Early Bird blitz puts Tigers on top in Adelaide

It was not only vintage efforts from Tasmania's senior campaigners that lent the start of their Marsh Sheffield Shield against South Australia a distinct hint of veterans' day.

As the Bay to Birdwood classic car rally rolled through Adelaide's streets prior to play starting, and with almost 150 former Redbacks representatives watching on from the historic scoreboard hill throughout the afternoon, ageless seamers Jackson Bird and Peter Siddle (both 4-51) stole the show.

SA were bowled out for 227 an hour before stumps, with Tasmania 1-17 at the close after new SA recruit Ben Manenti plucked a stunning one-handed catch at second slip late in the day to remove opener Caleb Jewell (8).

It was Bird – who turns 36 in December – who set up the Tigers' day one dominance by claiming all four Redbacks wickets to fall in the first session after SA skipper Travis Head won the toss and batted on a cloudless spring day.

Image Id: D9E637189F1C43B9BB8FF904234D6699 Image Caption: Bird took the prized scalp of Henry Hunt in the first session // Getty

"I thought I bowled reasonably well last week against Queensland without getting the rewards, so it was nice to get a few this morning," Bird told cricket.com.au at day's end.

"It was a funny sort of a wicket – a little bit slow and there was a little bit of sideways movement in the morning session and once the ball got a bit soft it was nicer to bat on.

"But any time you can bowl them out with an hour to go on day one it's a good day."

Head was among the former Test seamer's haul of 4-15 (from nine overs) before lunch when his attempted drive on the evenly-grassed pitch yielded a thick inside edge and an uprooted leg stump.

"It was probably two yards fuller than what I wanted it to be, so it was a bit lucky," Bird said.

"He was sitting pretty deep in his crease so in the normal position it probably would have been a full toss.

"But Heady is an unbelievable player and he's showed that through most of his career and certainly playing for Australia last summer, so it's always nice to get him early."

Bird also accounted for SA's in-form opening pair Henry Hunt (13) and Jake Weatherald with both neatly caught by ex-Test keeper Tim Paine who might have completed a top-order trifecta if he'd been able to hang on to a tough, low chance off Jake Carder before he had scored.

Siddle then made a crucial breakthrough an hour after the break when he produced a similar in-ducking delivery to Head's Test teammate Alex Carey, although his dismissal saw the ball sneak between bat and pad from around the wicket and clip the top of leg stump.

It ended a promising partnership between Carey and the innings top-scorer Jake Lehmann (73) that had added 46 at a surprisingly brisk rate of almost four runs an over and meant the top half of SA's batting was back in the sheds with barely 100 on the board.

Siddle – 38 next month – returned after tea and came within a whisker of repeating the famous birthday Test hat-trick he snared at the Gabba against England more than a decade ago when he removed Lehmann and Wes Agar with consecutive deliveries.

His Adelaide Strikers teammate Harry Conway survived the hat-trick ball, but was smartly snared by Beau Webster at second slip soon after to hand Siddle his 706th first-class wicket.

Tasmania appeared set to topple SA for less than 200 until Manenti, making his Shield debut for SA against his former team, bludgeoned a half-century from just 68 balls before being last man out when caught at long-on.

Manenti, who had earlier received his baggy red cap from former SA and Australia ODI left-arm spinner Brad Young, put together a 51-run seventh-wicket stand with Lehmann who was unlucky to be bowled when he inside edged a ball on to his leg before it rebounded on to the stumps.

Manenti then took the long handle to his former Tasmania teammates, who he admits to only having faced a few times previously in the nets, as the hard-hitting all-rounder (who has also turned out for Sydney Sixers in the KFC BBL) posted his maiden first-class half-century.

"I've learned not to expect anything," the 25-year-old New South Welshman said today.

'I've been on the road the last 18 months trying to find a spot where I can settle in and call home, and hopefully play some regular cricket.

"I got a taste of that in Tassie last year and I just wanted more, so I'm very grateful for the opportunity SACA have given me to start the year and hopefully I'm returning the favour thus far."

He certainly justified the faith placed in his close-catching by coach Jason Gillespie who claimed pre-season that it was Manenti's catching expertise as well as his extroverted personality that was just as appealing as his strong hitting and tidy off-spin bowling.

It was also a bonus breakthrough late in the day for SA as he stuck out a left paw with the ball seemingly past him, after Carder had turfed a more straightforward two-hand chance at third slip off Tim Ward in the second over of Tasmania's innings.

"It was past me," he said of the catch off the bowling of fellow new recruit Conway.

"It's funny, I went straight into the slips when I got down here but before that I hadn't been in the slips for a while – I busted my thumb and got a bit gun shy.

"So I've been working pretty hard in there over the pre-season, and I guess this evening that volume of work paid off and hopefully I can stick a few more tomorrow."

Having scored a century in the last-day run chase that brought SA's drought-breaking Shield win against NSW at the end of last summer, Lehmann carried that solid form into the Redbacks' pre-season campaign and was the stand-out batter again today.

His progress today was also being closely followed by the cohort of former players who had gathered en masse for a presentation of commemorative caps (embroidered with their respective SA player numbers), and which included his proud and prominent father, Darren.

The Lehmann lineage extends back to 1987 when Darren made his Shield debut, and a number of his teammates from that game – Glenn Bishop, Andrew Hilditch, Wayne Phillips and Harvey Jolly – were on hand to witness today's trademark fluent left-hander's knock.

There was even a handful of former players from Jake Lehmann's first game in 2015 (Callum Ferguson, Mark Cosgrove, Daniel Worrall) who were among the former greats who began assembling after SA's early stumble in the opening session.

Also sharing a few war stories in the afternoon sun were Tasmania head coach Jeff Vaughan and bowling coach Rob Cassell who were clearly so happy with the way their charges were performing they were able to catch up with a few of their former Redbacks teammates.