Wednesday 10 March 2010

The one guarantee following a frenetic opening day of play in the last Weet-Bix Sheffield Shield game of the season is that, barring biblical rain in Brisbane this week, there will be a result at the Gabba.

Within six points and the hosting rights for the Shield Final next week providing an irresistible lure for the XXXX GOLD Queensland Bulls, its clash with the Retravision Warriors was conducted at a rollicking pace today.

After dismissing the Warriors for 286, the Bulls lurched unsteadily to 5-62 at stumps and will need to conjure up yet another of their patented lower order revivals if they are to snap up the points they so desperately require.

Their batting mainstay Chris Hartley and captain Chris Simpson will resume with clean slates tomorrow and it is fair to say that their performance in the first hour will probably determine the direction of the game.

At the MCG, Victoria had the upper hand on Tasmania for the vast majority of the game although the Tigers lower order frustrated the home side before being dismissed for 222.

Queensland skipper Chris Simpson was clear from the outset that he was ready to roll the dice, winning the toss and sending the visitors in on a much friendlier looking pitch than the one encountered last week.

The first hour had plenty – two Warriors wickets fell including the prize scalp of captain Marcus North, rookie leg-spinner Cameron Boyce bowled first change inside the first hour on debut and WA opener Liam Davis hit a six.

The early breakthroughs were overshadowed by some clean hitting from rookie batsmen Michael Swart (53) and Matt Johnson (44) and then backed up by a pugnacious knock from left-hander Luke Pomersbach.

Pomersbach counter-attacked beautifully as the Warriors put on 150 for the middle session. He shared in 50-plus partnerships with Johnston and Luke Ronchi on the way to a well-struck 74.

He belted 10 fours and a six, as the Queensland attack battled to keep a cap on the Warriors resurgence.

But pacemen Ben Cutting (2-44), Luke Feldman (3-29) and Chris Swan (3-63) did enjoy some reward while wicket-keeper Hartley’s mighty summer continued, snapping up six catches including two superb diving efforts in front of first slip, to take this total for the summer to 39 so far.

In the process he claimed his 250th catch for Queensland.

Cutting moved to 40 Shield wickets while Feldman now has 31 first class dismissals in his debut season.

Promising youngster Nathan Coulter-Nile was the Warriors most impressive performer with the ball, with the strongly-built right-arm paceman generating good pace and shape to have his three victims all caught behind the wicket.

He finished with the eye-catching figures of 3-1 from four overs.