South Australia has won back-to-back Sheffield Shield titles with a brilliant comeback victory over Victoria in the final at Melbourne’s Junction Oval.
The game hung in the balance at the start of day five — South Australia needing five wickets and Victoria 94 runs away from the win — but the Redbacks blew them away inside an hour.
It started in the second over of the day, when Liam Scott nicked off Todd Murphy, and fellow night watchman Mitchell Perry was trapped LBW by Nathan McAndrew in the next over.
Test wicketkeeper Alex Carey took a brilliant catch, diving low to his left to remove Ollie Peake, who was Victoria’s final frontline batter.
Former Victorian Henry Thornton took the final two wickets of Will Sutherland and Fergus O’Neill to wrap up a 56-run win.