Losers no longer, South Australia target rare double
South Australia's triumphant cricketers are setting their sights on an historic double.
After soaking up their success in winning the one-day title, Nathan McSweeney's team now want a long-elusive Sheffield Shield.
McSweeney led SA to its first one-day title in 13 years with a comprehensive 64-run defeat of Victoria at Adelaide Oval on Saturday night.
The wait is over!!South Australia win the 2024-25 #OneDayCup for the first time in 13 years! pic.twitter.com/kPaiS6zijJ
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) March 1, 2025
The double of a winning a one-day crown and the Shield in the same season has been achieved 11 times - but never by SA.
Western Australia (five times), NSW (four times) and Victoria (twice) have completed the double.
But McSweeney knows his adopted state, for so long the proverbial whipping boys of the domestic scene, may never have a better chance than now.
"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."
SA haven't won a shield since 1995/96 but currently lead the four-day competition and are in prime position to host the final.
With two games remaining, offering six points for each win, McSweeney's team hold an 11-point break from next-best NSW.
And the Queensland-born McSweeney believes SA's 50-over success will feed into the four-day format.
"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."
McSweeney said Ryan Harris, who replaced Jason Gillespie as SA's head coach for this season, deserved much credit.
"Something Ryan Harris has brought in to us is the belief," he said.
"We have defended 160 twice this year in the one-day comp. We got bowled out for 90 in the last Shield game and won.
"From positions that we shouldn't be winning, we are.
"It's a massive hats off to Ryano and the coaching staff."
STATES TO COMPLETE THE SHIELD/50-OVER DOUBLE
* Western Australia: 5 (1976/77; 1977/78; 2021/22; 2022/23; 2023/24)
* New South Wales: 4 (1984/85; 1992/92; 1993/94; 2002/03)
* Victoria 2: (1979/80; 2018/19)
(Footnote: Domestic one-day tournament started in 1969/70)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Cricket-T20 can be US craze like yoga and Bollywood weddings
By Amlan Chakraborty (Reuters) -Indian-American businessman Sanjay Govil is convinced Twenty20 cricket can be the next big cultural import into the United States, following a trail blazed by yoga and Bollywood-style weddings. Previous investors have held similar dreams of breaking into the U.S. sports league market, only to be thwarted by the nation's obsession with baseball, basketball and American football. IT entrepreneur Govil, however, is confident that along with Microsoft's India-born CEO Satya Nadella and Silicon Valley's Anand Rajaraman and Venky Harinarayan he can embed the short, jazzy version of cricket deeply into the U.S. sporting landscape "T20 leagues are the future," Govil, who owns Washington Freedom, one of the six franchises in the Major League Cricket (MLC), told Reuters. "Like Yoga, like Bollywood weddings, things from India and it's crazy here. "People here just love Indian wedding. When we have weddings in hotels, people just stop and watch. It's a spectacle, right?" Although cricket originated in England, India is now its financial engine with a cash cow in named the Indian Premier League (IPL) T20 competition, which has a brand value of $12 billion. IPL franchises with deep pockets also own teams in leagues in England, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, West Indies and the United States. The U.S. featured in the first international cricket match, against Canada, in New York in 1844, but cricket remains very much a niche sport in the country. RAISED PROFILE The introduction of the MLC in 2023 and staging matches in last year's T20 World Cup have raised the game's profile. Cricket returning to Olympics after a gap of 128 years at the 2028 Los Angeles Games will be "another big impetus", said Govil, who was born in Canada but grew up in New Delhi before moving to the U.S. Govil, who also owns 50% stake in the Welsh Fire franchise of The Hundred tournament in England, said MLC franchises learned a lot from their interaction with IPL counterparts. "One of the IPL owners came to my house and he educated me on how to build a team," he said. The presence of India's marquee players in the MLC would have been the icing on the cake but Govil respects the Indian board's policy of not allowing its players to take part in leagues abroad. "I'm sure they have some logic behind why they're doing what they're doing, and I respect that," he said. "I have to succeed in the cards which are dealt to me." Govil knows that cricket in the U.S. cannot rely only on the Indian market or south Asian diasporas in order to be successful. "We want to grow domestic talent. We cannot just rely on international players," he said. "We also have to create our own market here, because we cannot just rely on Indian eyeballs watching our matches." "We are in this for a long haul," Govil added. "We are making a lot of investments. We all have to have our own stadiums. "Once we have like eight or nine stadiums, that's when you're going to really see cricket growing in the U.S." Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
Manning back in Norwich for 'success not niceties'
