No Joy For Bulls & Fire

A pair of Queensland allrounders tried their level best to lift their teams to victories today as the 2024-25 domestic season got into gear.

Michael Neser almost snatched a remarkable win for the Bulls with a late innings batting surge against Victoria while rising Queensland Fire allrounder Sianna Ginger had an eye-catching showing in their loss to NSW at Allan Border Field.

The Bulls seemed likely to fall to a heavy loss after losing control of their run chase in the middle order after initially making a solid tilt at the Victorian total of 7-240.

But Neser and fellow quicks Mark Steketee and Tom Straker had a decent crack to avoid that result, with a typically defiant knock of 49 from 41 balls.

Neser, who picked up 1-49 from his 10 overs, was the last player dismissed off the second last ball of the innings as Queensland fell just six runs short.

The Bulls effort had several highlights. In his first game as Bulls captain, Mitch Swepson led from the front. 

He claimed the important wickets of top scorer Marcus Harris (61), the experienced Peter Hanscomb and Tom Rogers to derail the home team’s trip to a score of 270 and above.

He finished with 3-38 as the Vics were kept to 240.

The top order, with Usman Khawaja (57) and Ben McDermott (39) putting on 90 for the first wicket, made a sound start to the chase.

Matt Renshaw (38) and Jack Clayton (20) were setting up the chase before Clayton’s dismissal precipitated the rapid-fire loss of Hugo Burdon, Lachlan Hearne, and Jack Wildermuth for single figures.

However Neser’s rearguard almost became the winning counter-attack,

FIRE

At Allan Border Field, the Queensland Fire posted what seemed to be a firmly competitive score, scoring 9-266 despite the threat of rain.

Georgia Redmayne (48) was solid at the top before Lauren Winfield-Hill got into stride quickly, as she picked up where Redmayne had left off.

The English international and Fire captain Jess Jonassen (41) kept the run-rate climbing despite tight bowling from former Fire player Sammy-Johnson (4-44).

Winfield-Hill continued on with Ginger, with the rookie allrounder accelerating her scoring as she became more comfortable in the innings.

Eventually, Winfield-Hill was dismissed for 65 and Ginger for 30.

NSW produced a comfortable start to their chase, and it was the inswing from Ginger that disrupted their plans.

She was on a hat-trick in her first over, and then produced two more key wickets later in the innings to put some uncertainty into the Breakers chase.

The Valley allrounder finished with 4-49 from eight overs, her career best figures.