NSW won by two runs
A star-studded list of internationals – past, present and future – made their way to Newcastle for this January clash and the more than 16,000 locals who turned up across the four days couldn’t have asked for better entertainment.
After WA skipper Justin Langer sent NSW in, the home side posted 370 highlighted by strong middle-order efforts from Mark Waugh (73) and Michael Clarke (69). The dashing pair were at opposite ends of their respective careers and took down WA’s four-man pace attack as well as rookie spinner Beau Casson, who had burst onto the scene a month earlier with a 10-wicket haul against SA.
WA were wobbling at 2-17 in reply as Doug Bollinger removed openers Langer and Chris Rogers, before another rookie – teenager Shaun Marsh – showed the rest of Australia why those in his home state were so excited about his potential.
Left-handers Marsh (119) and Mike Hussey (90) defied Bollinger, Stuart Clark, Stuart MacGill and debutant tearaway Mark Cameron through a 198-run stand before WA were bowled out for 388 – a lead of 18.
In his first Shield game against his former state, Simon Katich added 50 (having been out for a duck in the first innings) before Clarke (116) and Mark Waugh (83no) again dominated proceedings, adding 154 in 34 overs before the latter’s brother Steve declared shortly before lunch on the final morning.
The equation for WA was an ambitious one – 299 from 72 overs – but Langer made his intentions clear when he shuffled down the order and elevated gung-ho ‘keeper-batter Ryan Campbell to open, and he and Rogers added 100 in 23.4 overs before Campbell was dismissed for 70.
It was a great platform though and with little assistance for the quicks, Waugh was relying on his trump card MacGill as well as the hit-and-miss left-arm wrist spin of Katich. At tea however, with WA 1-154, it looked as though only one team could win the match.
Katich then struck with the wickets of Rogers and Marsh to keep the contest intriguingly poised, yet as the day built towards its climax, Langer, Murray Goodwin and Mike Hussey largely took the tension out of the air, calmly taking WA to within 27 runs of victory at 4-272, with 10 overs still up their sleeve.
Cue chaos.
When Katich removes Langer, WA’s lengthy tail is exposed. Three balls later he has debutant Callum Thorp lbw for a duck. From the other end, MacGill has Matthew Nicholson spectacularly caught at midwicket by Clark.
Suddenly NSW need just three wickets, and they get the big one of Hussey in the next over, brilliantly caught in close by Greg Mail. WA have lost 4-3 in 14 balls, and are still 24 adrift from their target.
Young spinner Casson and veteran quick Jo Angel rally, adding 17 across 18 painstaking minutes before Angel falls to MacGill. There are just 14 balls remaining when Casson is joined by No.11 Michael Clark, and they eke the score along to 296 – just four runs from a famous victory.
With the second ball of his 27th over – and the final one of the match – MacGill tosses it up to Casson, and the young right-hander takes the bait, lofting the ball down to long-on and straight into the safe hands of Clarke.
Waugh will later call it one of the best wins he’s been involved in, and it is an emphatic turning point in the Blues’ season, as they go on to win the Shield.
First inns: NSW 370 (M Waugh 73, Clarke 69; Thorp 3-63, Clark 3-72)
Second inns: WA 388 (Marsh 119, Hussey 90; MacGill 4-100)
Third inns: NSW 5d-316 (Clarke 116, M Waugh 83no; Clark 2-39)
Fourth inns: WA 296 (Campbell 70, Rogers 62; Katich 5-45, MacGill 5-112)
WA won by 37 runs
In late February 2002, not a year after India had ambushed Australia in their famous follow-on triumph in Kolkata, a similarly miraculous contest was played out in the Sheffield Shield.
Hosts Victoria welcomed Western Australia at the MCG. Between them, the teams had 15 cricketers who had played for Australia, or would go on to do so.
On a flat pitch, Victoria won the toss, opted to bat, and made merry: their top five all passed 50, with the headline effort 131 from Brad Hodge, who engaged in a must-watch battle with his childhood mate – the fiery speedster Brad Williams.
Vics captain Matthew Elliott called the innings closed at 6d-450, midway through day two. In reply, WA stumbled to 4-40 inside 16 overs, before wicketkeeper-batter Ryan Campbell found an ally in Chris Rogers, who was playing just his 10th first-class game. Campbell (63), Rogers (26) and Brad Hogg (30) all made meaningful contributions to push the score to 9-170, before a slanging match erupted between Williams and Vics debutant batter Nick Jewell.
“As Brad was walking off the field (having been dismissed), that’s when it all kicked off,” recalled Bryce McGain years later. “I’m standing in the middle of the pitch thinking: What’s going on here? It was all just really fired up. Brad clearly had some history with some of the Victorian players.”
