Report on 2002/2003 Australian Under 19 Cricket Championship at Canberra by Greg McKie

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Event:

Commonwealth Bank Under-19 Championship Series 2002/03

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Victoria won the Australian U/19 Championship by defeating Tasmania outright in the last round. They dismissed Tasmania for the second time on the stroke of tea, leaving themselves requiring only nine runs for victory. New South Wales was well aware of Victoria’s position and in pursuit of the extra points they now needed to win the championship, declared their second innings 15 minutes after tea, challenging Queensland to score 146 in 30 overs. NSW suffered an outright defeat.

Victoria won because they were the only undefeated team in the two-day games. They lost twice in the one-day games but as these matches were worth less point’s, these losses were not as important as those which occurred in the later games.

The ACB made several changes to this year’s carnival. The format was changed so that instead of three matches within a pool of four teams and then semi-finals and finals, this time all States played every other team. The first four rounds were one-day games and then the remaining three games were two-day affairs. The other change was in terms of player eligibility for the Territory teams. To try and make these teams more competitive, both Territories were allowed to play boys who were U/20 as at 1 September 2002. Although both teams played one boy who was 20, the trial did not work as the Territories both finished in their accustomed position at the bottom of the point’s table.

Seven boys played in this carnival as well as the U/17s with ACT, Tasmania and Victoria both playing two boys in both carnivals. Three boys played in their fourth U/19 carnival - Denver D’Cruz, (ACT), Cameron Borgas and Mark Cosgrove, (SA).

Australian Capital Territory
Although they had seven players returning for a second year, the ACT batting only came good in the last two rounds, prior to then, they had not reached 200 in a single innings. To their credit they scored almost 400 against Northern Territory in the final round, however even this score was put into context when NT replied with 325. Daniel King, David Griffiths, Will Hay and Tim Purser were semi-consistent with the bat, but the ACT’s bowlers were unable to take wickets at anything like a reasonable cost, their leading bowler, off-breaker Michael Shaw, paying 27.50 for his 14 wickets. Hay scored 106 against Western Australia, helping add 144 for the sixth wicket with Griffiths. Hay finished as the top bat with 236 runs at 39.33. Daniel King batted through the innings for 65* against Queensland but scored too slowly and with little support, ACT lost easily. The ACT’s final position of 7th adequately reflects their performances as they lost their first four games before ending South Australia’s run with a decisive victory.

New South Wales
NSW slipped to third place after having won the championship in 2001/02. Not a strong batting team, they only passed 200 twice and none of their batsmen featured in the top aggregates. They were thrashed by South Australia early on and then playing for maximum points in the final round, they set too inviting a target for Queensland who beat them outright. Greg Hunt scored the most runs (243 at 34.71) but Michael Bright (212 at 35.33) top the averages, despite not once reaching 50. Leg-breaker Bright, was effectively NSW’s only bowler, but his efforts were outstanding. Three times he took ‘5 for’ and he claimed 11/54 in the match against Tasmania, following 6/35 with 5/19, statistically, the third best match figures ever recorded at U/19 level. To make it truly his game, Bright then opened the NSW second innings when they required 27 for an outright victory. He smashed the first two balls of the innings for 6 before finishing on 27* off eight balls. In similar vein, he scored 27 off 14 balls against Queensland. Bright deservedly topped the carnival aggregate with his 23 wickets at 12.47.

Northern Territory
The NT batted consistently after the first round when they suffered a shocker – all out for 63. Ken Skewes held their batting together again, as he has done repeatedly at U/17 and U/19 level over the years. He has already scored over 600 runs at this level and is still eligible to play again next year. Wicketkeeper Martin Brown batted consistently, scoring 117 against WA when he and Skewes (112) combined in a 4th wicket partnership of 218. Brown also claimed 12 victims behind the stumps. Opening batsman Reece McDonald also did well, averaging over 30 with a highest score of only 54. Their third century maker was Zac Pacey who scored 106* against Queensland. Batting was not the problem, wickets were. The bowlers struggled to make breakthroughs and off-breaker Paul Cook (13 at 22.69) was their only reliable wicket taker. Everything came together in the game against Victoria. Chasing 220, NT got home with five wickets to spare due to a hard-hitting 66 from Skewes.

