It鈥檚 tough at the top

Queensland will resume this morning at 0-47, having dismissed Victoria for just 184.

In a patient performance, the Queensland openers negated the much vaunted Victorian attack to complete day one with 10 wickets in hand.

Earlier, Victoria’s top order was again under pressure, losing early wickets to be in trouble at 3-10.

A brief resistance from Matt Short (24) and Guy Walker (18) pushed the score past 50, but a steady stream of wickets throughout the morning saw Victoria slump to 6-79.

However, the Victorian middle and lower order came to play yet again, forging strong partnerships to move toward a respectable total.

Sam Harper (28) and Matthew Bullen (24) toughed their way to 8-112 before Kieron Elliott (35) and Ejaaz Alavi (19) scraped Victoria to a defendable 184.

Victorian manager Paul Montgomery was encouraged by the tail’s ability to fight out a competitive total.

“We know we have really good depth. Our numbers seven through 11 play an extremely important role for us as a side,” Montgomery said.

“With the top order not going as well as they hoped, the lower batters are putting us in positions to win matches, which is fantastic.”

While a battle is on their hands, if Victoria can claim victory today, it will all but assure them of victory at the Under-17 National Championship.

“If we get up today, our destiny is in our own hands later in the week. It would be nice to not have to worry about other results going into the final match,” Montgomery said.

For score updates be sure to follow @CVPathway on Twitter or ‘like’ the CV Pathway Facebook page.

To see full results from Under-17 National Championships, click here.

Image courtesy of Brian McKenna.