Vics lose a point
Tue, 2 March 2010
Victoria's failure to claim outright points in last week's Sheffield Shield clash against Queensland has been further compounded by a one-point penalty for slow over-rates during the game, meaning it can now still miss a berth in the final. According to a statement released by Cricket Australia on Monday afternoon, the Bushrangers were 'assessed to be two overs behind the required over-rate' at the end of the game at the Gabba, reducing them to 29 points overall and now giving them only a 12-point lead over third-placed Tasmania. Victoria's result from the match for leading on the first-innings meant it only claimed one point, giving it a three-point lead from Queensland which claimed maximum points when Chris Swan and Luke Feldman put on 58 runs for the last wicket. On the final day on Thursday, which the Bulls began needing 77 runs for victory with just two wickets in hand, Bushrangers skipper Andrew McDonald was forced to call on part-time spinner Aaron Finch who sent down five overs in two separate stints. "We had an over-rate problem, I think we were five down overnight, which made it a little bit difficult to juggle the bowlers - we had to bowl Aaron Finch today just to try and make up the overs," McDonald said after the game. "We weren't going to lose two-and-a-half points - because you lose half a point per over these days - which is a pretty harsh rule." "We had to juggle that, but I still thought we should have created enough chances to win the game and in the end we only created one." "We were five down at one stage, so two-and-a-half points - it makes a hell of a lot of difference, you may as well not even win basically." "We had to roll the dice and bowl Finch, if we had of bowled the quicks for the remainder of the day we probably would have been six, seven or eight overs down." "We used him (Finch) sparingly and I didn't think him bowling had any bearing on the result to be quite honest."
