Chadd Sayers might not quite come into calculations for the first Ashes Test but if the South Australian swing bowler continues to take Sheffield Shield wickets he might find himself playing for Australia sometime this summer.
The 26-year-old is coming off being the Sheffield Shield’s leading wicket-taker last season and on Saturday he bowled the Redbacks to a 108-run victory over Western Australia at the WACA Ground.
The Warriors were looking solid at 2-109 chasing 319 to win before Sayers took the ball prior to lunch.
He bowled a spell of seven overs where he took three wickets and conceded one run on the way to finishing with figures of 4-34 for the innings as the Warriors were all out for 210.
Even though it was a disastrous collapse for WA as they lost 7-44 after being 2-109, it was outstanding bowling from Sayers and he received good support from debutant Trent Lawford (3-41) and Joe Mennie (2-39) after captain Johan Botha claimed 4-47 in the first innings.
Coming off 48 wickets at an average of 18 last season, and now with this performance in Perth, Sayers deserves to be considered one of Australia’s most in-form quick bowlers but all his focus on is performing for South Australia.
“I got into a good rhythm and actually changed ends for the first time in the game and the ball started to reverse a bit, and I started hitting the wicket hard and the rewards came,” Sayers said.
“You hear talk about it (Australian honours) here and there, but I’m just enjoying playing for the Redbacks at the moment and it’s only really my second year in Shield cricket.
“I’m just enjoying getting wickets and helping win games for the Redbacks.”
WA coach Justin Langer was understandably frustrated with his team’s performance to and it was in all areas of the game he wants to see improvement next week in Adelaide.
“Playing with positive intent – it’s the best way to play with the bat and I don’t think we did that, and I don’t think we’ve done it for quite a few years,” Langer said.
“We have some aggressive and talented cricketers, but we have to improve our intent. I thought the way Head and Smith, two young players, came out and took it to us showed the intent that we need.
“We dropped seven catches this game and we dropped five catches last week and since I was a kid, I knew that catches win matches and also lose matches. We need to get better at that.
“The other big lesson I learned today was that we have to get our boys to swing the ball. We saw how well they bowled swinging the ball here at the WACA. They are three areas we can start on.”