“Both players thoroughly deserve to be playing,” Rogers said on Wednesday. “It was a real 50-50, and in the end we probably rewarded the guy who just had the better season. And it’s as simple as that. It’s a tough one. I spoke to a lot of people, and no one could really give me a compelling case either way. Our analyst could provide reasons both ways.
“It’s unfortunate for Mitch, but he took it well and hopefully it inspires him to go on to bigger and better things.”
It does appear likely that the Junction Oval pitch will have more grass and life in it than it did in the previous game between the two sides last week at the same venue. There was rain in Melbourne on Tuesday afternoon and more expected on Wednesday which will see the pitch spend more time under covers in the lead in than normal. Rogers revealed that Victoria are keen for something more lively to suit to their attack.
“We’d like it to be a little bit quicker than it was last game, probably just a little bit more in it to support our attack,” Rogers said. “We probably like the ball reacting off the surface a bit more. Hopefully there’s a little bit more grass on it and it’s a good challenge for both bat and ball.”
There is significant rain forecast for the opening day and further rain and cold weather expected for days two and three, although the final is played over five days rather than four so there is more time for a result. However, rain will bring the bonus points into play if the game ends in a draw.
As is the case in the regular season, there are bonus points on offer in the final which will decide who wins the Shield if the game is drawn providing at least 270 overs are bowled in the match. The team that accrues the most points in the first innings wins the game. Teams get 0.01 point for every run scored over 200 in their first 100 batting overs (ie. if a team scores 350 they get 1.50 bonus points), and teams also get 0.10 points for every wicket taken in the first 100 overs of their first bowling innings (ie if a team takes 10 wickets inside 100 overs they get 1 point).
“Last game we spoke about the first innings points, just almost have a bit of a trial run on how we want to go about it and make sure we won those points last game,” Sutherland said. “We probably did stuff that up a little bit [in 2021-22], to be honest.
“We just sort of panicked a little bit and something that we hadn’t quite thought about enough. So we’ve definitely had discussions about it. But again, you don’t want to get too sidetracked by that, because no doubt there’ll be a result, regardless of the first innings.”