With a 275-run lead and a well-rounded attack excelling on their home patch, Elliott decided to roll the dice and enforce the follow-on. Early on day three, the visitors were 3-39 and the match appeared headed for a very early finish.
“We had them on toast,” Elliott recalled. “We were like, ‘We’re not going to even have to bat again here – we’re gonna knock them over’.”
WA found a willing pair though in Mike Hussey (61) and 22-year-old Marcus North (200no), and the pair dug in for much of day three in a bold bid to reach parity on the scoreboard. At stumps, with Hussey long gone and three others following him back to the sheds, WA had gotten themselves three runs in front, with three wickets in hand and a day to play.
On the final morning, Matthew Nicholson helped North build the lead to 88, before No.11 Michael Clark hung around for 47 minutes, making just six but allowing North to build the lead to 135.
And so a fired-up Williams – with Nicholson and Jo Angel his sidekicks – took the shiny new ball with adrenaline coursing through his veins, and had Matthew Mott caught at leg slip second ball of the innings.
“Not that I was the key wicket by any means, but you just sensed it was the start of something,” Mott recalled. “I remember looking up at Matty Elliott, and the astonishment on his face – his jaw just dropped and it was like: Jesus, here we go…”
The Vics steadied, moving safely along to 45 thanks to Elliott and Moss. At that point though, Williams had Moss caught and bowled, and the home side lost 4-11 in 29 balls, bringing the contest to life.
An injured Hodge came in at No.7 and hit a run-a-ball 22 to again swing the momentum. The home side moved to 5-90 before Nicholson, finding some reverse swing, trapped Hodge and triggered another flurry of wickets – the last of which is taken by Williams, clean bowling No.11 Will Carr to rout the Vics for 98 and earn his side a miraculous 37-run win.
Not before, or since, has a comeback of such magnitude been achieved in first-class cricket on Australian soil.
Read a full oral history of this match here
First inns: Vic 6d-450 (Hodge 131, Elliott 88, Mott 84; Hogg 3-95)
Second inns: WA 175 (Campbell 63; Lewis 3-40, McGain 3-43)
Third inns: WA 410 (North 200no, Hussey 61; Carr 4-77)
Fourth inns: Vic 98 (Elliott 23; Williams 4-34, Nicholson 3-13)
Victoria won by three wickets
One of the great run chases in Shield history was the perfect final stanza to an absorbing high-stakes contest between two fierce old rivals.
With the brothers Waugh seeking a fairytale first-class send-off in the form of a second-straight Shield title, and Victoria looking well placed to wear the crown that had eluded them for a generation, it was the Blues who opted to bat first in front of a healthy crowd of 6,231 at Newcastle Sports Ground.
The home side piled on 317 before stumps on day one, thanks to some entertaining hands from Simon Katich (76), Phil Jaques (56) and Brad Haddin (50), and Victoria’s response was more circumspect, ticking along at just under three an over for 259. Top scorer for the visitors was David Hussey (51), the right-hander who had not long moved to Melbourne from Perth as a 25-year-old, seeking opportunity.
Hussey only had nine first-class matches under his belt but had been the form batter of the competition before Christmas, blasting hundreds against Queensland, Western Australia, and – crucially – New South Wales.
The Blues’ handy 58-run first-innings lead morphed into something else entirely on day three, when Katich (126) and Dom Thornely (143) – as well as a scoring rate of 4.48 – allowed Steve Waugh to declare shortly before stumps. Victoria’s openers survived 4.2 overs before bad light ended play early, and at 0-3, they required another 452 runs on the final day to pull off a record chase.
Enter Victoria coach David Hookes. With bad light having ended play early through the match, Victoria theoretically had 116 overs to chase their target (though given the trend, the likelihood of those overs being bowled was remote) and the former Aussie rep had plotted a path to victory.
“At the end of day three, Hookes sat us in the dressing room,” Hussey says. “He said, ‘We’re gonna have two 55-over one-day games tomorrow’, and he gave us a blueprint of what we were going to do: ‘We’re going to lose three wickets and we need to be 200 runs in the first 55 overs, and that’s the foundation we need for the second 55 overs in order to get to the 455, and we’ll get that in the 108th over of the day’.
“He was quite the motivator, too, and I must admit, leaving the dressing room I was thinking: Maybe we could do this.
“But then you wake up the next day and it’s all over the local ‘paper up there in Newcastle saying we’ve got no chance.”
In the first hour, the local rag appeared spot on. Victoria lost their top three – including big guns Matthew Elliott and Brad Hodge – with 71 on the board. Hussey joined Jon Moss in the middle with 384 still needed and the pair promptly collected 111 runs at better than five an over, moving the score to 248 in the 56th over before Moss (76) became Stuart MacGill’s second victim.
