Swepson’s class not enough to stop Blues in thriller NSW resist perfect 10
MITCHELL Swepson bagged a maiden 10-wicket match haul to bowl Queensland within one wicket of victory before coming up agonisingly short in a gripping Sheffield Shield clash won by NSW yesterday.
After posting his best first-class figures of 5-97 in NSW’S first innings, Swepson topped that with 5-74 in the second in yet another effort to put him on the national selection radar.
Despite the efforts of the leg-spinner, the Blues snuck home by a wicket in a thriller at Karen Rolton Oval.
With 15 scalps at 20.33 this season, Swepson has vaulted to the top of the Shield wicket-takers list and edged ahead of Ashton Agar as Australia’s No. 2 spinner behind Nathan Lyon.
Lyon slashed Michael Neser over point to level the scores yesterday.
Drama then ensued when Sean Abbott drove Swepson to mid-off and took off for a run. Lyon refused to go and was run out at the striker’s end.
That meant No. 11 Harry Conway was on strike to Swepson. Conway kept out the remaining four balls of the over, whereupon Abbott heaved Marnus Labuschagne over mid-on to win the game. Swepson’s match haul of 10-171 made him a worthy man of the match, presumably just ahead of Trent Copeland, whose second innings of 5-17 set up the NSW win.
Abbott said Swepson bowled even better yesterday than he did in the first innings.
“He was bowling quite fast and hitting the rough (yesterday),” Abbott said.
“I felt like if he missed the rough I could take him over the top straight, but we lost a couple of wickets at the wrong time.
“He didn’t give me – or anyone really – any bad balls.”
Needing 206 to win, NSW was cruising at 4-162 but the Bulls roared back after lunch to get Peter Nevill for 25 and Daniel Solway for 52.
Bulls skipper Usman Khawaja used the full array of his attack – even starting the day with the occasional spin of Matt Renshaw.
The Bulls stuck to their task even as the Blues edged closer, their quicks charging in hard right to the very end.