Little light cast in Adelaide day-nighter

From his vantage point in the President's Room at Adelaide Oval's Bradman Pavilion, Australia coach and national selector Darren Lehmann was unlikely to have gleaned much new knowledge from day one of the heavyweight bout between New South Wales and South Australia.

The scope and speed of SA's batting capitulation – from 0-32 in the first 10 overs to 92 all out in less than 34 – was dire, but not quite as abject as the 29 the Redbacks famously succumbed for against the Blues during Lehmann's playing days in 2004.

Although to be fair, the State's highest-ever runs scorer was not involved on that calamitous morning at the SCG, being part of Australia's Test set-up at that time.

Nor was the dominance of ball over bat a great surprise at a venue that was batting heaven in Lehmann's heyday – a combination of an extra few millimetres of grass on the pitch and a coat of pink lacquer on the ball transforming it into the sort of English seamer that continues to perplex Australian batters.

As expected from a team fielding a bowling attack with at least one Test cap apiece, NSW expertly exploited the conditions after SA captain Travis Head opted to bat first in the belief that a warm, windy Adelaide afternoon offered optimum batting conditions before the lights came on and the ball misbehaved.

And come day's end, it was the Test vice-captain David Warner who stood tall as the only batsman to have mastered those conditions, as was the case among his Test teammates in Bangladesh two months ago, as the Blues took a handy 61-run lead into the close of play.

But amid those predictable plot lines, a few items might have required explanatory notes on Lehmann's selectors' notepad.

Firstly, the question marks initially pencilled alongside the as-yet-unresolved number six and seven berths in Australia's team for the first Magellan Ashes Test against England in Brisbane remain.

Of the candidates involved at the Adelaide Oval today, Head failed to press his claim when he bunted a soft catch to mid-on having battled for 29 balls to score eight without so much as a boundary on a lush, sluggish outfield.

NSW's Kurtis Patterson was just as unconvincing, his 14 from 47 deliveries coming with a couple of reprieves from SA's fielders before Chadd Sayers went it alone and pierced the left-hander's defence.

If it's a seam-bowling all-rounder that Lehmann and his fellow selectors might favour in that number six role, then NSW's Moises Henriques was denied an opportunity to state his case as the brevity of the Redbacks' innings meant he barely touched the ball.

Although he did spend some time in the middle with Warner during the final session, before falling to legspin of Adam Zampa having scored 11.

The ongoing discussion as to the identity of the Test keeper did not progress beyond pub chat, as Peter Nevill was typically tidy for the Blues while scarcely stretched, registering neither a bye nor a catch on SA's abbreviated scoresheet.

His fellow gloveman Alex Carey might have been the final SA batter dismissed for the innings' third-highest total (12), but such was the carnage happening around him he was as starved of opportunities in front of the stumps as he was behind them when NSW batted out the day.

Then there was the atypical nature of Warner's knock, his 83 occupying 139 balls with an unusually circumspect eight boundaries before he nicked off for the day's first keeper's catch, around the scheduled time for stumps.

While scarcely the biting spin or the sapping humidity of Bangladesh, Adelaide proved almost as difficult a scoring proposition because it presented conditions that seem just as unfamiliar to Australian batters raised on fast, true pitches.

The fact that so few players were caught behind the wicket on a day when 15 wickets fell highlights the absence of swing with the pink ball, and the lack of pace and bounce off the evenly grassed surface.

Those balls that did find the edge barely carried to the slips cordon, such was the listless nature of the bounce, which meant the menace resided in bowlers able to hit an optimum length from which the ball could dart off the seam, and sufficiently full to pose a threat to the stumps.

Which, in turn, explains why – in a bowling line-up headlined by Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon (not required today) - the star turn came from the 31-year-old veteran of three Test matches in 2011, Trent Copeland.

The right-hander claimed 6-24 from 13.3 immaculate overs, having been preferred to fellow seamer Sean Abbott in the Blues' final XI because of a feeling among the brains trust that he might be able to 'nibble' it about with his reduced pace (compared to Starc and Cummins) and unerring accuracy.

"It suits my skills set really nicely," Copeland set after stumps, with NSW 5-153 and leading by 61 runs.

“I can get the ball moving really nicely off the seam, and challenge the forward defence and the lbw and bowled and caught behind the wicket.

"I think it was just seam movement.

“Lateral movement was there all day, no matter how old the ball was for both teams.

“It’s been hard work for both batting groups and if you made the wrong decision you got found out.

“From a selfish bowler's point of view, I think that contest between bat and ball is refreshing at times.

Lehmann would have been neither excited nor vexed by the efforts of his Test spearheads Starc and Cummins, and in the precautionary absence of the third member of Australia's likely Ashes pace triumvirate, Copeland ably filled the Josh Hazlewood role.

The lack of swing and pace at Adelaide Oval meant both were deprived of their respective strike weapons, and when Starc overpitched looking for movement in the air or Cummins hit the deck in search of his trademark lift they were handled with minimal discomfort by SA's openers.

Then, once Copeland ran amok through the Redbacks' middle-order, there wasn't much left for the Test pair to feed on.

Perhaps Lehmann's most relevant insight from a ball-dominated day was just how difficult batting can be on the re-invented Adelaide Oval pitch when the pink ball and floodlights are in play, against bowlers well versed in maximising those advantages.

Which England, like Copeland and SA's seamers, can certainly claim to be.

2017-18 International Fixtures:

Magellan Ashes Series

First Test Gabba, November 23-27. Buy tickets

Second Test Adelaide Oval, December 2-6 (Day-Night). Buy tickets

Third Test WACA Ground, December 14-18. Buy tickets

Fourth Test MCG, December 26-30. Buy tickets

Fifth Test SCG, January 4-8 (Pink Test). Buy tickets

Gillette ODI Series v England

First ODI MCG, January 14. Buy tickets

Second ODI Gabba, January 19. Buy tickets

Third ODI SCG, January 21. Buy tickets

Fourth ODI Adelaide Oval, January 26. Buy tickets

Fifth ODI Perth TBC, January 28. Join the ACF

Prime Minister's XI

PM's XI v England Manuka Oval, February 2. Buy tickets

Gillette T20 INTL Series

First T20I Australia v NZ, SCG, February 3. Buy tickets

Second T20I – Australia v England, Blundstone Arena, February 7. Buy tickets

Third T20I – Australia v England, MCG, February 10. Buy tickets

Fourth T20I – NZ v England, Wellington, February 13

Fifth T20I – NZ v Australia, Eden Park, February 16

Sixth T20I – NZ v England, Seddon Park, February 18

Final – TBC, Eden Park, February 21