King shines with bat and ball as three-dayer finishes in draw

Alana King will head to Bangladesh for Australia's upcoming tour in top form after almost singlehandedly dragging her side to a final-day victory in the Green v Gold red-ball match in Adelaide.

After her Green team slumped to 5-104, King bashed 81 off just 127 balls and added 154 for the final five wickets to set her Gold opponents 265 to win with about half the day's play remaining at Karen Rolton Oval on Thursday.

But Emma de Broughe continued her strong game with the bat to ensure the match finished in a stalemate, following up her first-innings 115 by scoring 86no to keep King at bay on an increasingly spin-friendly pitch.

The fall of just seven wickets over the first 173.1 overs of the three-day contest at Karen Rolton Oval meant an outright result appeared unlikely.

King did all she could, snaring four of the first five fourth-innings wickets to fall including Katie Mack and Courtney Webb in successive deliveries to leave Gold 5-111.

De Broughe, the recently anointed Betty Wilson Young Cricketer, kept danger bowlers King (4-52) and Heather Graham (3-38) at bay to stave off defeat.

The South Australian opener might have posted her second ton of the match if stumps were not called with Gold 7-173 after 47.5 overs.

Two of Gold's other main holdouts Chali Knott (26 off 24) and Sophie Day (0no from 22) had earlier taken four of the final five Green wickets to fall in the third innings.

Australia speedster Darcie Brown, one of three players in the match named to play limited-overs games in Dhaka later this month along with King and Tayla Vlaeminck, also took two scalps in an over.

That built on an impressive spell from Gabrielle Sutcliffe (3-28) the previous evening.

The flurry of late wickets would have been a relief to national selectors who had arranged the match to build red-ball experience for players outside the core Australian squad given there are no regular women's first-class matches.

"It's been a really good experience for the players that have had the opportunity," chief selector Shawn Flegler said.

"For a few of them it's the first time they've probably played this format, as part of an expanding Australia A program that will happen over the next couple of seasons.

"It was hard work there (for bowlers) in the middle of the game but it started to take a bit of turn on the third day as you'd hope and expect.

"Alana showed her class – she's played a couple of Tests now – and generally the bowlers who can control their lengths well are the ones who will do well in the longest format.

"It's a bit different to the shorter formats where you can get away with missing your lengths a bit more."