“MacGill was turning it big, as he normally did,” Hussey says. “He was a hell of a bowler, but the pitch was still pretty good for batting.
“And fortunately, Stuey bowled a lot of overs that last day, so I thought maybe we could get him at the back end. And because the pitch stayed true, and with the big wind that came in, I was able to hit him down the ground a few times.”
Hussey proceeded to hit MacGill for no fewer than five sixes, hurrying past 150 as he and Cameron White (60) added 135 to take the score to 4-383.
Then, with a little help from tailenders Peter Roach (18) and Shane Harwood (14no), he sped his side to the finish line, reaching his maiden double century before Harwood hit the winning runs from MacGill.
Hussey’s final 62 runs came from 51 balls, and Victoria had stormed to their target by 4.58pm – well before bad light could halt proceedings and with a theoretical 14 overs still to be bowled.
With 212no from just 218 balls, he had engineered what was then the second-highest run chase in Shield history.
The win took on even greater significance just a week later with the tragic death of Hookes. Victoria pulled together to win the Shield for their former mentor under Hookes’ deputy, Greg Shipperd, who believes the blueprint to their undefeated season was written on that final day in Newcastle.
“That was almost the innings that solidified the belief in the Victorian team’s system,” Shipperd says. “It was huge – one of the great moments we had as a team and for (Hussey) individually.”
First inns: NSW 317 (Katich 76; Lewis 4-68)
Second inns: Vic 259 (Hussey 51; MacGill 5-94)
Third inns: NSW 396 (Thornely 143, Katich 126; Harwood 3-93)
Fourth inns: Vic 7-455 (Hussey 212no; Thornely 2-27)
Match drawn
Western Australia’s gun batting order dominated the opening phase of this incredible match and it was Mike Hussey – still two years away from a Test debut – who led the way, making 138 out of 437 against a four-pronged Tassie pace attack backed up by Dan Marsh.
The see-sawing nature of the contest then got into full swing; the Tigers fell to 6-163 and were staring down the barrel of a heavy defeat before their last four stands added 217, with ‘keeper Sean Clingeleffer’s 79 and Damien Wright’s 65 the bedrock of that rearguard.
With WA holding just a 77-run lead at tea on day three, a draw was clearly the favoured result, but with the hosts desperate for maximum points, they set about building a winning advantage with gusto. In the final session they added 211 in 45 overs for the loss of just captain Hussey (61 from 71), with Chris Rogers’ unbeaten century the star turn. The left-hander blazed 18 fours and a six to be 116no at almost a run a ball by stumps, with Murray Goodwin unbeaten on 50.
Though Rogers fell for 120 early on the final morning, a lead of 288 blew out morning as Hussey – conscious perhaps of what had to that point been a place WACA Ground pitch – batted on for another 19 overs, the home side adding 98 runs in that time largely via the blade of Goodwin (104no off 117).
The declaration, when it came, left Tasmania needing 387 in 75 overs, and when WA firebrand Brad Williams ripped out their opening pair in his first three overs – zeroing in on a couple of cracks that had just opened up outside the right-hander’s off stump – the home side held all the aces.
In the middle session, as Shane Watson (46 from 125) steadied the Tasmania innings, an up-tempo approach from Michael Di Venuto (48 from 53) and Michael Dighton (88 from 111) kept the runs ticking along at a reasonable rate, but with 249 still required from the final 37 overs with only seven wickets in hand, the prospect of a late assault remained only faintly alive.
Seemingly with that in mind, Williams was subbed out of the game at Cricket Australia’s request at the tea break, and put on a 5pm flight to Adelaide for a Test against India that would begin in less than 48 hours.
Williams’ exit, and Watson’s soon after, quickly changed the complexion of the contest. Entering at No.6 was Dan Marsh, who set about launching a blistering counterattack on the WA bowlers.
The hosts were now fielding debutant quick Ben Edmondson in the XI, the 25-year-old right-armer subbing in for Williams having only landed in the state from his native Queensland six days earlier.
Marsh meanwhile received solid support from Dighton, the pair adding 128 in 110 balls to ignite hopes of something special in the closing stages. When the latter fell to Paul Wilson in the 61st over, the equation remained a tough one for the Tigers – 93 from 86 with five wickets in hand – but Marsh by this point was blazing away and he found another trusty ally in Clingeleffer (30 off 33).
The pair knocked another 64 off the total in 62 balls before the gloveman fell to the rookie Edmondson, who had earlier claimed Watson as a maiden first-class scalp. In his next over, he claimed a third wicket, this time Wright coming and going for five off five balls.
And so it came down to the final over: Marsh on strike, seven runs to win, and Edmondson with ball in hand.
Three dot balls followed. From the fourth delivery, Marsh bottom-edged, and the ball flew past his leg stump and away to the boundary.
