Victoria Metro claim first Under-15 title in 13 years

Winning the toss, Victoria Metro captain Henry Brown elected to bat first, and the decision looked promising at 1-82 with the highly talented Shobit Singh still at the crease on 42*, who together with Angus Newman had put on 44 for the second wicket.

Minutes later both Singh and Newman were back in the sheds, as were Campbell Kellaway (0) and Henry Brown (0) to leave Victoria reeling at 5-82 having lost 4-0.

A steadying hand was required to put on a decent total and this was provided by Marcus Jackman.

The 14-year-old repaid the faith shown in him by his Victorian and School Coach Mark McAllion, by making a patient 26 off 47 and worked with the tail to help his side up to a competitive total of 152.

Like the Victorian’s earlier in the match, the top order for NSW Magenta took control of the contest with their top three in Mitchell Crayn, Corey Miller and Charles Mitchell, all getting starts of 39, 31 & 27 respectively.

NSW were then 2-112 needing only 41 runs to win with 8 wickets in hand.

After picking up Crayn for the first NSW wicket, Harish Kannan ripped through the top order to collect 4 of the top 5 NSW batsmen to dramatically shift the momentum away from NSW.

With figures of 4-37 off 10 and an equally impressive 2-16 off 10 for Chris Jackson, NSW collapsed in the middle order to lose 6-14 and find themselves in deep trouble at 8-126.

Another twist was bound to happen in the see-saw contest and a 20-run partnership between Joel Rush and Jack Nisbet saw the NSW team back to within touching distance of the Ricky Ponting Cup to be 8-146 with plenty of time to get the last 7 runs.

Victorian Captain Henry Brown turned to his pace option of Michael Ingram who didn’t let his skipper down by removing both Rush and Nisbet in quick succession to leave NSW 5 runs short of victory – all out for 147.

An amazing finish to a very high standard carnival played in hot and humid conditions across the week leading to Vic Metro holding the Ricky Ponting cup aloft for the first time since 2005.

To watch a replay of the contest head to the home page: www.nationalchamps.com.au