Hunt resolute as Bulls grab momentum late on day one

Opener Henry Hunt scored a century to hold the South Australia innings together before Queensland struck back with the new ball to leave honours even after day one of their Sheffield Shield match in Brisbane.

Hunt remained resolute throughout to end unbeaten on 130 as the visitors reached 7-289 at stumps.

He brought up his ninth first-class century with a towering six off leg-spinner Mitchell Swepson after taking 236 balls to reach three figures in a watchful knock.

Queensland concluded a long day in the field at Allan Border Field taking 4-24 at one stage during the final hour.

South Australia lined up with Jake Lehmann returning after a second XI century in place of Test star Travis Head, who misses the match due to the impending arrival of his and wife Jess' second child.

There were also changes to the bowling line-up with Liam Scott and Wes Agar replacing Lloyd Pope and Brendan Doggett.   

Queensland made two changes for their first home match of the Shield campaign with injured allrounder Jack Wildermuth and rested pace bowler Tom Straker omitted. Batter Lachlan Hearne and debutant paceman Tom Whitney came in for the pair.

The Bulls failed to take advantage of winning the toss, with new skipper Marnus Labuschagne sending South Australia in to bat and the visitors putting on a century opening stand.

Conor McInerney and Hunt scored at barely 2.5 runs an over in reaching 106 before the former was caught behind for 51 off Test aspirant Michael Neser.

Captain Nathan McSweeney posted 37 only to offer Jimmy Peirson a second catch, this time delivering a debut wicket for Whitney.

It became two wickets in successive overs for Whitney when he bowled Daniel Drew for a duck.

The scoring rate didn't pick up until Test wicketkeeper Alex Carey arrived at the crease just after the tea break.

He was eventually undone by Neser's first over with the new ball, offering a simple catch to mid-off from a leading edge. 

Carey looked comfortable in his 42 off 63 balls, having also scored 90 and 111 in the season opener.

Mark Steketee achieved a similar dismissal in the following over as Lehmann's attempted flick to leg ended up in a catch at gully and a second-ball duck for the middle-order batter.

Steketee then bowled Scott for nine and Whitney knocked over Ben Manenti for seven as South Australia lost 4-49 from 15 overs against the new cherry.

The 21-year-old Whitney was the pick of the bowlers with 3-51, while Neser returned 2-46 and Steketee 2-69.

Sheffield Shield standings 2024-25

Team	Matches played M	Wins W	Losses L	Drawn D	No results N/R	Deductions Ded.	Batting Bonus Bat	Bowling Bonus Bowl	Total points PTS
1 South Australia Men SA	6	3	1	2	0	0	4.63	5.3	29.93
2 Victoria Men VIC	6	3	2	1	0	0	3.76	5.3	28.06
3 NSW Men NSW	6	2	2	2	0	0	5.5	4.7	24.2
4 Western Australia Men WA	6	2	2	2	0	0	5.11	4.8	23.91
5 Queensland Bulls QLD	6	1	2	3	0	0	4.71	5.6	19.31
6 Tasmanian Tigers Men TAS	6	1	3	2	0	0	6.05	4.6	18.65

Legend

M: Matches played

W: Wins

L: Losses

D: Drawn

N/R: No results

Ded.: Deductions

Bat: Batting Bonus

Bowl: Bowling Bonus

PTS: Total points