Konstas joins game's greats with second Shield ton

Should history provide a reliable guide, Australian cricket might well have unearthed its next batting prodigy.

While nobody is seriously suggesting Sam Konstas is vying for a berth in the men's Test team just yet, his dual centuries for New South Wales in the season-opening Sheffield Shield game against South Australia places him alongside some of the game's genuine greats.

Two days after posting 152 to record his maiden first-class hundred, Konstas backed up with 105 in the Blues' second innings today as his team took control of the game at Cricket Central.

The teenaged opener put NSW in control of their clash with South Australia at Cricket Central, allowing the hosts to declare at 6-282 late on Thursday. 

South Australia went to stumps on 1-7 chasing 389 runs for victory, after Nathan Lyon struck early to dismiss Connor McInerney without scoring.

Having celebrated his 19th birthday just eight days ago, Konstas became the third-youngest to post hundreds in both innings of a Shield game behind ex-Test legends Ricky Ponting and Archie Jackson.

Ponting achieved the feat in 1993 at the age of 18 years 85 days, scoring 107 and 100no batting at number four on his home track at Bellerive, against a Western Australia attack that included Test bowlers Jo Angel, Brendon Julian and Tom Moody.

Within two years, Ponting was selected for the first of his 168 Test appearances.

Jackson, who had debuted for NSW as a 17-year-old, was aged 18 years 124 days and in his 10th Sheffield Shield game when he added 122 to the 137 he posted in the first innings against SA at the SCG in January 1928.

It was also Jackson's first Shield outing as an opener and barely a year later he was named to fill that role for Australia against England at Adelaide Oval where he plundered 164 in his maiden Test innings.

Even the incomparable Don Bradman was in his sixth Shield appearance and had recently turned 20 before he registered the milestone, scoring 131 and 133no against Queensland at Brisbane’s Exhibition Ground in 1928.

Konstas's match aggregate of 257 was also the highest in the Shield competition for a batter aged below 20, eclipsing Doug Walters' 253 (albeit scored in one innings) aged 19 years 46 days for NSW against SA 60 years ago.

Jackson and Walters both earned Baggy Green Caps at age 19 while Ponting was 11 days shy of his 21st birthday when he received his.

Konstas has already experienced international success as a key part of Australia's Under-19 World Cup-winning outfit in South Africa earlier this year, where he notched a century against West Indies.

But even that tournament triumph must have paled alongside his two stunning knocks over the past three days that were witnessed first-hand by national selection panel chair George Bailey and Test skipper Pat Cummins who was at Cricket Central on Tuesday.

In just his fifth Shield appearance, Konstas plundered 13 boundaries and four sixes in his maiden century that was characterised by precision driving through the off-side when SA's bowlers offered him width.

But the opener, whose batting coach is former Bangladesh first-class player Tahmid Islam with ex-Australia allrounder Shane Watson enlisted as a mindfulness mentor, also showed a preparedness to latch on to anything short as well as deft footwork against spin.

All of Konstas's four sixes in the first innings were the result of hefty blows over mid-on and mid-wicket, and it was another slog-sweep beyond the boundary off Ben Manenti that carried him to his historic hundred today.

Even before that ball had landed at deep mid-wicket he was walking towards his NSW teammates in the dug-out, proudly pointing to the Blues logo on his shirt.

"I thought today was a bit more gritty, I thought they bowled really well but happy with that result," Konstas said following his second hundred of the match. 

"They (SA) had different plans – they were bowling the wider one, and how I was going to go about that was different.

"I had to be a bit ruthless and cop my medicine a bit and I was lucky enough to get the hundred today.”

By dint of his exploits on day one of the Shield season, Konstas had become the youngest New South Wales batter since Kurtis Patterson (in 2011-12) to post a score of 150 or more.

Patterson, the most recent Blues' player to earn a Baggy Green Cap when called up against Sri Lanka in 2019, was aged 18 years 236 days when he scored 157 against WA at the SCG.

And only two other players – Marcus Harris (157 for WA against Queensland in 2010-11) and Clem Hill (206no for SA against NSW at the SCG in 1895-96) can claim a Shield score of 150-plus before turning 19.

Unlike his largely flawless 152 on Tuesday, Kostas received a couple of reprieves during his innings of almost five hours today.

He was missed before he had scored when Test keeper Alex Carey dropped a chest-high chance off Nathan McAndrew in the second over of the Blues' innings.

And on 21 he miscued a pull off Brendan Doggett that narrowly eluded Henry Hunt who dived full length forward after sprinting in from the deep mid-wicket boundary.

But for much of the remainder of his stay, the prolific runs scorer in Sydney's under-age competitions since age 10 remained in control and unfazed until he unselfishly holed out to deep mid-off chasing quick runs asa declaration loomed.

"Sam Konstas is, from a batting perspective, one of the most mature young players I've come across," NSW coach Greg Shipperd had earlier told cricket.com.au ahead of the current season getting underway.

"He's got a real poise about himself at the crease.

"But equally, he's got a really open mind about batting.

"His work ethic is terrific.

"So he's fitted into our team like a glove, and there's just an assuredness about his game.

"I think he can go all the way – I'm fairly confident of that."

Earlier, off-spinner Lyon continued an impressive lead-in to the Test summer, finishing his first outing of the summer with a five-wicket haul.

Lyon (5-47) made quick work of the South Australian tail to be all out for 260.

Lyon expects to play two more matches for NSW ahead of the five-match series against India that begins in Perth late next month.