Victory 300 for December 7 (Harris 73, Handscomb 66, Wildermuth 3-49) and 190 for December 9 (Sutherland 66, Guthrie 6-60) beat Queensland 219 (Wildermuth 40, Boland 4-47) and 158 (Street 46, Sutherland 4-32, Boland 4-49) by 113 runs
Chasing 272 for victory in 87 overs, Queensland were dismissed for 158 in 81.5 overs at the end of the final day, with Sutherland (4-32 off 19 overs) and Boland (4-49) proving crucial.
Victoria’s second win of the season lifted them to fourth place, with Queensland now last.
“It was a really good team performance, probably one of the best wins I’ve ever played in,” Sutherland said. “Incredible effort by the boys.”
Victoria started the day at 156 for 6 in their second innings, and they added 34 in seven overs before declaring 190 for 9.
Matt Renshaw was the first Queenslander to fall when he edged Boland to Sutherland at first slip. Joe Burns should have been dismissed off the next ball but Sutherland missed a difficult slip opportunity.
The botched catch proved costly, not because of the number of runs Burns scored, but because of the time he was able to chew. Burns scored 9 off 55 balls before edging Boland, 22 overs after he was bowled for the first time.
Sutherland made up for that earlier error by scalping Bryce Street (46 off 134 balls) and Jack Clayton to reduce Queensland to 86 for 4.
It wasn’t over yet. The 24-year-old took a catch low and to his left to slip into Boland’s bowling to remove the dangerous Usman Khawaja.
Sutherland, who scored a crucial 66 with the bat in Victoria’s second innings, then trapped Jimmy Peirson lbw for 16. He had his fourth wicket when James Bazley overcame one behind, with Peter Handscomb’s fumble at second slip caught by Will Pucovski.
At 146 for 8 with 12.4 overs remaining, Queensland was all about survival. They still had two wickets in hand with 33 balls left in the match.
But their hopes of salvaging the tie were dashed in the blink of an eye when Fergus O’Neill removed Gurinder Sandhu and Mitchell Swepson in consecutive balls, sparking wild celebrations.
“It’s never nice to lose a game,” Queensland captain Khawaja said. “We were probably never in the running to win the game. But you have to give Victoria credit, they played really well. I think they declared in really good moments, they allowed the game to move forward. They deserved the win.”
