Low five no help in Wade struggle
MATTHEW Wade and Glenn Maxwell slipped up in their final Ashes audition as wickets tumbled on day one of the Sheffield Shield clash between Victoria and Tasmania.
Incumbent Test keeper Wade was dismissed for five off 42 balls as Tasmania was bowled out for 172 at the MCG.
Events took an unexpected turn in the final session with Tasmanian right-arm quick Gabe Bell ripping through Victoria’s top order to leave it reeling at 4-25 off six overs.
Marcus Harris (61) and Daniel Christian (28) then steadied the ship with an unbeaten 78-run stand as Victoria went to stumps at 4-103.
Playing in his fourth firstclass game, 22-year-old Bell had Maxwell (four) caught behind trying to drive a delivery that swung away.
Test batsman Peter Handscomb, caught at second slip, and Aaron Finch, trapped lbw, made ducks as Bell (4-22) claimed wickets from each of his first three overs.
Tasmanian skipper George Bailey earlier made a gallant 106 but was one of only three Tigers batsmen to reach double figures.
Wade fell in the third over after lunch trying to play a pull shot to a Peter Siddle delivery that pitched on middle-and-off and rocketed into his stumps.
His rash dismissal was the latest in a series of poor batting performances that do not bode well for his Ashes prospects.
“I thought Scotty Boland just bowled a really good spell to him (before lunch) and gave him nothing,” Bailey said of Wade.
“Coming out after lunch, you’d like something to get you going and you’ve got Peter Siddle, who’s pretty miserly as well.
“No doubt that dot-ball pressure built. The shot he played probably wasn’t there.”
National selectors may be unwilling to risk playing a batsman who has averaged 20 since his Test recall.
The Ashes squad will be named on Friday with NSW’s Peter Nevill tipped to be given the nod ahead of Wade.
Nevill snared three catches, including an impressive diving effort to dismiss Joe Burns off the bowling of Doug Bollinger, in the opening session of NSW’s Shield clash with Queensland.
Maxwell is locked in a race for the No.6 Test spot with Western Australia’s Hilton Cartwright.
The medium pace-bowling allrounder made 35 for the Warriors yesterday in their Shield clash with South Australia.
Maxwell was the betterperformed of the two in the previous round, scoring 60 and 64 compared with Cartwright’s pair of ducks.