New Norwich City boss Liam Manning says he is back in the city to win, not for old times. The boyhood Canaries fan has been speaking for the first time since being appointed as the Championship club's new boss last week. Advertisement Manning becomes the first Norwich-born head coach at Carrow Road, having led Bristol City to the play-offs last season. "It'll help knowing the city, the history of the club and some of the fans and former players but the biggest driver was always the club, the ambition, the project and what we're trying to achieve," he told BBC Radio Norfolk. "It's not coming back here for niceties, it's coming back to be successful." The 39-year-old former Norwich youth player also coached in Ipswich Town's academy before taking MK Dons to the League One play-offs in 2022 and had a brief spell at Oxford United who were second in the third tier when he left to join Bristol City. Advertisement "My first live match was here, my first season ticket was here and I've got some fond memories - it's such a fantastic city, fantastic fanbase, so if you can achieve here you can be remembered so we'll be doing everything we can to try to bring success to people," he said. Manning admits leaving Ashton Gate was not the easiest decision having taken Bristol City to a sixth-placed finish but also with the support he was given following the death of his baby son Theo in October. "Any move you make in this game is difficult so in terms of the 18 months I had there it was successful and obviously a challenging time personally which creates a a level of affiliation and empathy with the people there," he said. "But when we had the discussions (at Norwich) of what it looks like and the direction - knowing the club and the fanbase and the ambition here, it matches with me extremely well so it was a difficult decision but I'm sure it's the right one." Advertisement Norwich finished 13th in the Championship last season, 11 points short of the play-offs, and sacked head coach Johannes Hoff Thorup in April, leaving Manning to become the Norfolk club's fourth permanent boss in under four years. "We're in the results business so we have to win and I want to win but to sustain winning it has to be underpinned by some really good practices and processes and a really strong culture," said the new boss. "You go into the season wanting to finish in the top six, it's understanding how you do that - that's the end goal." He will immediately turn his attentions to building Norwich's squad for next season with speculation surrounding the futures of forwards Josh Sargent and Borja Sainz in particular, while they have been linked with Swansea's out-of-contract defender Harry Darling, who Manning worked with at MK Dons. Advertisement "I had a terrific time with Harry at MK Dons and he was outstanding - he's really excelled at the level and there isn't a huge amount of players at his age or his profile who are available," said Manning. "He'll have a large amount of interest but he's definitely someone for me who would be a good fit."
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
Cricket-T20 can be US craze like yoga and Bollywood weddings
By Amlan Chakraborty (Reuters) -Indian-American businessman Sanjay Govil is convinced Twenty20 cricket can be the next big cultural import into the United States, following a trail blazed by yoga and Bollywood-style weddings. Previous investors have held similar dreams of breaking into the U.S. sports league market, only to be thwarted by the nation's obsession with baseball, basketball and American football. IT entrepreneur Govil, however, is confident that along with Microsoft's India-born CEO Satya Nadella and Silicon Valley's Anand Rajaraman and Venky Harinarayan he can embed the short, jazzy version of cricket deeply into the U.S. sporting landscape "T20 leagues are the future," Govil, who owns Washington Freedom, one of the six franchises in the Major League Cricket (MLC), told Reuters. "Like Yoga, like Bollywood weddings, things from India and it's crazy here. "People here just love Indian wedding. When we have weddings in hotels, people just stop and watch. It's a spectacle, right?" Although cricket originated in England, India is now its financial engine with a cash cow in named the Indian Premier League (IPL) T20 competition, which has a brand value of $12 billion. IPL franchises with deep pockets also own teams in leagues in England, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, West Indies and the United States. The U.S. featured in the first international cricket match, against Canada, in New York in 1844, but cricket remains very much a niche sport in the country. RAISED PROFILE The introduction of the MLC in 2023 and staging matches in last year's T20 World Cup have raised the game's profile. Cricket returning to Olympics after a gap of 128 years at the 2028 Los Angeles Games will be "another big impetus", said Govil, who was born in Canada but grew up in New Delhi before moving to the U.S. Govil, who also owns 50% stake in the Welsh Fire franchise of The Hundred tournament in England, said MLC franchises learned a lot from their interaction with IPL counterparts. "One of the IPL owners came to my house and he educated me on how to build a team," he said. The presence of India's marquee players in the MLC would have been the icing on the cake but Govil respects the Indian board's policy of not allowing its players to take part in leagues abroad. "I'm sure they have some logic behind why they're doing what they're doing, and I respect that," he said. "I have to succeed in the cards which are dealt to me." Govil knows that cricket in the U.S. cannot rely only on the Indian market or south Asian diasporas in order to be successful. "We want to grow domestic talent. We cannot just rely on international players," he said. "We also have to create our own market here, because we cannot just rely on Indian eyeballs watching our matches." "We are in this for a long haul," Govil added. "We are making a lot of investments. We all have to have our own stadiums. "Once we have like eight or nine stadiums, that's when you're going to really see cricket growing in the U.S." Sign in to access your portfolio
