The domestic one-day cricket tournament has been running for a week now and with 7 games completed it’s almost a third of the way through. The first phase of the competition has been held in Brisbane and Perth but the action now shifts back to Sydney with the final few games to be played in Hobart.
The competition has been renamed the JLT Cup (formerly Matador Cup) but the format and teams are the same as last year. It is a competition between the six state teams plus an invitational Cricket Australia XI (which is comprised of exciting young talent) who will play each other once in a round robin format before the top 3 on the ladder meet in an Elimination Final and Grand Final later this month.
With each team now having played 2 games some of the early season form lines are starting to take shape. In a testament to how close this competition is each year, Western Australia are the ONLY team with 2 wins. However, both of those were played on their traditional home turf at the WACA in Perth which is an advantage they will lose once the tournament shifts location to Sydney and Hobart.
The Cricket Australia XI team also looks a lot more competitive this year. They have already won a match against South Australia and they put up a valiant effort to lose narrowly against Queensland in Brisbane. It will be worth watching the CA XI as the tournament goes on because Australias next superstars could emerge from this young team.
The ladder is already congested with 5 teams having a 1-1 record
While there are some new faces in the spotlight, it has been some of the usual suspects who have been pushing for selection in the national side. With the Australians failing dismally in the ODI series against India the opportunities will be there for anyone to step up and demand selection with strong performances in this competition.
On the batting front :-
Cameron White was a standout scoring 165 off 154 balls with 6 sixes and spearheading the VICs demolition job against TAS.
Shaun Marsh has again been impressive at the state level with 2 solid scores of 132 and 88 to average over 100 in his first games of the season.
Nick Maddinson posted an impressive 137 off 119 balls in the NSW win over TAS.
All 3 of these players have represented Australia before and will be pushing for a recall this summer.
The usual suspects are putting their hands up for national selection early
On the bowling front the state players are once again demonstrating just how deep the fast bowling stocks of Australia can run with several familiar faces amongst the wickets early :-
Joe Mennie played Test cricket for Australia last year and his 5 for 36 for SA was instrumental in snuffing out the QLD run chase in Brisbane to leave them all out for 157 and well short of the 241 required.
Peter Siddle looks back to his consistent and ever-reliable best, picking up 2 for 48 and 3 for 27 in his two games for the VICs.
Gurindher Sandhu last played ODI cricket for Australia back in 2015 but he showed some glimpses of that form with his 4 for 57 for NSW against WA in a narrow loss.
Jason Behrendorff looks to have returned from injury problems last season with an impressive 3 for 34 against NSW and he will fly out to India to be part of the national T20 squad.
Australias fast bowling depth looks as good as ever
As the competition moves to Sydney for the next stage there will also be a few players from the national ODI side returning home. Hilton Cartwright and Marcus Stoinis will join WA, James Faulkner will come back to TAS while Peter Handscomb and Mattew Wade should return for the VICs.
The tournament matches are being streamed live from the web this year with no free-to-air or pay-tv coverage to speak of. In the age of decentralisation and enablement of small broadcasters this is possibly a very positive development as the game can now be viewed from around the world with ease and for FREE.
You can see all the matches here at http://live.cricket.com.au/#/fixture
Images and Credits
http://www.cricinfo.com
http://www.gty.im
http://www.cricketaustralia.com.au