Grade pair make England look below-average
ENGLAND has experienced its fair share of demoralising days fielding in the Queensland sun, but yesterday’s miserable return of 1-220 against a Cricket Australia XI was a different kind of concern.
Just five days out from Thursday’s first Ashes Test, grade cricketers Jason Sangha (133) and Matt Short (134) batted four and a half hours for a 263-run stand as the hosts marched towards 4-364 and a draw on a lifeless Townsville pitch.
After they began the day with a lead of 144 and seven wickets to take, England planned on steamrolling the youngsters. But in the end their only saving grace was an hour early finish with no hope of a result.
In effect, England had lost hope of breaking through the inexperienced Cricket Australia XI and beating them despite having Stuart Broad, Moeen Ali and Chris Woakes at their disposal.
Potentially the only man missing from the team that will take on Steve Smith, David Warner and co at the Gabba this week was James Anderson.
Making Sangha and Short’s counter-attack even more concerning for England was the fact neither had played Sheffield Shield before and they had just five first-class matches and 195 runs between them before this week.
But they were full of class yesterday.
At 18, Sangha’s 133 made him the second youngest player to post a first-class century against England.
The man who beat him? Sachin Tendulkar.
A highly heralded future star in NSW, Sangha’s century also made him the youngest player to pass 100 in a firstclass match in Australia since Ricky Ponting against NSW in 1992-93.
Meanwhile, Short was two weeks ago playing grade cricket for Northcote in Melbourne but also looked at home against England after scoring a first-innings 51.