Sam Elliott, not Mitchell Perry, will take the new ball for Victoria in Thursday’s Sheffield Shield final against South Australia, a call that arrived just as both camps tried to keep the focus on cricket rather than the heavy clouds predicted over Melbourne.
The squeeze was always coming once Fergus O’Neill returned after a scheduled rest last week. One of Elliott or Perry had to miss out. In the end the numbers, just, edged it.
Perry collected 32 wickets at 21.75 and finished runner-up in the Shield player-of-the-year vote. Elliott managed 33 at 17.18 and, crucially, three “five-fors” (five wickets in an innings) to Perry’s two. Their batting output, virtually identical, didn’t separate them either.
“It was a real 50-50, and in the end we probably rewarded the guy who just had the better season. And it’s as simple as that,” Victoria coach Chris Rogers said on Wednesday. “Both players thoroughly deserve to be playing … It’s unfortunate for Mitch, but he took it well and hopefully it inspires him to go on to bigger and better things.”
Rogers called it the toughest selection decision of his tenure, adding that even the club analyst “could provide reasons both ways”.
South Australia have their own late-week headache. Lloyd Pope is pressing for a place as a second spinner alongside Ben Manenti, though fitting him in means dropping a seamer.
“I think it actually spun a lot more than what we thought last week,” captain Nathan McSweeney admitted. “I even got a couple to spin, which was interesting. Lloyd took another five-for in the second XI … We’ll obviously make a final decision this afternoon after looking at the wicket. But whatever team we roll out, I’m sure will be the right one.”
Ground staff left more grass on the Junction Oval pitch than for last week’s dress-rehearsal, though two damp days have meant extra time under covers. Victoria would welcome a bit of pace.
“We’d like it to be a little bit quicker than it was last game, probably just a little bit more in it to support our attack,” Rogers said. “We probably like the ball reacting off the surface a bit more. Hopefully there’s a little bit more grass on it and it’s a good challenge for both bat and ball.”
Weather, inevitably, is a subplot. The Bureau expects solid rain on day one and showers through days two and three; temperatures look more mid-July than late-March. A Shield final runs for five days, so there is wiggle room, but lost time would shift attention to bonus points – awarded for runs and wickets in the first 100 overs of each first innings – should the match finish drawn.
Victoria top the table, so a stalemate with level bonus points would still hand them their first title since 2019. South Australia, chasing back-to-back crowns for the first time, know they must either win outright or out-score Victoria on those bonuses.
Beyond the forecasts, the match carries enough storylines. Scott Boland and Will Sutherland spearhead a Victorian seam unit that has rarely needed spin on home soil. South Australia lean heavily on Brendan Doggett, Jordan Buckingham and Liam Scott – the latter newly crowned player of the season. Pope’s inclusion would offer variety but alter the balance.
Both dressing-rooms appear calm. McSweeney talked up his side’s “belief after last year”. Rogers highlighted a squad “keen to prove we’re not just competitive but still capable of lifting trophies”.
Shield finals rarely match the hype of white-ball showpieces, yet for the players who slog through six months of red-ball cricket they are everything. Rain may intervene, selections may backfire, but someone will hold the trophy come Tuesday. Whether that is Sutherland on his home outfield or McSweeney celebrating an Adelaide dynasty might, as ever in Melbourne, come down to what drops from the sky.