With three needed from two balls, Marsh nudged a single to third man, putting Andrew Downton on strike for the final delivery. Tasmania’s No.9, who had made a career-best 45 in the first innings, moved across his stumps but could only flick the ball onto the leg side for a single.
It meant Marsh’s masterpiece – 111no off 96 balls – counted for nought. For the first time in history, the match was drawn with the scores level, meaning WA’s two first-innings points were the only ones handed out.
Edmondson, who finished with 3-47 from nine overs, deservedly earned the plaudits of his coach, Wayne Clark.
“That was the real positive of the day, the way he really stood up under immense pressure at the end,” Clark said. “We were gone for all money.”
First inns: WA 437 (Hussey 138, North 90; Denton 4-94)
Second inns: Tas 380 (Clingeleffer 79, Wright 65; Williams 4-115)
Third inns: WA 5d-329 (Rogers 120no, Goodwin 104no; Downton 3-92)
Fourth inns: NSW 7-386 (Marsh 111no, Dighton 88; Edmondson 3-47)
NSW won by one wicket
Queensland had failed to beat New South Wales in five previous Shield finals stretching back 20 years, but on their home patch of the Gabba and amid a golden era that had seen them capture five titles in the decade prior, this loomed as their best chance.
Just a month earlier, the two sides had played out a thrilling draw at Bankstown Oval to whet the appetite for this decider, and it didn’t disappoint.
After an early lunch was called on the opening day due to inclement weather, Blues swing bowler Nathan Bracken (6-27) seized on the helpful conditions to spectacularly dismantle Queensland for just 102 and set the tone for a high-octane, low-scoring affair that was played out inside three days amid rain and bad light.
The Blues found the going almost as hard, ultimately fighting their way to 188 off the back of a superb 68no from their skipper, Brad Haddin.
Haddin had come to the crease inside the first hour of day two with NSW 4-43 and at risk of surrendering a small lead, with Queensland boasting strong pace options in Andy Bichel, Joe Dawes, Ashley Noffke, Shane Watson and James Hopes, as well as the support of Andrew Symonds.
Just two runs into his innings, the Blues captain received a healthy dose of luck when he was bowled by Noffke from a no-ball. As four more wickets tumbled before the break, Haddin took the attack to the Bulls, racing to 34no by lunch, with his side 8-128.
Thereafter, and ably supported by Bracken and Stuart Clark, he doubled his score to hand the visitors a vital 86-run lead heading into the second innings.
With a misbehaving pitch beginning to settle down – but showing signs of cracking up over the following 24 hours – it was Queensland ace Martin Love (116) who took advantage, moving to 61no by stumps on day two in a score of 4-150.
“There’ll probably be a few more twists yet,” said Blues coach Trevor Bayliss at the close. “It’s still fairly even, and it’s an important first session tomorrow.”
The next morning, the Bulls gradually built their lead against the Blues’ pace quartet of Bracken, Matthew Nicholson, Stuart Clark and Grant Lambert as well as star leg-spinner Stuart MacGill, who earlier that week said he had seriously entertained a move to Queensland, such was his liking for the Gabba wicket.
Queensland No.3 Love – who to that point had endured his leanest Shield season – combined with Hopes (33) for a valuable sixth-wicket stand of 66, then dominated three more handy partnerships with the tail to build Queensland’s lead into something potentially defendable.
But the real drama of this final thriller was still to unfold.
Chasing 183, the Blues were wobbling at 4-97 before Haddin again had a decisive say, scoring 41 from 40 inside an hour to take his team to within 25 runs of victory with six wickets still in hand.
At which point the shadows started creeping across the pitch, and the ball started moving, and the wickets started falling.
“‘Hadds’ said to me, ‘Do you reckon we try get this called off – come back again tomorrow?’ recalled Bayliss. “I said to him, ‘I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I’d be able to sleep tonight’.”
And so on went the action, with the Blues experiencing the mother of all collapses – from 4-158 they lost 5-3 in 17 balls, leaving them still 22 runs adrift of their target with just the tail-end pair of Bracken and MacGill to get them home.
Yet the last-wicket pair proved up to the task. As the runs were counted down and fewer than a handful remained, Bracken survived a dropped chance from Wade Seccombe in what became the Bulls legend’s final match, before MacGill hit the winning runs in the most dramatic of finishes.
“We should never have lost it,” Haddin said, “and then we should never have won it.”
First inns: Qld 102 (Symonds 36; Bracken 6-27)
Second inns: NSW 188 (Haddin 68no; Noffke 4-58)
Third inns: Qld 268 (Love 116; Nicholson 5-60)
Fourth inns: NSW 9-183 (Haddin 41; Dawes 3-30)
