for a home final

Victoria find themselves in a battle against NSWales for the home ground advantage in the pura Sheffield cup Shield final.

Sides just don’t win shield finals away from home.

So the Vics have to beat the NSWelsh at their home ground starting Friday.

The NSWales team is missing a few regulars, Bracken and Haddin have been big time players all year, Smith and Hughes are off playing for the Australian under 19 side.

This week we need some old school, darren berry/slug jordan style cricket this week.

I can't stand losing to this mob at the best of times, but i'll be damned if we lose to this cobbled together team and lose the final because of it.

I think Crosthwaite should come in to provide some Luke Ronchi style catching and his witty little sledges to ensure victory.

If we lose this game, we probably don’t deserve to win the shield final, but our team, while still injury interrupted, still looks stronger than the speedblitz blues.

Victoria has a chance to write their names into the record books, being the first team to win two championships that no one cares about and one that everyone does in the one year.

They have been, by far the best 2020 team and 4 day team all year. Their one day form is pretty ordinary, but somehow they have found themselves in a position to play in or even host the final.

I had a coach once who said this “you remember two things in sport, when you win, and when you should have won”.

Victoria we expect nothing less than a total annihilation of this depleted Nsw side, but we understand you will collapse one or twice just to keep us interested.

And congrats to the young pakistani kid Usman Khawaja, who has been picked for NSWales, i understand he probably will be 12th man, but if he plays i hope he fails, no offence kid, but this is war.