1 week Ago By Scott Bailey
Cameron Bancroft's horror start to the summer has continued, dismissed cheaply on a tough opening day for Western Australia's batters in their Sheffield Shield match against Victoria. On the same day Todd Murphy took four wickets for the Vics to press his claims for the Sri Lanka tour, Bancroft's misery lived on as he was out for just 12. The former Test opener was the first man out as WA were all out for 167, before Victoria went to stumps at 2-100.
Marcus Harris is 40 not out at stumps for Victoria, a week after both he and Bancroft lost out to Nathan McSweeney for the vacant spot at the top of Australia's Test order. Particularly watchful early, Harris' only two scoring shots in his first 26 balls were nice drives to the mid-off and mid-on boundaries. He then hit three successive fours from Brody Couch's first over, with a late cut, uppercut and backfoot drive all through the offside.
But while Harris at least got a start on Friday at his favoured Junction Oval in Melbourne, there was little joy for Bancroft. The right-hander got off the mark by punching a ball to backward-point boundary, and also produced a lovely on-drive off Sam Elliott. In between that he was also dropped in the slips by Harris off Fergus O'Neill (3-43), before the quick nipped one back in at him and Bancroft was out lbw.
Bancroft's run of scores in red-ball cricket this summer now reads 0, 0, 8, 12, 0, 16, 3, 0 and 12. It comes after he was the leading run-scorer in the Sheffield Shield over the past two summers, before his form deserted him at the precise wrong moment. Murphy's 4-27 on his 24th birthday came at the right time ahead of this summer's tour of Sri Lanka.
He was the preferred option as Australia's second spinner in last year's Ashes, but a fit-again Nathan Lyon has not required a tweaker alongside him since then. West Australian Corey Rocchiccioli has since been the leading spinner in the Shield last summer, before taking four wickets in the second innings for Australia A against India A last week. But in the third-last round before selection for the Sri Lanka Test tour, Murphy was able to bag his best figures of the summer.
He had opener Sam Fanning caught behind sweeping a ball down leg, before being miserly with the ball for the majority of his spell. The Victorian then ran through the tail and removing Joel Paris, Cameron Gannon and Brody Couch. Rocchiccioli (1-15) was able to get one wicket for Western Australia before stumps, having Campbell Kellaway caught at cover for 26 when he was beaten in flight.
Peter Handscomb was also unbeaten on 26..