Queensland
Queensland started poorly and then strung together a series of reasonably consistent scores before faltering again. All was redeemed however by the outright defeat of New South Wales in the last round. Being set a generous target of 148 in 30 overs, Julian Nielsen scored 76* in 68 balls to guide the team home. Nielsen (257 at 32.12) and Chris Howe (248 at 35.42) were the best of their bats, but no individual high scores were made. . Wicketkeeper Murray Bragg finished equal with McLean of South Australia with 15 victims. Medium pacer Grant Sullivan (13 at 16.64) and leg breaker Luke Davis (16 at 22.50) were the only reliable wicket takers. Sullivan had a best of 5/42 against New South Wales. The team slipped two places on last year, finishing in fourth position.

South Australia
South Australia was the front-runner after Round Four, having beaten all three of the larger States. ACT stopped them in Round Five and even though SA continued to win, that one loss put them out of contention. As a sort of consolation, six wins in seven games was a superior record to any other State. Outright results told against them in the end. Mark Cosgrove was clearly their leading player, scoring 451 at 75.16, making eight catches and taking nine wickets at 14.44. It came as no surprise that he was picked for the State Pura Cup team within weeks of the end of the carnival. This was the fourth year that Cosgrove had appeared at U/19 level and his final record of 927 runs at 44.14 eclipsing Martin Love’s aggregate record set in the early 1990s. His selection as the ‘Player of the Series’ was well deserved. Against New South Wales, Cosgrove took 2/12, made two catches and then hit 81* in 58 balls to ensure a ten wicket win with 33 overs to spare. His 148 off 136 balls with 21 fours and 3 sixes against Victoria as well as taking 3/36 was in a similar vein. Cosgrove’s excellent performances were probably the main reason why SA improved to finish second overall. Tom Plant, back for a third time, scored 111 against the Northern Territory but took over five hours in the process. Plant helped add 187 for the first wicket with Cosgrove against Western Australia. Cosgrove was first dismissed for 154!

Wicketkeeper Josh McLean claimed 15 victims to be equal top with Bragg of Queensland. Off-break bowler Daniel Cullen set a State bowling aggregate record with his 22 wickets, passing Malcolm Dolman’s record set a quarter of a century ago. His best performance was 6/68 against the ACT in 37 overs and he finished second in the competition averages and aggregate to Bright of NSW. Cullen Bailey, Trent Kelly, David Cullen and Cosgrove all proved to be penetrative bowlers.

Tasmania
Tasmania started well, winning their first two games but they were an inconsistent batting team with only Sean Leatherbarrow and Dane Anderson reached 200 runs. Luke Butterworth scored 109* against Queensland but only another 40 runs in a further seven innings to highlight the teams inconsistency. Butterworth and Brent Cartledge added 125 for the eight wicket against Queensland. Anderson finished top of the batting with 246 at 30.75 and he also took nine catches, the most by any fielder. Medium pacers Butterworth and Gordon Kerr, were the pick of their bowlers with Butterworth taking 18 wickets at 16.11. Kerr took 5/29 against New South Wales. The team dropped two places to finish in fifth position, the outright losses to Victoria and New South Wales cost them dearly.

Victoria
Victoria won by virtue of having the most consistent batting team on display, their lowest team score being 220. They had five batsmen who aggregated over 200 runs, however no one scored a century for them. Matthew Harrison with 313 at 44.71 was their top bat. The strength of the team was in the bowling where Matthew Gale, Shane Jones and Josh Mangan all gained excellent figures with no one being expensive. Leg breaker Mangan took 16 wickets at 20.93, off breaker Jones took 14 at 16.21 and medium pacer Gale took 14 at 15.21. Jones took the best figures when he grabbed 5/43 against New South Wales. Victoria clinched the top spot by defeating Tasmania outright in the final round. Firing Tasmania out for 71 in 28 overs allowed Victoria to control the game. Quick runs were the order of the day and none did so better than Webb who scored 57* off 30 balls. Consecutive losses to SA and NT galvanized the team who then went on to win their three remaining matches by large margins.

Western Australia
Western Australia finished in about the same position as they did last year. Their batting started slowly, recovered and then tailed off near the end. They won their first two games before losing to Tasmania. Chasing a large score against NT, Western Australia could only draw the match, despite batting for almost six hours. Theo Doropoulos was very consistent, scoring 433 at 61.85 despite having a highest score of only 90. He is the first player ever to have aggregated 400 runs without the aid of a century. Some of his innings were explosive. His 90 came in only 58 balls against ACT. Craig King and Liam Davis were the only players to really support him. They put on an opening partnership of 177 against Tasmania with King finishing on 105* and Davis scoring 93. The bowlers generally paid too much for their wickets with only Justin Coetzee and Brett Mathers taking their wickets at an acceptable rate.

(Article: Copyright © 2003 Greg McKie)