New South Wales rising star Oliver Davies has drawn comparisons to modern greats Steve Smith and David Warner after finishing his breakout Sheffield Shield campaign with a third first-class century.
The 23-year-old, who was not selected for the opening three rounds of the tournament, received player of the match honours for his counterpunching 131 (147) during the Blues’ five-wicket victory over Queensland at Allan Border Field this week.
Davies clobbered 18 boundaries and a six in the first innings before holding onto a stunning one-handed grab at leg slip to remove Bulls batter Jack Clayton on day three.
“I felt good out there,” Davies said.
“I played some attacking cricket and tried to put them under a bit of pressure, and it paid off.
“I definitely have been hitting a lot more balls at training, been spending a lot more time working with the coaches, not necessarily on anything around technique, but just decision-making.”
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Davies finished the Sheffield Shield regular season as the competition’s fourth-leading run-scorer with 670 runs at 67.00, including three centuries and three fifties in seven matches, while his Blues teammates collectively managed just one century across the campaign.
Earlier this summer, Davies plundered his maiden first-class century against reigning champions Western Australia at the SCG, a dazzling 129 (143) that helped NSW secure its first victory in over 20 months, breaking a 15-match drought. Nobody else in the match managed more than 54.
“I have been asking to push up the order, but at the moment I think No. 6 is best for me and best for the team,” Davies continued.
“So hopefully next season there might be an opportunity to slide up the order a little bit, we will just have to wait and see.”
Most runs for NSW in 2023/24 Sheffield Shield
670 — Oliver Davies
434 — Daniel Hughes
432 — Moises Henriques
373 — Jack Edwards
350 — Matthew Gilkes
Davies, who has adopted a Bazball-adjacent mentality in red-ball cricket, finished the Sheffield Shield with a strike rate of 81.01, which was only bettered by Tasmania’s Mitchell Owen and South Australia’s Jake Fraser-McGurk — although neither of them came close to matching Davies’ run tally.
“I bat very similar in red-ball cricket than I do in white-ball cricket, and I think that’s what sometimes gets people off-side,” Davies told Fox Cricket earlier this summer.
“I’ll try to play at balls that some people would say I don’t need to because it’s a longer format.
“I just feel like if I see a ball that I can hit, I’m gonna hit it. 70 off 70 balls for me is the same as 70 off 150.”
Speaking to reporters after the match, NSW captain Moises Henriques rated Davies alongside some of the Blues’ greatest batters of the past generation, praising the young right-hander’s scoring tempo in the middle.
“I’ve been playing cricket professionally for 19, 20 years, and I’ve been lucky enough to see a lot of young, special batters come through the New South Wales ranks. Ollie just seems to be another one of those guys,” Henriques said.
“He’s very hard to stop once he gets up and going. When I watch him bat from the other end as a captain, I’m very happy he’s on my team, because whilst you always feel in the game, he’s always moving the scoreboard forward, even in difficult batting conditions.
“He reminds me a lot of a mix between Steve Smith, David Warner and even Phil Hughes – they’re just always looking to score runs. They’re able to score runs in areas that other batters maybe can’t.
“He’s showing some fantastic signs so far.”
Davies, who represented Australia at the Under-19 World Cup in 2020, has already been touted for higher honours, looming as a potential like-for-like replacement for Travis Head or Mitchell Marsh in the Test side. However, Tasmanian all-rounder Beau Webster, who finished the Sheffield Shield regular season as the leading run-scorer with 914 runs at 65.28, is probably ahead of him in the pecking order.
“I’m probably not going to ever open or bat three for Australia in Test cricket. The spots I’m going to bat are probably four or five or six,” Davies told Fox Cricket.
“At the moment, I definitely want to play Test cricket, but I also understand that some people are leaning probably towards the white-ball focus just because there are heaps more opportunities in those leagues.”
The Blues finished third on the Sheffield Shield standings after registering four wins and three draws in ten matches this summer.
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