JLT Cup Underway as Australian Cricket Warms Up

The competition has been renamed the JLT Cup (formerly Matador Cup) but the format and teams are the same as last year. It is a competition between the six state teams plus an invitational Cricket Australia XI (which is comprised of exciting young talent) who will play each other once in a round robin format before the top 3 on the ladder meet in an Elimination Final and Grand Final later this month.

With each team now having played 2 games some of the early season form lines are starting to take shape. In a testament to how close this competition is each year, Western Australia are the ONLY team with 2 wins. However, both of those were played on their traditional home turf at the WACA in Perth which is an advantage they will lose once the tournament shifts location to Sydney and Hobart.

The Cricket Australia XI team also looks a lot more competitive this year. They have already won a match against South Australia and they put up a valiant effort to lose narrowly against Queensland in Brisbane. It will be worth watching the CA XI as the tournament goes on because Australias next superstars could emerge from this young team.

The ladder is already congested with 5 teams having a 1-1 record

While there are some new faces in the spotlight, it has been some of the usual suspects who have been pushing for selection in the national side. With the Australians failing dismally in the ODI series against India the opportunities will be there for anyone to step up and demand selection with strong performances in this competition.

On the batting front :-

Cameron White was a standout scoring 165 off 154 balls with 6 sixes and spearheading the VICs demolition job against TAS.

Shaun Marsh has again been impressive at the state level with 2 solid scores of 132 and 88 to average over 100 in his first games of the season.

Nick Maddinson posted an impressive 137 off 119 balls in the NSW win over TAS.