South Australia target rare domestic double after ODI Cup win as they are also leading the Sheffield Shield table.
South Australia target further success after ending their 13-year long trophy drought by winning the ODI Cup.
Following their triumph in the one-day championship, Nathan McSweeney’s team is now aiming for the elusive Sheffield Shield.
At Adelaide Oval on Saturday night, McSweeney guided South Africa to its first one-day championship in 13 years with a convincing 64-run victory over Victoria. Eleven people have won both the Shield and the One-Day Crown in the same season, but SA has never done it.
Victoria has done the double twice, Western Australia five times, and New South Wales four times. However, McSweeney is aware that his adopted state, which has been the domestic scene’s proverbial whipping boys for a long time, might not have a better opportunity than this one.
“It’s a little bit of a monkey off the back,” McSweeney said after collecting the inaugural Dean Jones Trophy. “We’ll enjoy it but there’s a bigger picture – there’s a Shield final to play. Everyone loves winning. And for us to get a taste of it, hopefully it kick-starts us – I don’t think we’ll get sick of it.”
“It has obviously been a long time between titles,” he said. “The players we’ve got in our stable now have shown over the last couple years that we can do it.
“It’s just, unfortunately, we had a bad hour in a Shield game or we had a bad hour in a one-day game and it has taken us out of the competition. We’re getting a little bit more consistent, as seen in the Shield table as well. So hopefully it’s the start of some strong years and it’s not just a one-off.”