Semi-Final Previews

Finals Preview
Cam Battersby Cup – men | Katherine Raymont Shield - women

By Cam Vellacott

At the end of 11 fiercely contested two-day matches, the top four have been set and are ready for finals cricket. It was a tight finish for final placings, a mere 0.5 of a point separating 2nd placed Valley and 3rd placed Norths, while Ipswich (1st) and Gold Coast (4th) also sit very close either side.

All four sides have occupied the top four for majority of the season and have also all played finals thus far. Ipswich bested Norths in the KFC T20 Max final, while Norths notched a win against Valley in the One Day Final. Gold Coast featured in the Semi Finals of the KFC T20 Max, beaten by Norths.

The immense strength and consistency of all four sides is highlighted by the gap between fourth and fifth place on the ladder. Fourth placed Gold Coast scored 159.5 points while fifth placed Toombul finished over 3 first innings wins behind on 117 points. It is easily the largest separation in the 15+ years of MyCricket records, even taking into account variances in point systems.

Each side has so far lost only two matches and all but the Gold Coast claimed outright wins. Due to the closeness of each team, I’ve broken down each teams’ total runs and wickets, both for and against, averaged it across the season and created a net difference score for each team.

While you can’t purely rely on the numbers as they don’t paint the full picture, they certainly do paint an interesting one. The numbers don’t account for things like boundary sizes, wicket difficultly, aggressive declarations or loss of wickets chasing fast runs, however across the course of the year those outliers tend to equal themselves out and a fair net difference is established.

Team   Runs    Wkts Against   Batting Ave      Runs Against    Wkts Taken     Bowling Ave    Net Diff (Bat vs Bowl Ave)

Ipswich 3389    137                  24.7                 2657                127                  20.9                 +3.8

Valley  3020    99                    30.5                 2358                123                  19.2                 +11.3

Norths 3445    99                    34.9                 3872                137                  28.3                 +6.6

GC       3298    110                  29.9                 3465                133                  26.1                 +3.8

From an individual performance perspective, it is unsurprising to see each side have a bowler amongst the top 5 wicket takers in the competition. Interestingly, only Valley (Max Bryant) have a batter in the top five run scorers.

Unsurprisingly, the top four finish well clear of all other sides for wickets taken and finish in the top half of the competition for runs scored. Clearly, they have dominated.

While consistency and form are important, this weekend’s semi finals are new matches and no prior performances holds a bearing in the match. The better sides will win.

Ipswich have gained home ground advantage and will host the Gold Coast, while Valley will host Norths at Peter Easton Oval. Here’s a breakdown of each side, and how they’ve faired previously against each other this year.

Ipswich v Gold Coast | Bill Pippen Oval | Round 12 | January 6 & 7

Ipswich 181 & 6/238d def Gold Coast 9/109d

Valley v Norths | Ian Healy Oval | Round 13 | Jan 13 and 20
Norths 83 & 5/160 def by Valley 318

Ipswich | Breakthrough Season?

Despite finishing one win clear of the other sides, Ipswich has the equal lowest net difference. This can be explained by four of their wins coming within a margain of 20 runs, including their incredible one run win over Toombul. While this could be viewed by some as a negative, I would argue it is a greater reflection of their team’s unity and insatiable appetite for victory. Winning tight matches has become a habit for them.

In the past four seasons, Ipswich have made two grand finals and one semi final. In 2021/22, they fell short to Wests in the big dance, while in 2019/20 they were bested by University on ladder position (Covid cancelled grand final). In 2021/22, they fell short in the semi final to Norths despite a breath taking 90 from Harry Wood. 

They have been the front runners all season, right back to their successful KFC T20 Max campaign. Their biggest strength is undoubtable the western connection, the majority of their players from either Ipswich or Laidley. This is headlined by the Woods and Wilsons siblings. All Laidley products, they lead the side with bat, ball and personality. Arguably the single most important player across the competition, Harry Wood’s all round ability will again be at the forefront for the Hornets.

The weakness for Ipswich lies in their spin bowling stocks. Despite Noah Emmerson taking the bulk of spin overs and doing a handy job, how will he compare to the class of the Gold Coast’s Matt Kuhnemann?

Valley | Return to the Top

 After a lean season last year, the powerhouse club that is Valley has returned to fine form and their men’s First Grade side is the spearhead. The addition of big hitting batter Max Bryant proved enormous for the Diehards. Second leading run scorer despite missing a large portion of games, Bryant’s hundred in a low scoring match at Souths with one of the finest across the competition all season.

Despite some strong batting performances from the Diehards, their crown jewel has been their bowling attack. Led by Benji Floros and spin duo Cameron Boyce and Zanden Jeh, no two bowlers in their attack offer the same skillset. Australian U19 quick Callum Vidler offers extreme pace, Saxon Jeh has a slightly unconventional medium pace action and Joey Pratt’s skiddy swingers offer a real point of different to the height of opening partner Floros. Xanden Jeh and Boyce’s spin combination is easily the best in the competition, their high-quality finger and wrist spin able to suit nearly every condition and situation.

