Young guns star in Vic Shield win over NSW

Outstanding bowling from Will Sutherland and Todd Murphy has carried Victoria to a 69-run Sheffield Shield win over NSW in Melbourne.

WILL SUTHERLAND.
WILL SUTHERLAND. Picture: Michael Dodge/Getty Images

Young bowlers Will Sutherland and Todd Murphy combined to lead an injury and illness-hit Victoria to a memorable 69-run Sheffield Shield win over NSW in Melbourne.

Resuming on day four at 1-58, needing another 175 for victory, NSW lost 7-76 in the first session and were dismissed for 163 just over half an hour after lunch.

Paceman Sutherland (5-58 off 20 overs) and offspinner Murphy (4-42 off 21) between them took the first eight wickets of the fourth day at CitiPower Centre on Sunday and bowled all but 17.4 overs in the NSW second innings.

"They are two young leaders in this group and it's just great to see." Victoria captain Peter Handscomb said.

Player-of-the-match Sutherland, who took 4-57 in the first innings, finished with his Shield-best match figures of 9-115 and the 23-year-old joint top-scored with 39 in Victoria's first innings.

The 22-year-old Murphy's second innings figures were his best in first-class cricket and added to his haul of 3-44 in the first innings also give him his best match return of 7-86.

Another youngster, 20-year-old batter Campbell Kellaway playing in just his second first-class match, produced Victoria's highest individual score of the game, making 81 in their second innings.

Victoria used 14 players in the match with Sam Harper and.Jon Holland subbed out after testing positive for COVID-19 and replaced by Matthew Short and Ruwantha Kellapotha respectively.

Jack Prestwidge was dragged out of club cricket on Saturday to deputise for the concussed Sam Elliott.

"Every morning we just had a little chat about it, acknowledged it and then said 'no we're here to focus on our cricket'," Handscomb said.

Opener Daniel Hughes was the NSW second innings top scorer with 33 and only two other batters passed 20.

Victoria's first outright win of the season lifted them back to fourth above South Australia who defeated Tasmania by 208 runs in Hobart on Saturday.

NSW, who sacked coach Phil Jaques last week, are winless in the Shield and are bottom of the ladder in both that competition and the one-day Marsh Cup, in which they have tasted success just once in five matches.

Sutherland made the initial breakthrough on day four, trapping Jason Sangha lbw and Murphy effectively derailed the NSW chase of 233, by bowling Hughes and having Matthew Gilkes and Moises Henriques caught.

He then had Sean Abbott caught behind and Baxter Holt and Chris Tremain both lbw.

"We just weren't good enough to do the fundamentals," NSW captain Kurtis Patterson said.

A feature of the match was the first Shield appearance for three years of Australia's leading white-ball spinner Adam Zampa, who had match figures of 3-106, off 34 overs, including 3-57 in first innings.

"I think he showed himself as well as everyone else that he's certainly good enough for higher honours and he's good enough to be a second (Test) spinner to Nathan Lyon there, if need be," Patterson said.