Harris, Wade achieve rare Shield feat

For almost 10 summers, only two men had broken through the 1000-run barrier in a single Sheffield Shield season.

Today, two more players achieved the feat within 30 minutes of each other.

Victoria’s Marcus Harris and Tasmania’s Matthew Wade both reached 1000 runs for the summer on the final day of the regular season, capping off career-best campaigns for the two left-handers.

Harris was the first to the milestone when he moved to 41 in Victoria’s match against South Australia in Adelaide, becoming the first Vics batsman to register a 1000-run season since Chris Rogers a decade ago. He was eventually dismissed for 65 to finish the regular season with 1024 runs at 68 from nine matches, a tally he should add to in next week's final against NSW.

At the time Harris brought up the milestone, at 11.09am AEDT on Saturday, Wade was 20 runs behind him and unbeaten on 24 in Tasmania’s match against NSW in Hobart. The Tigers skipper continued his defiant knock against a rampant Blues attack and reached the 1000-run mark at 11.38am AEDT, 29 minutes after Harris.

He too was eventually out for 65 to finish the season with 1021 runs - three short of Harris - at an average of 60, with two centuries and eight fifties.

In the past 10 summers, WA duo Adam Voges and Michael Klinger are the only other players to have scored 1000 runs in a season. Both achieved the feat in 2014-15, Voges scoring 1358 runs – the fourth-most ever – in a summer that propelled him into Australia’s Test side, while Klinger scored 1046 runs that season. 

Overall, Harris and Wade are the 49th and 50th men to reach the mark. Underlining the pair's dominance this summer, the next highest run-scorer in the regular season was Tasmania's Alex Doolan with 761.

Harris is the seventh Victoria batsman to do it, joining Rogers (twice), Matthew Elliott (thrice), Bill Ponsford (twice), Graham Yallop, Dean Jones and David Hussey.

Wade is the fourth Tasmanian to achieve the feat, joining Jamie Cox (twice), Dene Hills (twice) and Michael Bevan, who scored 1464 runs in just nine matches 14 years ago.

Wade’s brilliant summer came on the back of an impressive finish to last season, when he scored 500 runs in six matches following the KFC BBL break to guide Tasmania into the final.

The highlight of Harris’ season was the unbeaten 250 he scored against NSW in October, an innings that helped lift him into Australia’s Test side. He also scored a brilliant 174 in a successful run chase against Queensland last month, and was dismissed twice in the nineties in the second half of the season.

And history indicates he will add significantly to his season tally in next week’s Shield final at Junction Oval in Melbourne; in four previous innings in competition finals, two for Victoria and two for WA, Harris has posted scores of 81, 158no, 120 and 21.

Milestone Men

Marcus Harris (Victoria)

M: 9 | Inns: 16 | Runs: 1024 | Ave: 68.26 | 100s: 2 | 50s: 6 | HS: 250no

Matthew Wade (Tasmania)

M: 10 | Inns: 20 | Runs: 1021 | Ave: 60.05 | 100s: 2 | 50s: 8 | HS: 137