A seven wicket haul to Josh Hazelwood, and a quick fire 84 from Nic Maddinson, helped NSW to a four wicket victory over the South Australian Redbacks in their opening match of the Matador One Day Cup at Allan Border field on Saturday.
Hazelwood’s figures of 7 for 36 off 9.4 overs were the third best by a bowler in the history of the domestic one day competition. His efforts helping restrict the Redbacks to 244 after they were sent into bat by NSW Skipper Moises Henriques.
The Redbacks started promisingly with Travis Head hitting two quick boundaries before being bowled by Hazelwood for 11. Tom Cooper lasted only 10 balls before he became Hazelwood’s second victim, and when Gurinder Sandhu had Mark Cosgrove LBW for seven shortly after, South Australia were looking vulnerable at 3 for 23.
However a 136 run partnership between Callum Ferguson and Alexander Ross gave the Redbacks some chance of posting a competitive total on the traditionally bat friendly conditions of Allan Border Field.
Ferguson looked particularly good, scoring 82 runs off 92 balls with nine boundaries. The innings was a promising start to the season for the talented South Australian, who only a few years ago was considered a future Test star until injury struck him down.
The partnership was broken with the score on 159 when Ferguson was caught by Nevill off the bowling of Hazelwood. Ross followed shortly after, bowled by Hazelwood for 54.
The only other South Australian batsman to make any impression on the scoreboard was Johan Botha, who remained undefeated on 41 off only 26 balls including three sixes. The remainder of the Redbacks were unable to handle Hazelwood who took the two last wickets of the innings off consecutive balls to bring his total to seven.
Given his limited preparation coming into the summer, Hazelwood was particularly pleased with his performance.
“I did a side strain about eight weeks ago, [but] my body feels really good now,” he said after the game.
“As this showed, [I’m] now 100 per cent. The ball moved around a bit. The wicket was pretty good, so 244 was probably a few less than par.”
Gurinder Sandhu was the only other bowler to take a wicket for the Blues, finishing with figures of 3 for 66 off 10 overs. Debutant Chris Green, while not taking a wicket was tidy, finishing with 0 for 40 off eight overs.
The NSW innings did not begin well with Peter Nevill being adjudged LBW to the first ball he faced. However a century stand between Nic Maddinson and Scott Henry put NSW back into the contest.
Maddinson was particularly brutal on the South Australian attack scoring 80 of the 100 run partnership between him and Henry before being well caught at long off by Gary Putland off the bowling of Botha in the 17th over.
Maddinson’s 84 runs came off just 54 balls at a strike rate of 155, and included 11 boundaries and four sixes.
Henry departed immediately after, trapped in front by Botha, before Henriques and Kurtis Patterson steadied the NSW innings with a 40 run partnership which ended when Henriques was caught by Botha off the bowling of Adam Zampa for 18.
Ben Rohrer (23 off 39), and Patterson (43 off 60), combined for a 56 run stand before both fell to Travis Head in quick succession. Ryan Carters (31 no off 32), and Chris Green (11 off 16), produced a solid seventh wicket stand of 37 to take NSW past South Australia’s score in the 48th over.
The win puts NSW in second position on the Matador Cup table behind defending champions Queensland, who they will face on Monday.
Queensland looked very good in their opening match against Victoria, earning two bonus points after easily chasing down the Bushranger’s total of 112 with 38.4 overs to spare.
Scorecard
Umpires: Graham-Smith, MW (AUS), Martell, MD (AUS)
Third Umpire:
Match Refree: Talalla, D (AUS)
NSW Blues: Nic Maddinson, Peter Nevill (wk), Scott Henry, Moises Henriques (c), Kurtis Patterson, Ben Rohrer, Ryan Carters, Chris Green, Gurinder Sandhu, Josh Lalor, Josh Hazlewood, Trent Copeland (12th)
West End Redbacks: Mark Cosgrove, Travis Head, Tom Cooper, Callum Ferguson, Alexander Ross, Johan Botha (c), Tim Ludeman (wk), Adam Zampa, Chadd Sayers, Shaun Tait, Gary Putland, Jake Lehmann (12th)
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