for the sixth wicket with Wade Seccombe (44*) at the close of the day was crucial.

Around the leadership provided by the two skippers, the contest remained probably as evenly poised by the end as it had been at the outset. After winning the toss and electing to bat in the expectation that the hard, straw-coloured pitch would favour the batting team, the Queenslanders would probably have been a little disappointed in a sense to have finished at 5/198. But, in their defence, the conditions did not prove to be nearly as friendly as had been expected. Similarly, the sluggishness of the outfield deprived them of many runs and made their score appear more inadequate than was really the case.

Day2: Bichel, Law steal glory from Bushrangers

Lest they were harbouring any sort of misconception that the path to their first such title in nine seasons might be a smooth one, Victoria's cricketers were today made painfully aware of the reality that the 1999-2000 Pura Milk Cup Final against Queensland will only be won by dint of hard work and unstinting application. The second day of this contest was indeed one of sobering reality for the Bushrangers as a diligent Stuart Law century and some outstanding pace bowling from Andy Bichel combined to hand the home team a clear edge at the end of two predominantly fluctuating days. By stumps, Victoria was at the scoreline of 6/94 in reply to Queensland's 285.

In short, the game turned on the back of the rapid clatter of three Victorian wickets late in the middle session. Until then, it had been another see-sawing tussle - with the visitors claiming some important early wickets before a late rally from the Queensland batting line-up through the morning. Even as the Victorians began to mount their response, things looked promising for them. Through eight overs, opening pair Matthew Elliott (29) and Jason Arnberger (8) indeed looked relatively unhurried and ball did not beat bat all that often through that particular phase.

Once right arm paceman Bichel (4/27) began his fifth over, however, the balance tilted dramatically. With the first ball of that over, he found the outside edge of a defending Arnberger's bat and a low catch to Martin Love at first slip duly followed. At the end of his next over, he was at it again: a wider, shorter delivery encouraging Matthew Mott (3) to launch a mistimed cut and edge a simple catch through to wicketkeeper Wade Seccombe. During this period, Bichel was not only swinging the ball prodigiously but was also working up a good head of pace and regularly discomforting all of those to whom he bowled. His efforts were then complemented by the ever accurate Adam Dale (1/31) at the other end as Brad Hodge (0) was adjudged by Umpire Darrell Hair to be leg before wicket to a sharply moving inswinger in the over following Mott's dismissal. That Hodge (0), who was playing a long way forward, should have been the victim of another dubious umpiring decision in a match already laden with them only compounded the visitors' ills.

Elliott tried to extricate his team from the mire but even his considerable prowess was quelled effectively. He actually went forty-nine minutes without scoring a run at one stage as the sustained accuracy and impeccable control of Bichel, Dale and Scott Muller (1/33) all but brought the Victorians to their knees. The rampant Bichel duly found his outside edge thirty-five minutes after tea in the midst of another brilliant spell, Muller chimed in to claim the obstinate Laurie Harper (17) courtesy of another favourable decision from Hair, and then the former's day was complete when a flummoxed Darren Berry (9) inexplicably padded up to a delivery thundering back toward the stumps.

This all came after a positive start to the day from the visitors. Pitching on the same remorseless length which brought them all of the wickets which fell yesterday, both Mathew Inness (4/73) and Paul Reiffel (5/65) indeed bowled excellently when play commenced. Inside the first half hour, they had the scalps of Seccombe (49) and Bichel (1) alongside their respective names and an end to the Queensland innings consequently looked imminent at that point.

Twenty-five minutes into proceedings, they struck a major blow when Inness found the outside edge of the bat of Seccombe, the general efficiency of whom had helped forge an invaluable 104 run association with Law for the sixth wicket. Their joy at seeing the back of the stubborn wicketkeeper-batsman was then heightened a mere four minutes later as a miscued hook stroke from Bichel at Reiffel ballooned into the air and afforded Arnberger the simplest of catches at square leg. But from there, the gradual burgeoning of Law's confidence and some stern defensive play from Dale (18) and Muller (6) reinvigorated the Bulls' position. It was not until the score had ascended to the mark of 285 that the Vics were eventually able to put the seal on the innings. The final blow was landed twenty-five minutes after lunch as Law (129) succumbed with a mistimed push at the redoubtable Reiffel to offer his rival captain a nonchalant return catch.

Prior to that moment, it had been an innings of many contrasts from the Bulls' skipper. He was extremely patchy through his opening ninety minutes at the crease; blossomed before enduring another horror phase on either side of stumps last night; and then eventually freed himself of the shackles magnificently over the closing stages of his hand. After a long struggle, Law's timing and placement finally moved close to the level of perfection toward the end of his vigil and he hit some delightful shots. His on-driving and his timing of the ball through the covers was sparkling, and a number of strokes through point and square leg also raised emphatic applause from another partisan crowd. Most importantly of all, it was also an innings of great productivity and one that proved absolutely essential in the final analysis in allowing his team to satisfactorily counter the triple threats posed by pacemen Reiffel, Inness and David Saker (1/67).

