Conway's five helps Blues skittle Shield leaders Victoria
A five-wicket haul to Blues seamer Harry Conway has helped the Blues rip through Victoria and dismiss the Sheffield Shield leaders for 106 at Drummoyne Oval on Tuesday.
After winning the toss and electing to bat, Victoria made their way to 2-57 with Will Pucovski and Nic Maddinson at the crease before losing 8-49 in calamitous circumstances.
Conway enticed Pucovski into a false drive on 19 and had him caught in the gully. Moments later, Conway trapped Maddinson, his former Blues teammate, in front for 24 to have the visitors in a spot of bother.
A lack of discipline cost Victoria dearly as Matt Short and Seb Gotch both fell for ducks off the bowling of Conway before the lanky right-armer snared his second first-class five-wicket haul by removing Cameron White for 10.
Conway’s final figures of 5-14 off 13 overs are his best in first-class cricket.
Trent Copeland (3-50 off 23) and Steve O’Keefe (2-17 off 14.3) also got amongst the wickets in a dominant display by the Blues on day one of a match that could see them leapfrog the Victorians.
Opener Marcus Harris did his Test chances no favours after being caught in the slips off the bowling of Copeland for six.
Pucovski faced the most balls (75) of any Victorian batsman and was patient for the most part before falling into the trap of trying to drive a full, swinging delivery from Conway that was caught in the gully.
The pitch at Drummoyne offered the quicks assistance but the Blues' ability to extract swing and little bit of movement off the seam with the Dukes ball enabled them to keep their foot on the throat.
Victoria sit first on the Sheffield Shield ladder (43.31) ahead of NSW (37.46) and Tasmania (29.44).