Vics' sporting call over concussion rule

In one of cricket's more controversial weeks, Victoria have chalked one up for the good old 'spirit of cricket' concept with perhaps the summer's most sporting act, carried out during yesterday's tense conclusion to their JLT Sheffield Shield clash with New South Wales. 

With the match looking likely to go down to the wire at the Junction Oval, and the Bushrangers desperate to keep their hopes of a fourth-straight title alive, captain Aaron Finch had the option of employing the bowling services of experienced allrounder Dan Christian. 

Christian had entered the match on day two as a concussion substitute – a recent addition to the playing laws to allow greater consideration for player welfare – after batting young gun Will Pucovski was struck on the helmet and ruled unfit to play the remainder of the contest. 

With Victoria's Second XI playing interstate, Christian was the only viable option as a replacement for Pucovski, but as coach Andrew McDonald pointed out, "it wasn't really a like-for-like play". 

"We had an allrounder coming in for a number four batsman which, once it was activated, gave us the flexibility to potentially bowl that player and have a stronger bowling unit going into the back-end of the game," McDonald explained on RSN Radio. 

"Myself and 'Finchy' assessed it and we thought it wasn't in the spirit of the game to bowl him, and it could have potentially brought that rule under some heat, in terms of having an advantage with that player coming in. 

"So that was our decision and I think it was the right one with that rule – otherwise it could be abused and manipulated going forward. 

"I think that rule could be tampered with, so to speak, and we didn't choose to go that way."

Christian has taken a handy five wickets this Shield season and would doubtless have served as a useful extra option for Finch as the Blues, led by Moises Henriques and Peter Nevill, clawed their way towards a target of 309. 

As it happened, it was the leg-spin of Fawad Ahmed that proved the difference, as the tweaker authored a late collapse in which NSW lost their final four wickets for 11 runs. 

The win puts Victoria in second position on the ladder, within a point of leaders Queensland, whose ongoing Shield clash with WA is being affected by bad weather.  

In the other Shield match currently being played, Tasmania are in a strong position against bottom-placed South Australia.