Rain ruins JLT Qualifying Final
The second Qualifying-Final between New South Wales and Victoria in Drummoyne has been declared a washout, ending the Blues hopes of making the finals. After rain affected the first Qualifying-final between South Australia and Queensland, the second of the Qualifiers has been completely rained out, which is good news for the Victorian side who will progress to face Western Australia on Sunday in Melbourne.
In-form Cameron White was kept out of the starting XI for the clash against the Blues, which ended up being washed out and the Victorians will be hoping that he is fit to face the Warriors, who ended the group stage unbeaten.
While the New South Wales Blues were set to welcome back Australian fast bowler Josh Hazelwood back from injury for his first game of the summer.
The Warriors have capitalized on the in-form national players like D'Arcy Short and Marcus Stoinis and have been ably backed by the bowling of Nathan Coulter-Nile, Jason Behrendorff, and AJ Tye.
In the previous encounter between the two teams, Victoria was bowled out for 200 in 45 overs thanks to the bowling of AJ Tye and Usman Qadir, both picking up 3 wickets. The Warriors chased down the meagre total in just 28 overs.
On the other side of the final's bracket, Queensland will face Tasmania in the other semi-final. Tasmania will be favourites heading into the match, having finished 2nd overall behind only the unbeaten Warriors, while Queensland only won a single game during the season and finished last on the league table.
Queensland, on the other hand, will take heart from their victory against South Australia to progress to the semi-final. The Bulls set a commanding 363 in the first innings, with Burns and Heazlett posting scores above 80. That effort was followed up by a solid bowling performance, bowling the Redbacks all out for just 334, with Stekete, Kuhnermann, and Swepson taking 3 wickets apiece.
Tasmania narrowly beat out Queensland when they met during the season, having chased down Queensland's score of 316 with an over to spare in the game, and mainly thanks to McDermott's century and Silk's 85.