ACS Overseas FIrst-Class Annual 2012

Australia in 2011/12 For the Australian Test side, the 2011/12 season was essentially one of rehabilitation after the shock of three innings defeats in the home Ashes series of 2010/11. The process had already begun with a 1-0 win in Sri Lanka (see ‘Matches in 2011’) but progress thereafter was uneven with a 1-1 draw in South Africa (see the South Africa section) followed by a similar scoreline in a home series against New Zealand. Despite being drawn, these two series contained some dramatic cricket. At Cape Town Australia were reduced to a humbling 21/9 before ‘recovering’ to 47 all out, and were eventually enabled to draw the series only by a thrilling two-wicket win at Johannesburg. Returning home, Australia were on the receiving end of an even closer series-squaring finish at Hobart when New Zealand won by only 7 runs after having gone down to a heavy defeat in the first Test. After these shocks, Australian strength was firmly asserted in emulating England’s feat in 2011 of administering a 4-0 whitewashing of an Indian team that totally failed to come to terms with conditions away from home; and a packed season concluded with the further encouragement of 2-0 victory in the West Indies. Yet doubts persisted. Australia ended the 2011/12 season having uncovered a rich vein of young fast bowlers, and had at last decided (at least for the present) on a first-choice spinner in the shape of N.M.Lyon; but none of the young quicks seemed to stay fit for long. The batting relied unduly on the captain, M.J.Clarke, and the veterans R.T.Ponting and M.E.K.Hussey, yet at times this hardly seemed to matter, especially against India when Clarke scored 626 runs at 125.20 with Ponting not far behind with 544 at 108.80. And for all the excitement about the younger bowlers, it was the more familiar figures of B.W.Hilfenhaus and P.M.Siddle that contributed 50 wickets between them against India. At any rate, what cannot be doubted is that Australia were in better shape than a year previously, when the side had been ranked a lowly fifth. By the end of 2011/12 the team had overtaken India and Sri Lanka to stand third. Apart from the six home Tests and a game between Australia A and the New Zealanders, the remaining 31 matches in the season were all in the Sheffield Shield. The league stage saw an exceptionally tight finish, with the top three sides all tied on 36 points. Queensland claimed priority, and the right to host the final, by virtue of having achieved one more win than Tasmania (the defending champions) and Victoria. Tasmania, thanks to a better quotient than Victoria, also qualified for the final. Of the other states, Western Australia finished a strong fourth but New South Wales, losing finalists in 2010/11, could win only one match. South Australia fared even worse, finishing winless and with six defeats. The biggest single factor in Queensland’s success in the league stage was the fast bowler, B.C.J.Cutting, with 36 wickets at only 18.75. Injury kept him out of the final, which proved to be a fascinating, close-fought game in which the turning point was probably the 111 scored by C.D.Hartley, the Queensland wicketkeeper, after arriving at the crease with his side 55-5 in reply to Tasmania’s 241. And in the second innings, as Queensland collapsed from 83-2 to 88-7 in pursuit of a modest 133 to win, Hartley kept his head and saw his side home. The three-wicket win gave Queensland their seventh Shield title (having never won the competition at all until 1994/95). Tasmania could, however, claim one of the outstanding debut seasons of recent times as J.M.Bird, a right-arm fast medium bowler from Sydney, displayed immediate mastery of line and length and took 53 Shield wickets at 16.00, including two ten-wicket matches and a hat-trick. This was the highest aggregate in the Shield, although P.M.Siddle enjoyed an excellent season for state and country and headed the first-class aggregates with 54 wickets. 33