Melbourne Cricket Ground
6:45pm Friday January 15
Fairly simple equation for Victoria - win and you make the prelim as the visiting side, lose and you don't. About the only other possibility is a no result in Brisbane which would make it a home prelim, gaining the net run rate would require something along the lines of scoring 200 and bowling them out for 20, and that would still be behind the Warriors. Same problem if they were to lose - WA would need to win by a similar scoreline if the Bushrangers lost narrowly. One change to their side with a rusty Clint McKay back to replace James Pattinson. David Hussey has scored 150 without being dismissed in the last two games against Tassie, about a third of them would go a long way towards a Victorian win here. He's only got 70 for the tournament and that's second to Andrew McDonald amongst Bushrangers, but Glenn Maxwell is the only other batting option in the squad, and it's very unlikely they'll be dropping anyone to make room for him, although it will be interesting to see what they do if they make the prelim and have to fit Taylor in.
The simple part of the Tasmanian equation is if you don't win you don't make it. Unfortunately for them, if they do win they still probably miss out. They need to win big and hope the Warriors do the same on Saturday - combined margins of 100 runs or 12 overs are around the mark they'd need to overtake the Bulls on NRR, overtaking the Warriors is unrealistic. They've axed Michael Dighton - has he played for the last time at domestic level? - along with Gerard Denton and Luke Butterworth who didn't play in the Adelaide choke. Opening batsmen Jon Wells and Ed Cowan come in, suggesting Rhett Lockyear's under pressure.
Victoria XII:
+Matthew Wade
Brad Hodge
*Cameron White
David Hussey
Aaron Finch
Andrew McDonald
Dwayne Bravo
Glenn Maxwell
John Hastings
Clint McKay
Dirk Nannes
Jon Holland
In:
Maxwell
McKay
Out:
James Pattinson
Tasmania XIII:
Rhett Lockyear
+Tim Paine
Jon Wells (T20 debut)
Ed Cowan (Tas T20 debut)
*George Bailey
Travis Birt
John Rogers
Rana Naved-ul-Hasan
Brett Geeves
Brendan Drew
Jason Krejza
James Faulkner
Xavier Doherty
In:
Wells
Cowan
Drew
Out:
Michael Dighton
Weather:
Mostly sunny until it gets dark, then it'll be mostly moony (or it would be if it wasn't a new moon), 27 degrees
Session Times
First innings: 6:45-8pm
Second innings: 8:15-9:30pm
Last 2 Years
2008-09 Round 1 @ Hobart
Victoria won by 35 runs
Victoria 5/203 (20)
Hussey 100* (47)
Denton 2/37 (4)
Krejza 1/23 (4)
Tasmania 168 (18.3)
Birt 58 (34)
McDonald 3/32 (4)
Wright 3/34 (3.3)
2007-08 Round 4 @ Melbourne
Victoria won by 7 runs
Victoria 7/178 (20)
Hussey 54* (33)
Blizzard 25 (13)
Geeves 3/36 (4)
Tasmania 171 (20)
Birt 40 (24)
McKay 3/49 (4)
Nannes 2/22 (4)
Ladder
South Australia - 8
Western Australia - 4
Queensland - 4
Victoria - 4
Tasmania - 2
New South Wales - 2
Coverage:
Cricket Australia's scorecard
Cricinfo's scorecard
Tickets:
Adults - $10
Concession/Children - $5
Family - $25
(Gates open 3pm for Vic Spirit v ACT Meteors curtain raiser at 3:15)
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