ACS Overseas First-Class Annual 2016

Australia in 2015/16 There was a time during the 2015/16 season when Australia looked as if they just might be heading back towards the supremacy at Test level that they had enjoyed 15 years earlier. A batting line-up including the prolific David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith and Adam Voges was consistently racking up substantial totals, and if the bowling did not have the variety of the earlier period, it had in the Mitchells Johnson and Starc the world’s most fearsome, and feared, opening attack, with any number of other quick bowlers in reserve, and the reliable if unspectacular Nathan Lyon taking care of the spin department. So it was that series wins over New Zealand (home and away) and the West Indies (at home) moved Australia up from third in the ICC rankings at the start of the 2015/16 season to the top spot in February 2016. Admittedly, by this time Johnson had announced his retirement from Tests, after taking 313 wickets in just 73 matches, and injuries - in recent years the bane of so many emerging Australian quick bowlers - had temporarily deprived the attack of his natural successor, Starc; but all looked fair for a possible extended stay at the top of the rankings. A highlight of their rise to the top was the batting of 36-year-old Adam Voges, a latecomer to the Test side (he made his debut only in June 2015), who recorded Bradmanlike figures from the off. He reached 1000 Test runs just 207 days after his debut, in his 18th innings. After 15 Tests (at the end of the series in New Zealand) his average stood at 95.50, having briefly exceeded three figures during the first New Zealand Test. He owed these figures above all to a purple patch unlike any other in Test cricket’s history, with successive innings of 269*, 106* and 239 against West Indies and New Zealand - a sequence of 614 runs without dismissal which obliterated the equivalent previous world record of 497 which had stood to the name of none other than Sachin Tendulkar. The sequence only ended when Voges started hitting out as he ran out of partners at Wellington; his first six of the sequence came when he was already 212* in that final innings, and he hit two more before offering a return catch on 239. The downfall, when it came - for both Voges and Australia - was as unexpected as it was comprehensive. In a three-match series in Sri Lanka in July and August 2016, the home side were victorious by margins of 106 runs, 229 runs and 163 runs. The illustrious Australian batting line-up had no answer to the Sri Lankan spinners, and especially to Rangana Herath; Voges made just 118 runs in six innings to reduce his career average to a more human 72.75. And although Starc was fit to play in all three matches (and took 24 wickets), none of the other bowlers, apart from Lyon, was able to make any significant impression on the Sri Lankan batsman. With this heavy series defeat, Australia dropped back to third in the rankings. Upcoming series against South Africa and Pakistan in 2016/17 may enable them to regain some lost ground, but without a settled, fit and reliable bowling attack, the future certainly does not look so bright as it had done 12 months previously. The Sheffield Shield season provided two major talking-points, the first of which was the success of South Australia. They had won the Shield only once since 1981/82, in 1995/96, and had finished bottom in 2014/15. Defeat by 215 runs by New South Wales in their first match of 2015/16 suggested that more of the same was on its way, but they recovered to a memorable one-wicket win in their next match against Western Australia, and in all won five of their remaining nine Shield matches. Victoria had led the way for most of the Shield season, but South Australia pipped them for first place by winning their last match while Victoria were only drawing theirs. So South Australia had home advantage for the final against Victoria, and a draw would be sufficient for them to win the Shield for the first time for 20 years. But there was no fairytale ending, as Victoria won the final with some ease - by seven wickets - to retain the Shield. So for the Redbacks, the wait goes on. 11