Will Pucovski and Marcus Harris set record for highest Sheffield Shield partnership
Records tumbled as Will Pucovski and Marcus Harris pushed their Test cases with a 486-run opening partnership against South Australia — and their performances could spell trouble for opener Joe Burns.
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Sure, making a double hundred and posting a record Sheffield Shield partnership is great, but Marcus Harris appears happiest about being out of lockdown, out of a mask, and out in the Adelaide sunshine.
Harris (239 from 399 deliveries) and Will Pucovski (255 not out from 386) put on 486 for Victoria’s first wicket against the beleaguered Redbacks at Glenelg Oval on Saturday and Sunday.
The Redbacks face heavy defeat even after skipper Travis Head dug in to make a fighting unbeaten century late on Sunday.
Harris and Pucovski broke the Waugh twins’ Sheffield Shield record stand for any wicket, 464 against West Australia at the WACA in 1990.
The stand is the 19th highest in all first-class cricket, and the fifth highest by an opening pair.
The record came at 11.09am when Harris drove Wes Agar to the cover rope.
“I wasn’t aware of all the numbers until yesterday (Saturday) when the boys started clapping a lot,” Harris said.
“We weren’t too sure what was going on.
“Overnight we saw the records that we’d broken. I knew that 465 was the old record so it was good to get past that and great to share a good partnership with Will.”
The COVID-19 situation in their home state meant the Victorians were made to wait to start their Sheffield Shield campaign.
“Considering most Victorians and all of us have been locked in our houses for pretty much six months, we were pretty eager to get outside and get playing,” Harris said.
“We had pretty good preparation with practice games while we were in Melbourne.
“The two weeks quarantine probably set us back a little bit. We’ve had good preparation in the nine days since getting out of quarantine.
“We’re just happy to be outside and not wearing a mask.”
Harris’ technique was exposed by an around-the-wicket attack by the English seamers in the 2019 Ashes.
The Redbacks fast bowlers tried to replicate the method deployed so successfully by Stuart Broad and Jofra Archer.
Harris said he had worked on trying not to get squared up by the around-the-wicket angle.
“I’ve had my challenges around the wicket through my whole career and especially last year in the Ashes,” Harris said.
“So I thought it was something I had to work on. By no means is it perfect but I’ve tried to tinker with it.”
After declaring at 3-564, Victoria reduced SA to 2-10 before Henry Hunt (55 not out from 207 deliveries) and Head (104 from 171) added an unbeaten 162 for the third wicket.
At stumps the home side was 2-172 and needing to bat most of Monday to save the match.
William Jan Pucovski. So good. #SheffieldShield pic.twitter.com/SOOLvk3Z83
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) October 31, 2020
BURNS FAILURE LEAVES TEST DOOR AJAR
The front door to the Test side is ajar after Joe Burns’ second-innings duck at Karen Rolton Oval on Sunday.
Burns faces a surprise challenge from reinvented opener Will Pucovski who was unbeaten on 255 when Victoria declared on 3-564 against South Australia at Glenelg Oval.
With 256 runs at 32 last summer, Burns failed to cement his spot in a Test side that swept the Pakistan and New Zealand series 5-0.
He batted through a tough first session on Friday but wasted the start to fall for 29.
Going on past experience, the selectors don’t need much of an excuse to drop Burns, as he was overlooked for the 2019 Ashes after making 180 against Sri Lanka in Canberra.
With Marcus Harris also pressing, Burns needs a score in the final round of the opening block of Shield games next week. Fortunately for him, Queensland is playing the listless Redbacks.
Bar the reliable Chadd Sayers, the South Australian attack is a friendlier prospect than the NSW outfit that ran through Queensland’s top order on Sunday.
Trent Copeland trundled out the most extraordinary spell of the Shield thus far this summer, bowling 66 consecutive dot balls in his 5-17 from 18 overs (12 maidens).
Copeland found Burns’ outside edge on his way to 3-2 from 10 overs (nine maidens) before lunch.
Kurtis Patterson reels in a screamer!
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) November 1, 2020
That's a 21st five-wicket haul for Trent Copeland! Watch live #SheffieldShield: https://t.co/aueBRRQTt2 pic.twitter.com/qEmkefnSlm
The Blues turned up the volume when first-innings hundred-maker Marnus Labuschagne strode out, with Nathan Lyon appearing to mark out a small, imaginary, circle on a good length as if to say `that’s where Trent’s going to bowl it’.
Well Lyon was spot on, as Copeland hit the perfect length to get Labuschagne lbw for a duck, triggering a rowdy send-off for the Australian No 3.
When Bryce Street feathered Copeland to keeper Peter Nevill the Bulls were in deep trouble at 3-30.
Usman Khawaja (41) and Matt Renshaw (42) defied NSW for a time until Copeland returned to dismiss both Bulls left-handers.
Kurtis Patterson clutched a one-handed screamer at second slip to end Renshaw’s 115-ball vigil. Copeland had 5-6 before his figures blew out to a profligate 5-17.
Lusty hitting – including two big sixes — by Mark Steketee (27 from 24) helped edge the Bulls total to 190, leaving NSW 206 to win.
At stumps the Blues were 3-71, with Daniel Hughes on 24 and Daniel Solway 17.
Fresh from taking 5-97 in the first innings, his best first-class return, leg-spinner Mitchell Swepson landed a heavy blow when he dismissed a sweeping Moises Henriques lbw late in the day.
Swepson gets Henriques - this game's on a knife's edge!
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) November 1, 2020
Watch live #SheffieldShield: https://t.co/aueBRRQTt2 pic.twitter.com/EbqRoxA8g9
BANCROFT, WHITEMAN REVEL IN RUNS FEST
On any normal day, an unbeaten 232-run stand would be feted as a supreme exhibition of the openers’ craft.
But this was no normal day, so Cam Bancroft (103 from 220 balls) and Sam Whiteman (117 from 188) had to be content with batting in the shade of Victoria’s Marcus Harris and Will Pucovski.
As mighty as it was, Bancroft and Whiteman aren’t even halfway there. Their stand is 254 runs fewer than the record Sheffield Shield partnership posted by the Victorian pair earlier on Monday.
Still, the West Australian openers wiped out a 130-run first innings deficit and eked out a 102-run lead with a day to play against Tasmania at Park 25 No 1 in Adelaide.
Second-game seamer Lance Morris, 22, who took 5-94 to be the pick of the WA attack, said the openers had given the side the opportunity to push for a win on Monday.
“It was really good to put the feet up and watch them go to work after a hard day in the dirt early on,” Morris said.
“It gives us a few options heading into tomorrow. Hopefully we can get a few more on top of that and we can see what happens.”
Morris dismissed Tasmania’s topscorer Ben McDermott and bowled Australian captain Tim Paine for 12.
“I think we’re even because he cut me for the biggest six I’ve ever seen,” Morris said.
“But it was great to get a scalp like that. I’m pinching myself.”
Resuming on 5-273, the Tasmanian tail wagged furiously to power the total to 432.
No. 9 Nathan Ellis made 41 and No. 11 Jackson Bird smashed four fours and three sixes in a 19-ball 39.
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Originally published as Will Pucovski and Marcus Harris set record for highest Sheffield Shield partnership
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