Queensland seems poised for victory but, after four twisting and turning days of a fascinating Pura Cup Final, only a brave or a foolhardy pundit would conclusivelyrule out Victoria’s chances
John Polack26-Mar-2001Queensland seems poised for victory but, after four twisting and turning days of a fascinating Pura Cup Final, only a brave or a foolhardy pundit would conclusivelyrule out Victoria’s chances. With one day of the 2000-01 summer left to complete, the Bulls are at a scoreline of 2/137 in their second innings. They need only todraw the match or to collect eighty-seven further runs in order to successfully defend their status as Australia’s premier domestic first-class team.Remorseless, relentless, exacting. Under a Brisbane sky that was again generally decorated by only light clouds, it was another day of furiously hard, competitivecricket. And, at the end of it all, it was the Bulls who emerged with the advantage. In large measure, this was because they made a succession of timelybreakthroughs during the early part of the day and then staved off the possibility of the regular clatter of wickets when it came their own turn to bat.As regularly as the complexion of this match has fluctuated, the Bushrangers have never quite been able to put their noses in front. Today, the comparatively quickdepartures – forty minutes apart and on either side of the day’s first drinks break – of overnight batsmen Jonathan Moss (19) and Matthew Elliott (98) maintained anadvantage for Queensland which it once more refused to relinquish.After extending his resilient fifth wicket partnership with Elliott to a mark of forty-nine runs, Moss perished when he was drawn into defending a delivery fromspeedster Ashley Noffke (2/79) which pitched just short of a driveable length and nipped away from him fractionally off the seam to attract a feathered outside edge.Worse was to follow for the visitors when the doggedly defiant Elliott’s innings came to its own close twenty-five minutes into the second hour. He chose to drivepowerfully at Andy Bichel (4/44) but it proved one of the few false decisions in his marathon 452 minute stay at the wicket: after being marooned on a score of 98for three quarters of an hour, he lifted the ball straight into the hands of a gleeful Jerry Cassell at extra cover. Elliott cut an agonised and despondent figure on hisslow walk back to the pavilion and his body language might well have conveyed its own metaphor about the likely outcome of the game from that moment on.Darren Berry (61) and Paul Reiffel (18), vice-captain and captain and the only surviving members of Victoria’s last win in a first-class Final, halted the Bulls’momentum with a gritty union of forty-five runs for the seventh wicket. But exacting toil and concentrated effort from the entirety of the Bulls’ four-pronged paceattack won the day. In limiting the visitors to a second innings total to 289 and an overall lead of 223 runs, it quite possibly won the Pura Cup for Queensland too.Particularly given that it produced three more rather needless dismissals near the end of the Victorians’ exhibition.Reiffel was run out after the distraction of a near-Stuart Law catch in the covers from a looping, leading edged shot at Adam Dale (2/73) encouraged him to stayalmost frozen to his crease while Berry charged toward him from the striker’s end.John Davison (10) weathered thirty-three minutes but then undid much of his good work by unsuccessfully attempting to hoist a Noffke delivery over the infield.And, having lived by the sword, Berry then died by it as well when he launched an uppercut at Bichel. It was an ill-advised decision given that Bichel and Law hadstrategically placed Joe Dawes at third man at the start of that over. Ending an innings which had delivered the wicketkeeper-batsman his first half-century atfirst-class level for the season, the ball could not have travelled along any more direct a plane to the fieldsman.The fourth innings of the match – and the one on which everything in this 2000-01 season now rests – began forty-five minutes before tea and started along positivelines for Queensland. Reiffel, having opened the bowling consistently for the Bushrangers for the last two seasons, chose to partner Mathew Inness (2/22) withspeedster Mick Lewis (0/55) instead but the experiment failed.Lewis struggled to hit a length, runs flowing quickly from the bats of Jimmy Maher (37) and Cassell (15). Later, only inches separated the right armer from thewicket of Martin Love (50*) as an outside edge fell despairingly short of Brad Hodge at slip when the batsman’s score was a mere four. But the concession ofthirty-one runs from his opening six overs represented something of a body-blow to the Vics.Inness, in the meantime, removed Cassell with a superb swinging delivery that pitched on the line of middle and leg stumps and straightened before it crashed into theright hander’s front pad. He later returned to claim the wicket of Maher – courtesy of a wonderful low catch from Berry to his right – when he found the thinnest ofthin inside edges.But Love, endowed as he is with the capacity to issue glorious attacking strokes and yet the steadiness and presence of mind to defend resolutely and to maintainpatience for long periods of time, ensured that the possibility of any further crises was safely thwarted. With Clinton Perren (25*), he forged a vital sixty-one runliaison at the end of the day to have the Bushrangers looking close to a spent force.The Victorians need wickets to fall quickly – and for the skies over the ‘Gabba to retain their predominantly blue hue – in the morning. Otherwise, their concerted bidfor a first domestic first-class title in ten summers will be over and the Bulls will be able to delight in the satisfaction of being crowned champions once again.