New South Wales vs Victorian
NSW, the champions of Australia's Twenty20 Big Bash, were the first team from Group B to secure their passage to the next phase, with points carried forward, to the second round of the competition. They were joined by Victoria, arguably Australia's best Twenty20 side, having won the Big Bash for three consecutive years until this year's final.
Brett Lee, Doug Bollinger, Stuart Clark and Nathan Hauritz share the ball in that order when NSW take the field and, as Eagles, Sussex and Somerset found out, they can be a handful. Victoria have been the form team every year in Australia, but it is NSW who have the edge here by virtue of their top order and international-class bowling attack. Even without Brad Haddin, Michael Clarke and Nathan Bracken, NSW can still field almost an entire XI that has played for Australia.
Both are long-time rivals, being the two most-populated Australian states, and there has always been a "healthy' Melbourne-Sydney rivalry in Australia. In the past, Victorian fans have always been a bit envious of how many NSW players get selected for Australia; in fact, there was an old joke that when you made your debut for NSW, they also handed you a Baggy Green in a brown paper bag. That attitude isn't quite as pronounced - as the presence of Cameron White, now Australia's Twenty20 vice-captain, and Peter Siddle, the ICC's Emerging Player of the Year, will testify to. It all adds to an intriguing all-Australian clash.
Team Squads :
New South Wales squad
SM Katich*, AC Bird, DE Bollinger, SR Clark, NM Hauritz, MC Henriques, PJ Hughes, SJC Keen, B Lee, SNJ O'Keefe, BJ Rohrer, DLR Smith†, SPD Smith, DJ Thornely, DA Warner
Victoria squad
CL White*, AC Blizzard, AJ Finch, SM Harwood, JW Hastings, BJ Hodge, JM Holland, DJ Hussey, AB McDonald, BE McGain, CJ McKay, RJ Quiney, PM Siddle, MS Wade†, DG Wright
Umpires HDPK Dharmasena and BR Doctrove
TV umpire SS Hazare
Match referee RS Mahanama
Reserve umpire S Das
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