Cricket Live: Shield final spot now hinges on three teams’ last round
Three teams now control who will face Victoria in the Sheffield Shield decider, with the championship slot unsettled for South Australia and Queensland and the season set for a decisive last weekend. At 9: 00 a. m. ET, the final regular-season round beginning Saturday narrowed the race and left preparations shifting across state squads.
Cricket Live: South Australia sits 5. 78 points clear as Queensland can still jump
South Australia holds a 5. 78-point lead in second place, but Queensland — referred to as the Bulls — can overtake them with a win in the last regular-season round; the top two sides after 10 rounds qualify for the final. The decider will be played from March 26-30 at the Junction Oval, and Victoria had already confirmed hosting rights with two matches to spare.
Ellyse Perry’s 1, 006 runs reset Australia’s women’s Test record
Ellyse Perry reached and surpassed Karen Rolton’s Australian women’s Test record when she moved past 1, 002 runs and finished the innings on 1, 006 after being dismissed lbw by Deepti Sharma for 76. Perry began the match with 930 Test runs, reached 1, 000 in her 15th Test and 24th innings, and became the first Australian woman to score 1, 000 runs in each of the three formats; she is the seventh Australian overall to hit that milestone. For cricket live coverage, that landmark elevates her place in Australia’s Test history.
Annabel Sutherland named player of the match and Alyssa Healy’s final Test ends early
Annabel Sutherland was named player of the match and player of the series after a Test that finished well inside three days, and the match doubled as Alyssa Healy’s final outing for her country. Australia defeated India in that Test, following a multi-format contest in which India won the T20 series two games to one while Australia dominated the ODI fixtures. A standout moment in the Test came when Healy took a slip catch off Alana King’s bowling.
Still, the Shield race and recent international milestones now set immediate priorities for teams and selectors: states must decide rotation and rest for pace bowlers ahead of the final rounds, while national selection conversations will factor in Perry’s record and Sutherland’s form. Fergus O’Neill, Scott Boland, Sam Elliott, Mitch Perry and Will Sutherland are named among Victoria’s in-form seamers; managing that group will shape Victoria’s XI choices for the final home-and-away contest at the Junction Oval.
Next confirmed fixtures: the last regular-season round begins March 14 and runs through March 17 for the Junction Oval matches, and the Sheffield Shield final is scheduled for March 26-30. If Queensland wins its final regular-season match beginning March 14, it will jump South Australia into second place and earn the right to face Victoria in the final that starts March 26.
