Batting carnage as Vics hit a 50-year low
CHOOSING to bat on a green wicket in Brisbane proved the wrong decision for Test hopeful and Victorian skipper Peter Handscomb as his side was bowled out for only 63.
Victoria lost eight wickets in the first session before being rolled for their lowest Sheffield Shield score in 50 years.
Fresh off being picked in the Prime Minister’s XI as two of the “leading first-class performers” this season, Bulls bowlers Mark Steketee and Michael Neser continued their dominant start to the summer by destroying the Vics at Allan Border Field.
The duo snared seven wickets in the opening session to take their tally to 39 this season, with the visitors crumbling to 8-47 at lunch, before each took another scalp after lunch to dismiss Victoria for only 63.
Neser finished with figures of 4-22 and Steketee, who took 6-38 against WA last week, snared 5-18 in the disastrous Victorian effort.
Only second-gamer Ashley Chandrasinghe, who made a century on debut against Tasmania, defied the onslaught, facing 84 balls, but for only 16 runs before he was out. His 19run stand with Scott Boland was the biggest for Victoria.
The minuscule total was the smallest since the Vics were all out for 73 against WA in 1971, and is the fourth-lowest total in more than 150 years of the Shield.
The Victorian openers, including Marcus Harris who was this week recalled to the Test squad to face the West Indies, fell for ducks.
Travis Dean, last year’s joint player of the year in the Shield, lasted only three balls and Harris seven, but neither scored and the Vics were 2-0 inside four overs. It became 3-5 when Handscomb was out, then 4-12 when Nic Maddinson fell for only four.