Coach's angst allayed as SA batters show some steel

The need to instil some steel in the top-order led Harris to implement some left-field training routines, such as the deployment of loud music and annoying noises to try and break the concentration of batters in the nets during pre-season.

"I challenged them a bit this year coming in, about playing under pressure and it's exactly that scenario," Harris said of the final phase of yesterday's batting effort.

"Instead of giving it away, to fight hard, bat the overs and get us a total to defend.

"At one stage there I thought 220 was going to be a target that we would have been happy with because we can defend most things, but to get 268 after being put into bat in a final, it was unreal the way they batted.

"With Jake's experience and Scotty's cameo, and the way he's played this year as player of the tournament, it's great to see the results and a credit to Steve Stubbings the way he's worked with these batters over time."

While the pace battery SA assembled (initially under Harris's coaching predecessor, Jason Gillespie) has been the team's overt strength, the current brains trust concedes they took a calculated gamble with the attack they took into yesterday's final.

New-ball pair Brendan Doggett and Nathan McAndrew had played only two and three 50-over games respectively for the summer prior to yesterday, but Harris opted for the experienced duo and left out spin-bowling allrounder and auxiliary skipper Ben Manenti.

In Manenti's absence, McSweeney was compelled to employ his part-time off breaks inside the first 15 overs after his quicks failed to find the optimal length on a two-paced pitch and left-handed batters Campbell Kellaway and Marcus Harris were making hay.

Victoria were cruising at 1-70 when McSweeney took the ball for the 13th over, only for Harris then fellow Test-capped batter Peter Handscomb to succumb to the SA skipper through 'soft' dismissals.

"Ben Manenti was unlucky to miss out, he bowled really well in the last game against Tasmania out here so I knew I had to bowl a couple of overs," McSweeney said last night.

"And we didn't bowl that well early so I probably bowled earlier than I would have liked.

"I needed to get some overs in and I wanted to get them out of the way as soon as I could, so it worked out well.

"With two lefties in it was probably the easiest time to bowl, and they tried to take some risks so it went my way thankfully."

Victoria captain Will Sutherland identified the dismissals of Harris and Handscomb, triggering a top-order collapse that yielded 4-34 inside 10 overs, as more costly than the late-innings flurry by Lehmann and Scott.

Having corrected the lapses in length his own quicks had exhibited in the early overs of their bowling innings, Sutherland thought the target of 269 was gettable given the strength and depth his batting line-up.

"If you told us they were going to get 268, we probably would have taken that to be honest," Sutherland said in the aftermath of his team's defeat.

"Not to point fingers but I think our batting group would be disappointed with some of the dismissals in that innings, and I think if we had our time again we'd back ourselves to chase 268.

"It's always interesting when the part-timer (McSweeney) comes on, whether you put your ego aside or not.

"So I think a few boys, particularly our senior players would be disappointed with their dismissals.

"We were 1-70 and doing it quite easily and we saw how many runs they (SA) got in their last 10 overs."

Sutherland felt Victoria had let slip a priceless opportunity, having stormed into the final from fourth place due to a confluence of results in the ultimate round of preliminary matches, then won the toss and put together a creditable bowling performance.

But even though he was the sole batter to reach 50, he believes Victoria's nucleus of experienced players melded with young batters the calibre of 22-year-old Kellaway, Harry Dixon (20) and Ollie Peake (18) augurs well for next summer and beyond.

And while 40-year-old seamer Peter Siddle has announced this season as his last in the format after a remarkable career stretching back to 2005, his return of 3-40 yesterday (which included just three runs from the innings' final over) had his captain pondering if he should try to talk him out of retirement.

"I probably won't try now," Sutherland said post-match. "I'll give him a European summer and a bit of time in America and he might just find the itch that he needs to scratch coming back for next season.

"I know he loves bowling, but I'm not sure he's up for standing around in the field or batting.

"Maybe I'll give it a crack in September and see if he's up for it."

One-Day Cup standings 2024-25

Team	Matches played M	Wins W	Losses L	Ties T	No results N/R	Net Run Rate NRR	Deductions Ded.	Batting Bonus Bat	Total points PTS
1 South Australia Men SA	7	4	2	0	1	0.25	0	3	21
2 Victoria Men VIC	7	4	3	0	0	-0.162	0	2	18
3 NSW Men NSW	7	3	3	0	1	0.099	0	2	16
4 Queensland Bulls QLD	7	3	3	0	1	0.244	0	1	15
5 Tasmanian Tigers Men TAS	7	3	3	0	1	0.134	0	1	15
6 Western Australia Men WA	7	2	5	0	0	-0.481	0	1	9

Legend

M: Matches played

W: Wins

L: Losses

T: Ties

N/R: No results

NRR: Net Run Rate

Ded.: Deductions

Bat: Batting Bonus

PTS: Total points