Sheffield Shield 2025-26 - Vic v SA - Sam Elliott beats Mitchell Perry to Shield final berth

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Mitchell Perry has been brutally omitted from Victoria’s side for the Sheffield Shield final against South Australia with Sam Elliott preferred as both teams downplayed concerns over weather affecting the game at the Junction Oval starting on Thursday.

The return of Fergus O’Neill to Victoria’s XI after he was rested for last week’s match against South Australia at the same venue meant that one of Elliott or Perry was going to be squeezed out.

Perry finished second in the Shield player of the year award to SA’s Liam Scott after taking 32 wickets at 21.75 for the season including two five-wicket hauls. But Elliott got the nod after taking 33 wickets at 17.18 including three five-fors, with their batting contributions near-on identical across the year.

Victoria’s coach Chris Rogers said it was the hardest decision he has had to make in his time as state coach.

“Both players thoroughly deserve to be playing,” Rogers said on Wednesday. “It was a real 50-50, and in the end we probably rewarded the guy who just had the better season. And it’s as simple as that. It’s a tough one. I spoke to a lot of people, and no one could really give me a compelling case either way. Our analyst could provide reasons both ways.

“It’s unfortunate for Mitch, but he took it well and hopefully it inspires him to go on to bigger and better things.”

SA are weighing up their own selection ahead of the final with legspinner Lloyd Pope being considered as a second spin option alongside Ben Manenti, but that would mean omitting one of the seam bowlers.

“I think it actually spun a lot more than what we thought last week,” SA captain Nathan McSweeney said. “I even got a couple to spin, which was interesting. Lloyd took another five-for in the second XI, the last hit out he played. So it definitely does come into your thinking. We’ll obviously make a final decision this afternoon after looking at the wicket. But whatever team we roll out, I’m sure will be the right one.”

It does appear likely that the Junction Oval pitch will have more grass and life in it than it did in the previous game between the two sides last week at the same venue. There was rain in Melbourne on Tuesday afternoon and more expected on Wednesday which will see the pitch spend more time under covers in the lead in than normal. Rogers revealed that Victoria are keen for something more lively to suit to their attack.

“We’d like it to be a little bit quicker than it was last game, probably just a little bit more in it to support our attack,” Rogers said. “We probably like the ball reacting off the surface a bit more. Hopefully there’s a little bit more grass on it and it’s a good challenge for both bat and ball.”

There is significant rain forecast for the opening day and further rain and cold weather expected for days two and three, although the final is played over five days rather than four so there is more time for a result. However, rain will bring the bonus points into play if the game ends in a draw.

As is the case in the regular season, there are bonus points on offer in the final which will decide who wins the Shield if the game is drawn providing at least 270 overs are bowled in the match. The team that accrues the most points in the first innings wins the game. Teams get 0.01 point for every run scored over 200 in their first 100 batting overs (ie. if a team scores 350 they get 1.50 bonus points), and teams also get 0.10 points for every wicket taken in the first 100 overs of their first bowling innings (ie if a team takes 10 wickets inside 100 overs they get 1 point).

Captain Will Sutherland revealed the players had reflected on that game and actually used the recent Shield game against SA as a practice run in the weather affected draw. Sutherland and Ollie Peake batted to reach the 100-over mark without being bowled out. They were 288 for 7 after 100 overs, having bowled out SA for 305 in 95.2 overs in the first innings. It meant despite having fewer runs, SA’s fewer wickets saw them accrue 1.65 points to Victoria’s 1.88.

“Last game we spoke about the first innings points, just almost have a bit of a trial run on how we want to go about it and make sure we won those points last game,” Sutherland said. “We probably did stuff that up a little bit [in 2021-22], to be honest.

“We just sort of panicked a little bit and something that we hadn’t quite thought about enough. So we’ve definitely had discussions about it. But again, you don’t want to get too sidetracked by that, because no doubt there’ll be a result, regardless of the first innings.”

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