Stylish QAS opening to ACB Cup season

The opening match of the ACB Cup was one for openers.

It might still have been September but Duncan Betts and Jerry Cassell wasted little time in adjusting themselves to the early start to the representative season, setting the QAS off on the right footing with a partnership of 171. Each fell agonisingly short of a century but the momentum that they established was irreversible.

So serene was the Queenslanders' progress that as many as 44 runs even came from two overs late in the innings.

Academy openers Luke Williams and Shane Stanton matched their counterparts' industry with a century stand of their own in the reply but, confronted by the probing off spin of Scott O'Leary, few other batsmen made an impression.

A second innings of note from Betts featured as the QAS established a victory target of 322 before setting opening bowler Ashley Noffke loose. Noffke went a long way toward settling the match's fate with a new ball burst that yielded three early wickets and then returned later in the innings to claim the scalps of top-scorer Michael Clarke and Chris Hartley in successive overs.

A long-term injury to Michael Kasprowicz had opened up a spot for a replacement pace bowler in Queensland's senior team and the strapping young right armer's credentials as a candidate for the vacancy were hard to ignore in this display.