JLT one-day Cup 2018: Three factors that helped WA to score big vs Queensland

How often do we see a player scoring a 150-plus in the limited overs format?! Or How often do we see these days a team failing to post a total greater than 250?! A score of 250 has become defendable in the ongoing Asia Cup 2018 tourney in UAE, leave alone other games! Amidst these, we have witnessed a superb batting display in the List-A match between Western Australia (WA) and Queensland on Friday (Sep 28).

D’Arcy Short of Western Australia scored a brilliant double hundred to help his team post a huge total on the board. WA ended their innings with a massive total before getting bowled out – 387 all out in 47 overs. They would have easily got to the 400-mark, had they batted their remaining three overs as well! Let us look at the three factors that helped WA get to the massive total in this game.

D’Arcy Short – 257 runs off 148 deliveries; 15 Fours and 23 Sixes

D’Arcy with his brilliant hitting registered the highest score in the Australian domestic one-day circuit. He surpassed Ben Dunk’s unbeaten 229* in this game and his 257 is now the third-best score in the List-A matches. Surrey’s Ali Brown with 268 runs against Glamorgan (2002) and India’s Rohit Sharma with 264 runs against Sri Lanka (2014) are occupying the first and second places in this list.

D’Arcy Short’s 23 sixes in this innings are the most for any layer in a single List-A innings. Previous best was 17 sixes by Namibia’s Gerrie Snyman which he scored against UAE in the year 2007. On three different occasions in this game, Short had hit three consecutive sixes – in the 41st Over, 43rd Over and in the 45th Over.

Short got to his hundred in 83 deliveries, his second century in List-A career, and he took another 45 deliveries to get to his double century! And then he took just 16 deliveries to get from 200 to 250, this is the same period during which Queensland part-timers came into bowl.

Part-time bowlers bowling in the last 10 Overs

Mitchell Swepson

Queensland main bowlers Mitchell Swepson and Mark Steketee conceded runs heavily during the middle overs. Steketee conceded over 8 runs per over while Swepson was even more expensive giving away 97 runs in his 8 overs (just over 12 runs per over). And these worrying performances forced their captain, Jimmy Pierson, to bring in their part-timers in the final overs.

Charlie Hemphrey and Joe Burns were introduced into the attack in the 41st and 43rd overs respectively. However, the move backfired on Queensland heavily as D’Arcy Short dictated terms with six sixes in those two overs combined! Hemphrey conceded 21 runs in his over as Short hit him for three sixes from his first three deliveries.

Another part-timer Joe Burns, on the other hand, picked up the wicket of Matthew Kelly with his second delivery but he too lived the same fate in the hands of Short. Burns was hit for three consecutive sixes in the next three deliveries by D’Arcy Short and conceded 20 runs from the over.

Rotation of Strike

Western Australia batsmen have done well in rotating the strike effectively so that their best batsman, D’Arcy Short, will face more deliveries. They have allowed Short to take singles off the last delivery of the over and also volunteered themselves to play a dot delivery off the final ball of the over so that D’Arcy gets the strike in the following over!

WA has batted for 47 overs in this innings which accounts to 282 deliveries. And out of those 282 deliveries, D’Arcy has faced 148 deliveries en route to his record-breaking knock.

On a lighter note, Short has all the time in the world to get to the top List-A score and also score the first triple hundred in one-day cricket but a brilliant peach of a delivery from Matthew Kuhnemann has helped Queensland to see the back of D’Arcy Short. Overall, it was a great knock one can get to witness in this shorter format of the game.