NSW has cruised to victory in Wagga’s first Sheffield Shield match, defeating Victoria by 156 runs inside three days.
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About 7000 people gathered to watch the three days’ play, but after day one it was the Blues show.
Spin kings Nathan Lyon and Stephen O’Keefe did most of the damage, continuing their day two onslaught on Wednesday.
Lyon took four second innings wickets, to go with three from the first innings, while O’Keefe claimed eight for the match.
Bowling in tandem for extended periods of the match Lyon thought their partnership flourished in the spin friendly conditions.
The Blues have been working on bowling as a team, and after initially trying to defend a seemingly moderate first innings total of 206, bowling partnerships come to the fore.
“Stephen O’Keefe and myself work really well together all the time and we really like bowling in tandem,” Lyon said.
“Hopefully we can do it for a few years yet.
“You always bat in partnerships so you might as well bowl in partnerships.
“Whoever gets the rewards were are going to celebrate with that’s for sure.”
Victoria were able to wrap up NSW’s second innings pretty quickly removing O’Keefe (29) and Bollinger (4).
With the Blues second innings score of 233, the Bushrangers needed 326 runs for an unlikely victory.
Lyon was introduced in the fourth over of the innings and was soon back taking wickets.
He dismissed the Bushrangers top three batsmen before Gurinder Sandhu claimed Cameron White to leave the Victorians languishing at 4-34 before the lunch break.
Lyon bowled both openers, Chris Rogers (10) and Rob Quiney (20), before setting a trap for Marcus Stoinis (5) who was stumped by Peter Nevill off a leg side delivery.
Cameron White and Peter Handscomb were able to get Victoria to 3-86 at lunch, but the resistance didn’t last too long.
White added six to his lunch time score before being caught behind off Sandhu.
The wickets keep coming as Sean Abbott snared Matthew Wade in the deep.
O’Keefe even brought up his chance of equalling Doug Bollinger’s effort with a hat-trick when he dismissed Dan Christian (6) and Peter Siddle (0) in successive balls, but Chris Tremain was able to block the next delivery.
The only bright spark was Handscomb who scored 66 before O’Keefe took a smart catch off his own bowling.
O’Keefe picked up his fourth wicket of the innings when Tremain skied one to Sandhu before Lyon wrapped up the win when Fawad Ahmed was dismissed for a duck.
Lyon’s parents made the trip from Young to watch their son’s first game on Robertson Oval and the early finish ensures the Australian Test spinner will be able to spend a few days at home.
Lyon said he was looking forward to bring more cricket down to Robertson Oval.
“It was great to come down to Wagga and play some great cricket,” he said.
“(The pitch) was a little bit inconsistent but it was ok and was probably a lot more bowler friendly then what we are used to at the bigger venues.
“It was ok and the wicket didn’t really hand too many wickets away but it was a good deck.”
With so many spectators turning out to watch Wagga’s historic Sheffield Shield match, the off spinner almost felt right at home.
“It was fantastic to have 4000 people come out on Sunday for day one of a Shield game,” Lyon said.
“We don’t get that playing in Sydney and I’m sure the Bushrangers don’t get that in Melbourne.
“It was great to have a little crowd here and hopefully they enjoyed the entertainment.”
The win moved the Blues to the top of the table, however that could change as results emerge from Monday’s match in Western Australia.