Day3: Home truths delivered as Bulls extend advantage

Discipline and uncompromising efficiency have been the hallmarks of Queensland's play all season long and, exactly at the time they were needed most, they came to the fore again at the Allan Border Field in Brisbane today. Indeed, the third day of the Pura Milk Cup Final against Victoria showcased possibly the Bulls' most workmanlike effort of the entire summer as they inexorably built upon the advantage that they had secured over the preceding forty-eight hours.

Even though there was the occasional piece of individual brilliance to show for their exertions, this was not a day for anything other than tough, grinding cricket. And it was a prospect to which the Queenslanders seemed well attuned from the very outset as they set about dismissing their opponents for a first innings tally of 182 before easing their own way to a second innings score of 2/105 (and an overall advantage of 208 runs) by stumps.

The Bulls were forced to toil manfully for the four wickets that they required at the start of the day to end Victoria's first innings. By the same token, though, there was always the sense that the same cocktail of pace and swing that had undone their opponents yesterday was again sufficient to afford them a distinct edge. More wholehearted pace bowling from Andy Bichel (6/47), Adam Dale (2/53) and Scott Muller (2/53) indeed served as the pre-eminent feature as only Ian Harvey (50) ventured past the thirty mark with the bat.

Bichel's bowling, the sheer quality of which it remains difficult to overestimate, was the key ingredient once more. Three of his first four overs were maidens and he again beat the bat consistently with the combination of substantial swing and significant pace. There was, for probably the only time in the entire exhibition, evidence of some waywardness in the overs prior to lunch - and lower order players David Saker (25*) and John Davison (19) profited as they forged the best stand of the innings - but otherwise, mistakes were not even part of the equation from him. As if to apply icing to his cake, it was Troy Dixon's sensational one handed gully catch of number eleven batsman Mathew Inness (3) which simultaneously afforded him his sixth wicket and ended the innings twenty-five minutes after lunch. Dale and Muller were also efficient, and the latter was certainly unlucky not to end with better figures given that he had slips catches dropped by both Stuart Law and Martin Love in the course of one over.

Indicative of the Victorians' difficulties against such disarming bowling was the manner in which Harvey himself played. One of the more highly regarded Victorian batsmen, he looked all at sea throughout the morning and the notion that he managed to survive for as long as he did was hard to fathom. Through the first twenty minutes of the day (during which not a single run was scored off the bat), he was persistently beaten and he groped and fished for deliveries just outside the line of off stump with almost no conviction at all. Even in subsequent times, he fared little better. He narrowly survived raucous lbw appeals from Bichel on 20 and 28 and spooned another shot just over the same bowler's head when at 32. It said much about the state of proceedings that he should have been comfortably the Bushrangers' most productive scorer in their total of 182.

Runs were also at a premium through the opening stages of the home team's second innings. The concerted line and length of Paul Reiffel (1/13) was again one of the major factors behind this, his accuracy characteristically unerring. His control brought its own reward in the form of the wicket of Jimmy Maher (2) in the fifth over, and there followed a long period through which he and new ball partner Mathew Inness (0/22) stifled any semblance of genuine strokeplay. Some thirty-nine balls passed without a run being scored at one stage, and Dixon (21), Love (46*) and Law (35*) each enjoyed slices of fortune. The beefy Dixon looked most uncomfortable against Inness for a time, searching for balls cutting away from him and playing around his front pad to deal with those moving the other way. Love likewise took a while to find the middle of his bat and he showed either an incredibly good piece of judgement or was the beneficiary of a substantial piece of fortune - it was hard to tell which - when, before he had scored, he allowed a Reiffel off cutter to pass perilously close to his off bail. At 34, he also survived an excruciatingly close lbw decision against the same bowler.

But for all of that, the effort of the Bulls' top order in refusing to grant their rivals anything more than Maher's scalp to Reiffel and Dixon's wicket to a Harvey inswinger reflected exactly the kind of acumen which renders this such an outstanding team. Moreover, it can be said that this is a side which manifestly appreciates the value of hard work and which supports that ideal by adhering to a disciplined game plan. Of course, this contest is not over yet by any means. The inevitable result of the Queenslanders' industry, however, is that it will now require nothing less than a Herculean effort from their opponents tomorrow if they are to be diverted away from the brink of success.

