Peter Handscomb's Unbeaten 131 Leads Victoria Against WA
Peter Handscomb chose a good day to remind people he is still very much in the conversation.
On a flat, straw-coloured MCG surface that looked more like a training square than a traditional Sheffield Shield minefield, the Victoria captain peeled off a composed, unbeaten 131 to drag his summer back on track and nudge the national selectors ahead of January’s Test tour of India. By stumps, Victoria were 292 for 3 against Western Australia, and Handscomb’s name was back in bold.
A century with India written all over it
This was not a scratchy, grind-it-out hundred. It was a statement. A player who has spent the early weeks of the season searching for rhythm suddenly found everything clicking into place.
He walked in with Victoria 44 for 2, the decision to bat first already looking a little shaky after Marcus Harris and Sam Harper both fell in an untidy opening. The surface, prepared by curator Matt Page with ball-tracking cameras and the ghosts of last year’s two-day Ashes debacle in mind, offered some early seam and carry but little menace. It was the kind of pitch where a batter in form could cash in. Handscomb decided he would be that batter.
His first real flourish told the story. A classical straight drive, full face of the bat, back past the bowler and thudding into the turf. From there he barely put a foot wrong.
Handscomb has carried the frustration of a lean start to the summer and a luckless Australia A tour of India in September. Starts but no scores. Good touch, poor returns. After play he admitted the mental toll of that contradiction, and spoke of stripping his game back to basics and clearing his head. The result was a near-flawless innings that looked exactly like a player rediscovering his method.
Surviving the wobble, then taking control
Victoria had earned first use of the surface, but Western Australia sniffed early damage. Harris nicked four times in a frenetic 20-ball stay of 15. Two edges fell short, one went down at first slip, the fourth finally stuck with keeper Joel Curtis. Harper had already gone, picked out by a superb catch from Albert Esterhuysen at wide fine leg off Kieran Elliott.
At 44 for 2, WA had a window. Handscomb and Ashley Chandrasinghe slammed it shut.
The pair had to graft before lunch. The outfield dragged the ball back, turning good strokes into singles and twos, and Western Australia found just enough sideways movement to keep both men honest. Chandrasinghe, a late inclusion after Campbell Kellaway withdrew with back spasms on the eve of the match, dug in. Handscomb, though, looked a rung above. His judgment outside off stump was precise, his defence compact, his scoring shots crisp.
After the interval, WA tried to rattle him. Liam Haskett and Elliott went to the short ball, packing the leg side and asking awkward questions. Handscomb answered with authority. When Elliott dropped short, he was thumped through midwicket, the shot of a man completely in control of his tempo.
Spin test passed, again
When the spinners arrived, the innings shifted from solid to persuasive.
Corey Rocchiccioli, representing Australia A, and former Test left-armer Ashton Agar form the kind of slow-bowling tandem that should ask serious questions of anyone with ambitions of touring India. Handscomb treated them like an exam he expected to pass.
He advanced at Rocchiccioli, once driving with the spin, once against it, both times clearing the infield with ease. When he stayed home, he sank deep into the crease, punching off the back foot through the off side, then rolling out sweeps that were measured rather than desperate. This was not a batter surviving spin; it was one managing it, dictating fields, and picking off gaps.
It was a reminder of why, in Australian conditions and beyond, he is still regarded as one of the country’s finest players of slow bowling.
Chandrasinghe, more workmanlike but no less valuable, joined him in a 112-run stand. His 53 was built on patience and discipline, the sort of innings that doesn’t dominate the highlights but underpins a day. Just when he looked set to push on, he overreached. Trying to lift the tempo, he aimed a slog sweep at Rocchiccioli against the turn and miscued to mid-on. A hard-earned innings ended with a soft stroke.
Macdonald piles on familiar pain
If WA thought Chandrasinghe’s exit at 156 for 3 might open a door, Blake Macdonald promptly closed it and slid the bolt across.
Back in the side and facing an opponent he clearly enjoys, Macdonald picked up exactly where he had left off against Western Australia at the MCG last season, when he scored 79 and 109 not out. The sense of déjà vu for the visitors was real.
He mirrored Handscomb’s approach to spin: nimble feet, clean contact, smart placement. The pair stitched together a second consecutive century stand, this one unbroken, and steadily drained WA’s energy. Macdonald moved to a smooth half-century, his only major scare coming when Agar found a fraction of extra turn and bounce, drawing a thick edge that brushed the ends of Curtis’ gloves but failed to stick.
By the time the second new ball arrived, Victoria were entrenched. Western Australia, to their credit, refused to let the day drift.
Second new ball bite
With the hard Kookaburra back in their hands late in the final session, WA’s quicks finally extracted something more menacing from the surface. The pitch, so benign for much of the day, suddenly woke up.
Elliott in particular asked serious questions. Macdonald edged one over the slips, the kind of chance that leaves a bowler muttering into his follow-through. Handscomb, who had glided through most of his innings, was beaten three times, including by a beauty that jagged sharply past the inside edge and over the top of off stump. For a few overs, the contest snapped back to life.
But the breakthrough never came. Handscomb walked off unbeaten on 131, Macdonald with him on 74*, their partnership unbroken and Victoria firmly on top.
On a pitch designed to erase the memory of a two-day Ashes fiasco, Handscomb used every one of those extra overs to reinsert himself into a very different conversation. With an India tour looming and spots still up for grabs, how loudly can a day like this echo in the selectors’ room?
