Head goes big but draw looms on bowlers' graveyard

South Australia's off-season recruiting spree has delivered them an immediate dividend  but it was the contribution of their most experienced player, deposed Test batter Travis Head, that provided perhaps the most encouraging portent for the summer ahead.

On a benign pitch at Karen Rolton Oval where set batters have proved difficult to dislodge, the Redbacks dominated day three of the Marsh Sheffield Shield season opener that seems destined for a draw barring an unforeseen batting implosion or a bold declaration from Western Australia's Shaun Marsh.

After his century on day one, Marsh resumes on 13 tomorrow with opener Sam Whiteman 35no after ex-Test batter Cameron Bancroft fell to leg spinner Lloyd Pope (who looms as a potential trump card on the final-day pitch) late on day three.

The visitors hold a 49-run lead after SA piled on the runs through skipper Head (163), ex-WA batter Jake Carder (118 in his first innings for his new team) and a free-wheeling 65no from 80 balls from newly enlisted all-rounder Nathan McAndrew.

Carder was signed to address SA's lack of productivity at number three and could hardly have been more impressive in posting his maiden first-class century (from 206 balls) while McAndrew enhanced his all-round credentials after claiming three wickets in his first bowling innings as a Redback on day one.

Carder's knock was doubly impressive given it came against his former teammates who he suspected  held clear plans on how to attack him, plus the fact he found himself at the crease in the innings' fifth over before fashioning a 231-run third-wicket stand with his new captain.

"It's a bit of a double-edged sword," Carder said of making a new start against the team he left earlier this year.

"I've faced them (the WA bowlers) a few times but they've also bowled to me a few times, so they would have had some plans.

"There's a comfort factor against your old team but it also ramps up the nerves a little bit.

"There was a little bit of chat, but it wasn't too bad.

"I kind of expected that but I'd prefer a bit of lip because they're my mates, and it means they kind of respect you."

Carder, who quit WA in search of greater opportunities given the surfeit of batting talent in his home state, was especially pleased with his ability to handle the reverse-swing of the opposition seamers which he claimed was "going both ways" at times today.

But SA's total of 492 also included a now-traditional mid-innings batting collapse in which they lost 6-46 in just under 15 overs due largely to a couple of gut-busting spells from WA fast bowler Lance Morris who finished with 3-93.

Those figures don’t reflect the enormity of Morris' effort, as the 23-year-old channelled the bowling blueprint of New Zealand left-arm seamer Neil Wagner by repeatedly banging the ball into a deck that offered no assistance to seamers, and briefly quelled the bat's dominance in the process.

Image Id: 136ADD22228A421ABD6783B8FBE3CA6C Image Caption: Morris' figures of 3-93 didn't reflect the enormity of his effort // Getty

It was also Morris' tactics – which netted him the key wickets of Alex Carey (37) and Jake Lehmann (12) just as SA were looking to up the run rate – that added extra lustre to Head's 16th first-class hundred.

Despite his irresistible recent form in the Shield competition that has netted him 969 runs at an average of 88 with four centuries from his past 12 innings, Head lost his place in Australia's Test team at the end of last year and his national contract several months later.

One of the question marks over his batting was his fallibility against the short-pitched ball, and while today's workout was hardly reminiscent of the circa 1980s Caribbean quicks on a WACA wicket, Head showed a capacity to withstand the sustained short-pitched attack while keeping his wicket intact.

It undoubtedly helped he was on 146 and in full command when Morris instituted his change of tactics in the hour after lunch, a battle which might have excited the interest of national selection chair George Bailey who was watching intently from the pavilion.

At that stage, Head and Carey were scoring at around five an over and had narrowed the first-innings deficit to less than one hundred when WA went to the Black Caps option with Morris firing the ball at his rivals' upper bodies, with more fielders positioned behind the bat than in front.

It yielded the wicket of Carey who paid the price for counter-attacking by top-edging a pull to deep fine leg, and Lehmann who fended to short leg where Cameron Bancroft snared a smart catch.

Lehmann had graphically shown the perils that awaited bowlers who landed the ball on a length by stroking consecutive boundaries through cover off Matt Kelly the over prior to his demise.

"We just rolled with it," Morris said of the decision to employ the short-pitched strategy.

"There's not much on offer so you've just got to do what you've got to do, find a way to get a wicket and it's times like that I'm probably going to get called on.

"It's obviously very different to the WACA, you've really got to bend your back to get those short balls in but it's a great learning experience.

"It takes a bit out of me, and it seemed like the harder you banged it in, the more loopy it got on the way through but it was good fun."

Having bowled himself to near exhaustion in a four-over spell that earned him 2-8 from virtually all short balls, he returned for another four-over spell that saw him dismiss David Grant (4) before succumbing to cramp from the exertion on a sunny spring afternoon.

Left-arm quick Joel Paris returned the best figures for WA of 3-73, including the wicket of Head whose 215-ball knock came to an end in tame fashion when he bunted a soft catch to short mid-wicket, a result he could barely believe having played barely a false stroke across the preceding three sessions.

It was a mode of dismissal that was always in play on a flat pitch that offered little to the quicks, and it was a similar manner to which Carder's innings ended to give Test allrounder Cameron Green a welcome wicket having sent down almost 64 first-class overs without a breakthrough to that point.

The slow surface has also proved unconducive to finger spin, with SA pair Sam Kerber and Head going wicketless thus far and WA's rookie off-spinner Corey Rocchiccioli toiling without luck across almost 40 overs in his Shield debut before snaring SA's last man Lloyd Pope.

Rocchiccioli might have had his maiden first-class wicket much earlier in the day when keeper Josh Inglis missed a tight stumping, but he has earned himself a place in the game's vast statistical annals albeit for reasons he might prefer to overlook.

With figures of 1-145 in SA's first dig, he boasts the highest Shield bowling average after a debut innings since Queensland's left-arm orthodox Les Quelch returned 1-163 from his maiden outing against New South Wales in 1955-56.

Quelch would go on to play just one more Shield match for the Bulls, but Rocchiccioli's future appears significantly brighter and he will doubtless find pitches more suited to his craft as summer progresses.

Perhaps even tomorrow, if WA decide to push for an outright win.