Missing Vics no issue
Mon, 1 March 2010
Victorian captain Andrew McDonald refused to cite unavailable star Bushrangers as a reason for his state's huge loss in the 2009/10 Ford Ranger Cup final against Tasmania at the MCG on Sunday. The Vics headed into the domestic one-day decider without Cameron White, David Hussey, Dirk Nannes and Clint McKay who are all currently on the Australian tour of New Zealand. Victoria's bowling attack in particular was being dictated to by Tasmania and could well have done with pacemen Nannes and McKay steaming in at stages. But rather than focus on the absent players, McDonald highlighted the Bushrangers who did play in what was the state's eighth consecutive domestic final - from which only three titles have been won - were more than capable of doing the job. "That's just part and parcel, you could say Ricky Ponting wasn't available for Tasmania as well," McDonald said after the match. "John Hastings has had a landmark year, he's led the attack, Aaron Finch has made 300-plus runs in his first sort of go at it." "Matthew Wade's been on fire with the bat and with the gloves ... Aiden Blizzard comes back in, Damien Wright keeps soldiering on." "There's a lot of finds in a season where you can say it's disappointing that we lost the final and there's key players out and that but if (you) focus on the guys that are in here they've done a magic job." "I think it's a fantastic group and credit to the group that we can keep fronting up and making finals." McDonald highlighted Tasmania's ability to build a solid platform, thanks to a 132-run opening partnership between man-of-the-match Tim Paine and Michael Dighton, compared to Victoria losing 3-35 in its first 10 overs as the decisive factor. "Paine and Dighton played well at the top there and it's always hard when you're chasing your tail especially when they've got wickets in the shed on a wicket like that," McDonald said. "Three-hundred-plus is always going to be a difficult chase but I think we set it up probably in the middle there (of the Victorian innings) but we just lost too many wickets early." "They got early wickets, we couldn't get early wickets. They laid a platform, we didn't. So, I mean that's probably pretty much where the game was won and lost." Meanwhile, McDonald doesn't believe Victoria will be adversely affected by the quick turnaround for its next Sheffield Shield clash against Western Australia in Perth which begins on Wednesday. The Bushrangers are already guaranteed a spot in the four-day final, but a win at the WACA Ground will see it staged in Melbourne. "We need to regroup pretty quickly but I think the way we go about it, we've had a pretty hectic schedule since we boarded a plane for India (for last year's Champions League Twenty20 competition)," he said. "So we've been jam-packed and we've been able to switch our focus pretty quickly from each format to the next format so I think that won't be a problem." McDonald expects batsman Rob Quiney to take on the Warriors after he failed a fitness test on his adductor ahead of Sunday's one-day final.
