Sheffield Shield 1999

Round 7 Reports

NEW SOUTH WALES "Blues"
1st XI - Manager: Brad Hicks	2nd XI - Manager: Wally Cowan
NSW MANAGER FOUND AGAIN! The re-appearance of NSW manager Brad Hicks has left the team wondering where on earth he has been for the last few weeks. Luckily in his absence the team managed "just" to get away with 2 lucky wins over the Vics and SA. More details on his whereabouts to follow in future weeks.	Round 7 saw us post our 4th successive victory but it wasn't one of our better matches. Our bowling has been pretty good recently but our batting has only been average. We have now gone five innings without a century and only Davison and Higgs are averaging over 40. Next week we have to travel to Hobart for our biggest match of the year against the undefeated Tasmania team. In the 1st round we were beaten by an innings and so we are hoping for a big improvement. A win will help us to close the gap and give us a chance of hosting the final in four weeks time.

QUEENSLAND "Bulls"
1st XI - Manager: Tony Noyeaux	2nd XI - Manager: Bradley Ashcroft
After a mid-season slump, Queensland coach Noyeaux is happy with how his team has rebounded in recent weeks. He is hoping the recent form will be carried all the way through to the Sheffield Shield final. Most people in the team are performing well, especially Law, Bichel and Kasprowicz. We are hoping for a big win this week.	We were very happy to finally have a win, next game hopefully we can win again and by the time this season is over we might not be the wooden spooners. Next week we take on South Australia, and we are ready for this match. Training extra hard and hopefully the return of Prestwidge might help us out a bit. SA are coming off a bad loss and we just beat Mr USA's team so we are ready for the Challenge of the Redbacks.

SOUTH AUSTRALIA "Redbacks"
1st XI - Manager: Trevor Hansford	2nd XI - Manager: Tyrone Marshall
The performance of the South Australian team improved dramatically against NSW. However they could not go on with the job and despite having a huge 1st innings lead could not go on with it. SA are now out of the race to make the final, but may be able to cause a few upsets in the last few games.

TASMANIA "Tigers"
1st XI - Manager: John Clifford	2nd XI - Manager: Dave Hickey
	"It's good to be back," said Tasmania manager Dave Hickey after his team scored an impressive victory in Round 7 over the highly-regarded Victorian team. "After some pretty ordinary performances recently, it was good to see the real Tasmania team on show this week," explained Hickey. Tasmania remain undefeated after 7 rounds and next week face 2nd placed NSW in an important match for both teams. "They have only lost one match all year and this match could decide who goes into the final as favourites," said Hickey. The Tasmanian camp looks very confident and they clearly fancy their chances against the Blues. They have secretly set themselves a goal of finishing the season undefeated and they are sure to be fired up for this week's important clash.

VICTORIA "Bushrangers"
1st XI - Manager: Westie	2nd XI - Manager: Christo McDonald
A good win over Tasmania which should help with player morale. We have had our problems this season and are looking at going forward from now on. We have a game against West Aussie and our pace attack should do well over there as will Warne. Our batsman are doing well - Elliott, Vimpani and Harper are all doing very well and with some good back-up, including Reiffel who is having a great season so far with the bat, should be able to score some runs. Things are really starting to move in the right direction and we plan on keeping it that way.	We lost our chance to get to the final with another batting collapse in our 2nd innings against Tasmania. We are currently 4th. So now the fight begins for the 3rd place on the ladder between the other four sides in the league, because any of the four sides can still be 3rd, even Queensland. I have strengthened our bowling attack for this week's game, because the support bowling for Ashley Gilbert has not been up to standard. Western Australia must make themselves ready for a big attack from us!

WESTERN AUSTRALIA "Warriors"
1st XI - Manager: David McMullen	2nd XI - Manager: Peter Nocerini
Some major board and player contracts are going to be reviewed this week in the Western Australia camp. The teams dismal 4 wicket loss to Queensland at The Gabba this week, has seen them drop below Victoria on the Shield table. New manager David McMullen has instantly come under scrutiny, after his sides loss. When asked about the match, McMullen replied, "I promised the players big things with the change at the healm, but they don't understand it takes two to tango!" McMullen said that his team's lacklustre performance could mainly be blamed on the batting. "Our main contributors such as Langer, Katich and Gilchrist really didn't give the team much to defend in the field. Langer did make 91, but failed to go on with it, as was also seen in the second innings where no batsman scored a half century." McMullen's press outburst didn't end there, "If the media had have left the team alone, and had not built up a lot of hype then maybe we may have performed better!" McMullen said that a complete player overhaul was expected. Western Australia do however welcome back newly appointed captain Damien Martyn this week. "He adds a whole new perspective to our batting, he gives us depth." Dighton is expected to be dropped, with Ryan Campbell possibly taking over the keeping gloves. "If we give Adam some time to concentrate on his batting, we may get some high scores out of him." Western Australia face Victoria in their next match played at the WACA.	WARRIORS TURN TAIL AFTER BULLS CHARGE A second innings collapse ruined an otherwise good outing in Queensland for the Western Warriors 2nd XI under new Manager Peter Nocerini. Queensland retired the Warriors for 145 runs in their second innings to take a 106-run victory. It was Queensland's first victory of the season. More importantly for the Warriors, it put the Bulls only three points behind WA in the scramble to escape the 2nd XI league basement. "I was going to tear into them during that long flight back home," Nocerini said. "But once I stepped into the 2nd class compartment and saw their long faces, I knew I didn't have to say a word. They were telling themselves what I would have said." The disaster came with little warning. Ahead by a single run after the first innings, Queensland was retired for 250 in its second turn, leaving a 252-run target. But only opener Mark Lavender, keeper Michael Walsh and tail-ender Steve Nikitaras cracked double digits for WA. Lavender was the hitting star with 120 and 37. In his first innings, he stood at 49 for 39 dot-balls over an hour's time before knocking one to long on for three. He and Rob Baker combined for 127 runs on the third wicket. But after his 84, Baker was caught for 4 in his second innings. Steven Glew had a half-century - and then a duck. Dave Hussey (46 & 6) also melted in the second innings. Chris Rogers (18 & 9) and Marcus North (12 & 8) had bad matches. "But I'm going to stick with Glew and the rest of the lads," Nocerini said. "Rome wasn't burned in a day. Back home, facing the Bushrangers this week, we should be able to find ourselves. Maybe our aggression and confidence took an early flight home." There will be one change for Western Australia. Bret Mulder is replacing North this week, giving the team a pair of off-spinners.