Bryce Street is having his best Shield game yet (Image: Queensland Cricket/Twitter)
A game-saving innings from Bull’s opener, Bryce Street, has kept the game alive for both states heading into the final day of play in the Sheffield Shield clash between Queensland and Tasmania.
Starting the day at 2/122, there was a mountain of runs to climb for Queensland to compete with the 500 posted by Tasmania in the first innings.
Street slept on just one run short of a half-century overnight, knowing the Bulls needed his best to stay in the game. Street added 94 runs on day three to finish on 143 from 334 balls before Queensland declared on 355 in pursuit of a result.
After collecting his maiden first-class wicket on day two, ‘Wall-Street’ expressed himself on day three by adding his first six in the Sheffield Shield before adding two more.
Speaking to the media at stumps, Street was asked whether hitting three sixes or getting a wicket felt better:
“Wicket. I got the chance to bowl in my first season of Shield cricket and really disappointing myself, I bowled two overs against Tasmania and one over against Victoria which included three fully’s, so I lost the right to bowl from Uzzy (Usman Khawaja) for a little while there,” he said.
“I’ve been bowling well at club cricket, so when we became that desperate, Uz threw me the ball, I was actually more nervous with the bowling than I was with the batting, to be honest,
“Nessie (Michael Neser) at mid-off was like ‘you’re gonna get a wicket, for sure, it’s a certainty and then lo and behold, first over wicket, yeah it’s a pretty special moment, I’ll cherish that one.”
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Street showed patience and poise at a time Queensland was desperate for it, carefully calculating his strikes whilst waiting out the difficult periods.
“It doesn’t really matter who it is at the time when you’re in that position, someone has to stand up and be that person to get that partnership going and get that big hundred that we need to get close to a big score like they (Tasmania) posted,” Street said at the end of day’s play.
“It can be anyone on their day with the top six that we have, it happened to be me today, when I was required I was able to get to three figures and keep going from there.”
“From where we were from 170, still trailing by 330, we lose another one or two wickets there you’re really starting to look at a monstrous deficit, and following on,
“To get on the front foot and be able to score somewhat quick-ish to keep pushing the game forward and keep trying to get a result, as much as it wasn’t intentional, it’s worked in our benefit that we were able to declare and have a bowl tonight to be able to set up a game tomorrow.”
Street is the only member of Queensland’s top five to not have a baggy green in his kit bag, however, he stood out from the star-studded pack. It’s a testament to the work he’s done in the off-season to improve his game and go to the next level.
“I’ve just been working on a few things in the off season, obviously I’ve been quite a slow scorer from the start of my Shield career but definitely looking to have a few more tricks up my sleeve when the ball gets old and the wickets are flat, it was nice to be able to put them into use on a wicket like that today.”
“I definitely got an upgrade in bats, so thankyou to Kookaburra, and I can joke and say that the gym program that Chappo’s got me on has me on the improvement as well.”
Street was comfortable going up in gears as the day progressed, allowing the Bulls to declare earlier than planned, keeping the door open for a result on day four.
“For the declaration we gave them, I would hope they give us the chance to have a result, that’s how we’ve set the game up for them so that we can keep going on,
“It would have been easy for us to just keep batting, get a lead and then try and make something of it, but this is probably the best way a result is gonna happen,
“The ball’s in their court, that their decision to make, so we’ll just come out and adapt to whatever happens tomorrow.”
Street formed what could prove to be a game-saving partnership with wicket-keeper, Jimmy Peirson, who was also able to score a century.
Peirson finished on 104 not out when Queensland declared. The Bulls had a session to attack the Tasmanian batters who finished the day 1/59.
Lawrence Neil-Smith played nightwatchman for the second time this match as he survived some short ball peppering from Mark Steketee.
Play will resume on day four in Adelaide at 10:30 am local time.
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