Day4: Unloved Vics plagued by Law as hopes sink

Following another committed effort with the bat, a mere six hours stand between Queensland's cricketers and the 1999-2000 Pura Milk Cup. That seems to be the position anyway after the fourth day's play of the Final of this competition - a day during which the Bulls severely frustrated the Victorians with another remorseless display of risk-averse cricket.

By stumps on a very warm day at Brisbane's Allan Border Field, the Queenslanders had progressed to a second innings score of 7/274 and an overall advantage of 377 runs. In itself, the imposing position was very largely a tribute to the formidable batting skills of Martin Love (100) and Stuart Law (84), whose durable alliance of 174 runs for the third wicket went a long way toward sealing the fate of this contest.

In full recognition of the fact that even a draw is sufficient to grant their team the Cup, both Love and Law were perfectly content to do little more than preserve their wickets for the majority of their liaison today. Love issued the occasional attacking shot, and again worked the ball effectively into the leg side for the odd single, but otherwise he was rarely bothered to advance his batting above the level of the staunchly defensive. Although he was slightly more aggressive than his partner and executed some lovely drives through the off side, Law also pledged himself irretrievably to the cause of occupying the crease for a long period. He was lucky to survive with his score at 52 when he outside edged a David Saker (1/63) delivery just short of a slowly reacting Laurie Harper at slip; aside from that, he was barely in trouble.

Calling upon all of their respective experience at this level, the pair resisted the Victorian bowlers magnificently. Through a critical 312 minutes together, they batted with purposeful intent, even if they did intersperse only the very occasional attacking stroke with defensive pushes and prods and the serial shouldering of arms. They were also aided by an attack which was more errant in width and length than it had been through any previous period of the match (medium pacer Ian Harvey additionally continued to be afflicted by the effects of a stomach virus) and which guaranteed that there was precious little compulsion acting upon either of them to play their shots. To make matters even worse for their rivals, the two players guided their team toward a position from which it would now require a record score from a team at this ground for the Victorians to even come close to triumph.

It was not until forty minutes before tea that a tired Love finally launched a mistimed hook at a short ball from Saker and top edged a catch to wicketkeeper Darren Berry. In truth, Saker did actually draw false strokes him a number of times with bouncers in the lead-up to his dismissal, and even the pull shot which delivered the tall right hander a generally richly deserved fourteenth first class century very nearly ended in the hands of a diving Mathew Inness at deep backward square leg. Otherwise, though, his was an effort which will long remain in the memory.

As so often happens after a protracted stand, the scalp of the second of the two batsmen involved in the energy-sapping association was duly claimed not all that long afterward. It was the part time medium pace of Matthew Mott (2/24) which ended up accounting for Law, an off cutter delivered just short of a driveable length attracting a very thin outside edge and cannoning into off stump as he looked to work the ball into the leg side. That put the seal on more than thirteen hours of batting from the Bulls' captain in the match, and the ovation which accompanied him all the way off the ground conveyed its own tale about the effect of his contribution from a Queensland perspective.

Significant respite came for the Bushrangers from that point onward, and they even managed to initiate a comparative collapse on either side of tea. To complement the exodus of those two, Harper flung out his left hand to effect a brilliant catch at slip to remove a fending Andrew Symonds (18) and afford Mott a second wicket. Then Wade Seccombe (3) was also forced to beat a retreat from the wicket when Umpire Steve Davis decreed that he had feathered a Paul Reiffel (3/50) leg cutter through to Berry. And Geoff Foley (16) was not far behind him after edging another Reiffel ball to second slip. But the impact of the Love-Law association had already doused their aspirations by then, and an end to their torment was not really imminent.

So disheartening was their day that they again tested the patience of both umpires after once more finding themselves on the end of several strange decisions from both Davis and his partner, Darrell Hair. Possibly the most puzzling of these came thirty minutes prior to lunch when Hair was involved in an incident with Saker after he had turned down a beseeching lbw appeal against Law (then on 59). It was hard to decipher at a distance exactly what transpired between the two men, but Hair appeared to have several words with Victorian captain Reiffel (apparently in response to a show of dissent from Saker) before removing the ball from the bowler's hand five deliveries into the over. Most observers at the ground interpreted that the New South Welshman had single-handedly decided to impel Saker's removal from the attack; as it turned out, the aggressive paceman bowled the next over from Hair's end and it thus appeared that it had merely been a woeful piece of counting which had been responsible for the bizarre turn of events. Nevertheless, Saker was placed on report at the end of the day and will have to answer for his involvement in the matter before match referee Peter Burge tonight. That Davis later appeared to err badly in response to caught behind decisions twice in the space of successive Reiffel overs did not add to anyone's sense of amusement on a day during which smiles continued to be plastered only on Queenslanders' faces.