To be critical, they may have held a reliance at times on their blue-chip Queensland talent. Bryant has been available for large portions of the season, as has Jack Wildermuth. However, with Paddy Cotter finding form on the weekend and Hugh Weibgen coming back in from the Australian U19s, this may not be as glaring an issue as it was earlier in the year. However, they don’t need to score 350+ runs, they just need to score more than the other team. With their bowling attack, that hasn’t needed to be all that many this season.

 Norths | Time to Win

Norths have featured in nearly every finals series, in every format, in First Grade across the past 4 seasons. However, their only silverware came this season in the form of the One Day competition, and they have lost an astounding 6 grand finals. Last year, the team fell short in the semi final by 10 runs against eventual premiers Redlands. It was a match, and a campaign, which undoubtedly left the feeling of an opportunity gone begging.

This season, they’ve doubled down on their aggressive batting approach with the inclusions of Scott Palombo and Blake Maher, as well as Connor Carroll stamping his mark at the top of the order. Maher has provided big hitting when Big Bash duo Josh Brown and Nikhil Chaudhary were away showcasing their talent to the nation.

However, while this approach has seen great success in many matches it has also seen Norths bowled out for under 100, twice. Further to this, both of those matches have come this side of Christmas, once to Valley and once to Ipswich. How much mental scarring is there from this, or is their high-octane style ignorant to this sort of statistic?

Their bowling outfit has been led two once emerging, now emerged First Grade stars; Noah McFadyen and Sam Neale. While Connor Sully and Will Prestwidge provide the pace, Neale and McFadyen bring guile and substantial overs between them. Allrounder Blake Maher brings plenty of grunt too.

 Gold Coast | A Dangerous Tide

Despite finishing fourth, the Gold Coast are an incredibly dangerous side. They have been champions of white ball cricket across the past few seasons, however will look to chase their first red ball premiership since 2008/9.

Any team with Matt Kuhnemann bowling unrestricted overs is a real threat to anyone. Playing in the Test match arena only last year, Kuhnemann will be eager to show selectors from Queensland and Australia that he is still the best left armer in the country.

Two of the Gold Coast’s emerging talents have recently tasted success, Lachy Aitken with the Australian U19s and Ashton Gumm captaining the Coast’s recent U19 T20 premiership. Both players have more than a full season of first grade under their belt and have shown their ability to affect results for their side. Gumm’s aggressive approach at the top of the order has caught more than a few teams off guard this season. Hugo Burdon is also enormous for the Dolphins middle order and really holds together the mixture of youth, aggression, and class.

Jackson Smith and Matt Revis have performed very well across the season bowling pace, however the Gold Coast doesn’t have the option of turning to raw pace like the other three sides. It hasn’t been an issue thus far, however, is interesting to note coming into the different style of cricket that finals offers.

Katherine Raymont Shield

Semi-Finals

Wests v Valley, Sunday 10am; Jack McLaughlin Oval

Sunshine Coast v University of Qld, 10am, Kerry Emery Oval

Preview:

Perennial finalists Western Suburbs face a tough opponent in the first semi, with Valley another of the competition’s leading clubs.

Fresh from a rigorous few days in Adelaide, Queensland Fire and Brisbane Heat duo Grace Parsons and Courtney Sippel will be key performers for the home team. Both enjoyed their three-day, red ball match between CA Green and CA Gold which finished yesterday in a high-scoring draw. Former Kath Smith Medallist Ruby Stranger will lend her experience for Wests will youngsters Fillipa Suesee and Lilli Hamilton have been in good touch in recent weeks.

Valley will look to their Queensland Fire players, with allrounder Sianna Ginger and keeper/batter Kira Holmes prominent during the season and captain and off-spinner Christina Coulson a recent match-winner following another solid campaign with the Queensland Indigenous Women’s team at the National titles in Alice Springs. One of her teammates at the NICC, Queensland Under-19 player Grace Abdy will be another to watch.

Preview:

In another well-matched final, University of Queensland and Sunshine Coast will be out to make the most of their talented line-ups at Kerry Emery Oval on the Sunshine Coast.

The Scorchers boast the Australian Under-19 pace duo of Lucy Hamilton and Bonnie Berry as well as rising teen allrounders Mahli Rea and Tarah Staines. Former New Zealand international Rachel Priest is still a dangerous prospect at the top of the order, while promising wicket-keeper/bat Mikayla Wrigley is the reigning Kath Smith Medallist and keen to further her claims for higher honours.

The Students will be led by Queensland Fire and WBBL Heat young gun Charli Knott, who captained CA Gold in the three-day match earlier this week in Adelaide, while experienced Fire and Heat quick Nic Hancock will be a handful for the Scorchers.

With NZ import Anlo van Deventer and leading runs-scorer Tara Wheeler and the consistent Emma Jackson, Jessica Dalby and Bree Craven in the line-up, UQ should have plenty of confidence in their ability to match-up well in the semi.

Good luck to all sides competing this weekend. The weather forecast looks good, so may the best sides win!

FINALS COVERAGE CAN BE FOUND AT

https://matchcentre.premier.qld.cricket.com.au/