Sheffield Shield final: WA’s Joel Paris reveals pain jabs get him through final heroics

From back soreness to putting the team on his back alongside Ashton Turner, it’s been a hell of a fortnight for Joel Paris who revealed he had a couple of pain-killing injections to get through the Sheffield Shield decider. The veteran left-arm seamer did it with bat and ball to help Western Australia to a 17th title and second on the trot against Victoria at the WACA Ground. Paris grabbed five wickets for the match, to take his season tally to 27 in seven matches at an average of 17.37, to go with a vital 31 with the bat in the first innings. He missed WA’s Marsh One-Day Cup decider victory over South Australia earlier in the month and the final regular-season match against the Vics last week due to a back issue and admits there were some nervous moments in the lead-up. “I guess there were times throughout the week or the 10 days leading up where you’re not sure,” Paris said. “I had a couple of jabs before the game and got to a stage where I felt like I could compete throughout the four or five days. “From my point of view, I wasn’t missing this one. You do all the hard yards across the career and the time spent on the sidelines and rehab. “I know more than anyone, it’s not every day you get to play in a shield final and it would’ve taken something pretty big for me to not come out this week.” The 30-year-old, who has endured more injury heartache than most, spending a lot of time in the rehabilitation group between 2016 and 2018 due to quad and back issues. Paris had radical surgery on his quad in early 2017 when they removed 15cm of his central tendon in a bid to play first-class cricket again, so the significance of becoming a back-to-back shield winner wasn’t lost on him. “It means everything,” Paris said. “It’s been a long time coming. I think this is my 13th season of professional cricket and the first half of it, you’d never think you’d be able to get to a stage where you can compete and get the chance to play in a shield final. “Last year was amazing and I think this year we’ve just gone to another level so to cap it off and to win the final as well like we have done over the last four days has been amazing and it’s right at the top of my list in terms of achievements and memories.” WA’s motto for the final was “walk towards the pressure” and that’s exactly what Paris and player of the final Turner did during their game-changing 105-run stand in the first innings. Paris got to the crease with the match in the balance at 6-178 early on day three, still trailing the Vics’ score of 195, and soaked up 126 balls. By the time he got out, WA’s lead was nearing triple digits. “Our theme for this week was ‘walk towards the pressure’ and Victoria have always been a team to fight until the very end,” Paris said. “They’ve obviously had an outstanding year and this game was no different, they kept coming at us and put a lot of pressure on us. “I think with AT and myself, we knew that partnership was going to be really important and not only were runs key, but just being able to bat time and put some more overs into the bowlers. “I feel like we really cashed in towards the back-end and made it tough for them to get ahead of the game.”