Victoria end WA stranglehold on One-Day Cup

Western Australia's stranglehold on the men's One-Day Cup is officially over after going down to Victoria by 15 runs in a rain shortened clash at the MCG.

Gunning for a fourth straight 50-over crown, it was WA's batting that let them down for a second straight match as they fell short of their revised 124-run target.

Victoria also slipped to 6-81 after being inserted on a lively MCG surface that opener Sam Harper said got "tougher to bat on" as the match wore on.

It was Harper's (59no off 54 balls) fighting half-century and late fireworks by Fergus O'Neill (25no off 19) that lifted the Vics to 6-132 from their 23 overs and beyond the 110-115 run benchmark they believed was defendable.

O'Neill (3-12) then struck three times with the new ball before two more collapses of 3-7 and 4-5 ended all hope of WA reaching a sixth straight one-day final.

The three-time defending champions sit last with just one win (four points) from five games. At least one of Victoria or NSW are now guaranteed to reach a minimum of 15 points, which is a bigger gap than the 10 points on offer to WA if they win their final two games by a large enough margin to claim the bonus point.

"We've probably struggled to put the runs on the board that we would have liked (this year)," fast bowler Jhye Richardson said post-match after taking 1-21 in Victoria's innings.

"The pitch today created a new challenge, but it was familiar to us, we have that sort of wicket at the WACA Ground nets week in, week out.

"Obviously, we had a bit of a calamity the other week (being bowled out for 53 by Tasmania) just losing wickets … so very disappointing."

Ashton Turner (24), Hilton Cartwright (15) and D'Arcy Short (13) got in but couldn't kick on and despite some late hitting by Keaton Critchell (18) to keep it interesting, player-of-the-match Todd Murphy (4-27) and Sam Elliott (2-18) took four wickets between them in the final two overs to roll WA for 108.

When the match got underway following a 35-minute rain delay, Harper lost opening partner Josh Brown (1) and Marcus Harris (2) before a dreary Melbourne morning halted proceedings for another three-and-a-half hours.

Speedsters Richardson and Lance Morris both struck in the opening three overs to leave Victoria 2-14 when the rain returned and reduced the contest to 23 overs per side.

Cartwright (2-23) and Keaton Critchell (1-32) had Victoria 5-55 when play resumed as the hosts' batters struggled to hide their frustration with the exaggerated seam movement being produced by same MCG pitch that was used for last week's Australia A game.

Most notable of those was Jon Merlo who was overheard on the stump microphone telling the umpire one delivery "moved a metre-and-a-half", while he also appeared very animated as he walked past the Victorian dugout after chopping on for two off Cartwright.

"It was tough (batting) early and then it got even tougher when play started again," Harper said.

"I haven't seen that sort of seam movement in a long time … it was just going big sideways; I thought my poor little ribs were going to get a battering.

"It was nice to beat them, they've probably had the wood over us for the last three or four years.

"Todd Murphy's white-ball bowling for a long time has been outstanding, every time he bowls for us and for the (Sydney) Sixers he does a really good job, so we're very lucky to have him."

Harper hit three sixes and five fours to wrest back the momentum, and he found a willing ally in O'Neill who clubbed Richardson for a huge six 15 rows back on the penultimate ball of the innings.

After Andrew Tye delivered a wicket maiden in the 18th over, the pair put on an unbroken 51-run stand to boost the total to 6-132, taking 37 runs of those from the final three overs.

The two sides meet in round four of the Sheffield Shield beginning on Friday at the Junction Oval.

One-Day Cup standings 2024-25

Team	Matches played M	Wins W	Losses L	Ties T	No results N/R	Net Run Rate NRR	Deductions Ded.	Batting Bonus Bat	Total points PTS
1 South Australia Men SA	5	3	1	0	1	0.172	0	2	16
2 Victoria Men VIC	5	3	2	0	0	-0.32	0	1	13
3 Queensland Bulls QLD	5	2	2	0	1	0.796	0	1	11
4 NSW Men NSW	4	2	1	0	1	0.62	0	1	11
5 Tasmanian Tigers Men TAS	4	1	2	0	1	0.204	0	1	7
6 Western Australia Men WA	5	1	4	0	0	-1.053	0	0	4

Legend

M: Matches played

W: Wins

L: Losses

T: Ties

N/R: No results

NRR: Net Run Rate

Ded.: Deductions

Bat: Batting Bonus

PTS: Total points