Sheffield Shield 2025-26 – Vic v SA – Sam Elliott beats Mitchell Perry to Shield final place

“Both players deserve to be played,” Rogers said Wednesday. “It was a real 50-50, and in the end we probably rewarded the guy who just had the best season. And it’s as simple as that. It’s a tough one. I talked to a lot of people, and nobody could really give me a compelling case. Our analyst could provide reasons on both sides.

“It’s a shame for Mitch, but he took it well and hopefully it inspires him to go on to bigger and better things.”

The Junction Oval pitch looks likely to have more grass and life in it than in the previous match between the two teams at the same venue last week. There was rain in Melbourne on Tuesday afternoon and more is expected on Wednesday, which will see the field spend more time under cover in the lead than normal. Rogers revealed that Victoria are keen for something more lively to match their attack.

“We’d like it to be a little faster than it was last game, probably just a little bit more in supporting our offense,” Rogers said. “We probably like the ball reacting off the surface a bit more. Hopefully there’s a 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 is expected for days two and three, although the final will be 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 match ends in a draw.

As in the regular season, there are bonus points in the final which will determine who wins the Shield if the match is tied, provided at least 270 overs are bowled in the match. The team that scores the most points in the first innings wins the game. Teams get 0.01 points for every run scored over 200 in their first 100 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 overs (ie if a team takes within 10 wickets they get 10 wickets).

“We talked about the first inning points last game, just almost had a little bit of a trial run of how we wanted to go about it and make sure we won those points last game,” Sutherland said. “We probably tweaked it a little bit (in 2021-22), to be honest.

“We just panicked a little bit and something we didn’t think quite enough about. So we definitely had discussions about that. But again, you don’t want to get too carried away by that because there will undoubtedly be a result regardless of the first inning.”