Unfortunately there is so little coverage of Shield cricket now that it is difficult to know whether the low scores in the current round( at least at the Gabba and in Sydney) are attributable to the greentop wickets, extravagant swing or whatever. Given the scarcity of rain in either city its hard to see why there would be greentops unless the curator deliberately poured on the water. You'd think cricket Australia would have instructed them to make them reasonably true , given they've already given the bowlers the advantage of the Duke . You'd think given the parlous state of our batting stocks they wouldn't want to totally destroy the confidence of all the aspirants for Ashes selection. And consider that Queensland's first innings was effectively ruined by a rookie spinner on a first day wicket, but that Swepson of Queensland didn't get a bowl in either innings and its even harder to work out from a distance what's going on here. All most have to go on are the bald scores. But if the tracks weren't that bad, and the damage is attributable to a Duke ball swinging around, then gawdhelpus come the Ashes. I'm sure the likes of Neser, Stektee, Copeland, Boland and Tremain are very decent Shield bowlers but lets face none of them have looked up to Test class and they sure as hell don't compare with an attack picked from Anderson, Broad, Woakes Stokes etc. Hopefully given the Tests are in August we might at least bat under blue skies - if we bat under clouds against that attack armed with the Duke we'll be looking at sub 150 scores more often than not.