Day5: Bulls slow things up before lifting their Cup

At the end of a thoroughly impressive season from its players, it is Queensland which has enjoyed the glorious distinction of lifting the 1999-2000 Pura Milk Cup at the Allan Border Field in Brisbane today. The Bulls' third such honour in the history of Australia's premier interstate competition, it came when the fifth and final day of a tame draw against Victoria in this season's ultimate match was called off at 3:30 pm on account of bad light and rain.

Of itself, the fifth day of the Pura Milk Cup Final did not feature any particularly spectacular cricket. It seemed relatively obvious indeed that this occasion was instead always likely to serve as something of an excuse for an extended act of celebration from the home team and its supporters. That was reflected as early as in the first hour of proceedings, during which time Adam Dale (42) and Scott Muller (20) afforded their opponents a diet of comfortably executed shots to the acclamation of a crowd revelling in the sight of lower order players batting so obdurately.

The Queensland tail indeed definitively killed the match this morning, extending its team's second innings score to 343 (and its overall advantage to a massive 446 runs) before the last wicket finally tumbled on the stroke of lunch. It was a period during which each of the last four batsmen decisively extinguished even the most vague prospect that their opponents may still have been able to claim the outright victory that they needed to clinch the title. Aggressive fields were set by the Victorians, and a reasonably accurate line and length was maintained, but consistent success was simply not forthcoming. Moreover, the first two wickets which fell were as much attributable to errors by the batsmen concerned as to great bowling in itself: Andy Bichel (8) was out when he dragged a wide David Saker (2/84) delivery back into his stumps off a bottom edge and Dale was dismissed when he went too far back to a Paul Reiffel (4/65) ball and dislodged his leg bail with his back foot. That Muller looked very unlucky to be adjudged lbw by Umpire Darrell Hair to a Matthew Mott (3/35) delivery which seemed to be swinging well down the leg side only heightened this suspicion.

When an essentially meaningless Victorian second innings began, Queensland's pace bowlers made another impressive start with a surfeit of maidens and the quick wicket of Jason Arnberger (9) to an outside edge at a Dale (1/20) outswinger. But from there, both sides merely went through the motions before the curtain was finally brought down on the match and this very long 1999-2000 Australian season. That this descended by means of the intervention of bad light a little more than an hour beyond lunch (with the score at 1/31 for the record) said much about the sense of anticlimax that pervaded today's play. There was time enough for Matthew Elliott (14*) to issue one or two powerful blows, and for Wade Seccombe to equal Rodney Marsh's record for the most number of dismissals (67) effected by a wicketkeeper in an Australian first class season. Otherwise, it represented little other than an exercise in marking time until the advent of the inevitable.

For their part, the Victorians will probably be keen at the end of this match to trace the origins of their demise back to a cruel piece of fortune late on the first day when Umpire Steve Davis controversially failed to uphold what appeared to be a conclusive caught behind appeal against Stuart Law at a crucial stage of Queensland's first innings. But, in truth, they were outplayed for long periods and their batsmen, in particular, failed to give of their best when it was required. As he has done all season long, Reiffel bowled with immaculate accuracy and control. There was simply never enough in the way of support, however, through these last five days of a season in which the team as a whole had hitherto generally acquitted itself extremely well.

From start to finish indeed, this was unambiguously the Bulls' day following a match and a season in which they had always been the standout team. Despite the poor quality of the weather, there was yet more controlled play from them, there was genuine emotion and, best of all, there was a glittering new trophy to crown their efforts. Throughout, there was additionally a real sense of vibrancy among a crowd which, even if smaller than expected, emitted enough noise to encourage one to assume that many more than 1654 were in attendance. Excitedly, its members chattered, chanted, laughed and cheered for virtually the entirety of the day, even though they did not always do so in specific reference to the events occurring before them on the field of play.

Of course, it was understandable on a momentous day like this one that their focus should have extended beyond such comparatively limited horizons. Perhaps indeed at times they were reflecting upon the batting of man of the match Law (129 & 84) and Martin Love (32 & 100), the bowling of Bichel (6/47), and the telling impact of those three players' performances in this contest. Conceivably their attention was fixed upon the contributions that the likes of Michael Kasprowicz (with 49 wickets at 14.4 apiece), Dale (34 wickets at 20.1) and Andrew Symonds (448 runs from six matches at 64.0) had offered in the lead-up to the Final itself. Or perchance it was the remarkable collective effort which saw the Bulls record an astonishing eight outright victories from their ten preliminary games to which they were applying their thoughts. Then again, maybe they were merely contemplating what a fantastic season this has been in so many respects for Queensland cricket and for the fabulous team to which they devote their support.

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