SA take control after decider's surprise day one wicket spree

The fact South Australia and Queensland had squared off barely a week before they were to meet again in the Sheffield Shield grand final at the same venue meant neither team expected any great surprises come the decider.

So there was demonstrable surprise in both camps when day one of the five-day play off brought more wickets (16) than fell across almost three days of the preceding drawn encounter, with SA holding a 63-run lead after destroying the Bulls for 95.

But the home team's hopes of turning that slender advantage into something substantial depend heavily on their last recognised batting pair Jake Lehmann (42no) and Ben Manenti (36no) building on their so-far unbeaten 46-run seventh-wicket stand.

The damage was done by SA's fastest bowler Brendan Doggett who found sufficient swing to snare 6-31, and then Queensland's 19-year-old speedster Callum Vidler who put SA's top-order on the back foot with genuine pace to claim 4-33 in just his third Shield outing.

"I can't work it out," Queensland keeper Jimmy Peirson said after stumps having seen his team roar back into a match that looked to have slipped from their grasp when their bowled out before tea on day one.

"It (pitch) looks hard, there's probably eight millimetres of grass but there's probably a little bit of slow seam (movement).

"It's not like vicious seam you can see sometimes in this game, it's holdy sort of slow seam and I think as a batsman you get (hands) out in front, it finds the edge and it's carrying.

"I thought the wicket would be better than that, I thought it would be an eight down for 300 at the end of the day sort of wicket.

"I didn't see 16 wickets falling, but finals are a weird thing."

Queensland's 95 represents the lowest score by a team batting first in a Shield final, a record previously belonging to the Bulls when they were skittled for 102 on their home track by New South Wales and ultimately lost the play-off in 2004-05.

And with SA experiencing an equally unproductive contribution from their specialist batters, the wicket spree easily surpassed the previous benchmark for most to tumble on day one of a final which was 12 in the Queensland-WA decider also at the Gabba in 1998-99.

But as Lehmann and Manenti showed in their enterprising stand in today's final hour, SA have hardly produced a 'deck of death' for their home final with batting becoming much more straightforward once the ball incurs 30-35 overs of wear and tear.

That's why the manner in which SA's middle-order succumbed between overs 22 and 35 might yet prove so decisive.

All three of opener Conor McInerney (38), Alex Carey (24) and Liam Scott (6) fell to overtly attacking shots against short-pitched deliveries that yielded self-inflicted wounds.

"I think it’s still quite a nice batting wicket," Doggett said after his six-wicket haul against his former team initially had Rolton Oval rocking with premonitions of an inevitable SA win.

"Obviously I had the ball swinging there a bit and was able to get some edges, and then Vidler just bowled fast and had our boys moving around.

"He put the pressure on in that way, but I think it's a good cricket wicket.

"The game's obviously in fast-forward at the moment, but we'll see how tomorrow pans out and the next few days."

"It was a nervous start from everyone, we dropped a few chances early but it was good to get the ball rolling with a few wickets and the crowd got right behind us, it was a really good atmosphere."

Peirson revealed Queensland would have chosen to bat first if given the choice such was their belief the pitch was not vastly dissimilar to the previous game's flatty, but then suffered a couple of collapses for the ages.

From five overs either side of the day's first drinks break they coughed up five top-order wickets for the addition of seven runs, then surrendered their final 5-27 in less than nine overs after lunch.

The only batter to reach 15 in the face of relentless seam bowling from Doggett, Nathan McAndrew (2-22) and Jordan Buckingham (1-11 from eight overs) was Test-capped allrounder Michael Neser with 34 from 37 balls laced with six boundaries.

With the Rolton Oval's reputation as a batters' haven, SA supporters were already sketching out plans for Shield victory celebrations when Queensland posted the lowest competed innings total at the venue.

But those proposals were hurriedly tucked away as SA succumbed to a similarly dire top-order implosion against the raw pace of flame-haired teen Vidler.

The former Australia under-19 World Cup spearhead in just his third Shield outing accounted for experienced SA duo Henry Hunt and Nathan McSweeney for ducks, both pushing skittishly at balls outside off stump and edging into the slips.

With last-game century maker Conor McInerney providing the only counter-aggression, SA's inability to impact the scoreboard brought the downfall of in-form of Jason Sangha who flashed at a wide half-volley from Neser and also nicked off.

After McInerney's strangulation down the leg side, the home town's angst was briefly quelled by a 39-run fifth-wicket stand between Carey and Lehmann from just 45 deliveries, fuelling talk the combative pitch was finally flattening out.

That was when Vidler returned and snared perhaps his most vital breakthroughs, albeit with a couple of deliveries that he would likely admit weren't his best.

Carey's threatening innings that simply bristled with intent ended when he tried to muscle a short ball from outside off stump over mid wicket, but bottom-edged on to leg stump.

And with the first ball after the day's last drinks break, Scott somehow managed to glove a wayward half-tracker angled further down leg side to keeper Peirson who completed his third tumbling take of the innings.

It meant, in keeping with the manner in which they clinched their most recent Shield title 29 years ago, SA entered a tense final hour holding a lead of just 17 with their last two recognised batters at the crease.

Had SA held the chances Nathan McAndrew created in his opening (if occasionally wayward), McSweeney's call at the coin toss would have been vindicated within the first half hour.

However, with Usman Khawaja missed on 0 (in the game's first over) and 1 by the home team's butter-fingered slips cordon and the Bulls a cautious 0-15 after nine overs in challenging batting conditions, the wisdom of bowling first was the subject of whispered conversations around the parklands ground.

Those chats turned to increasingly raucous cheers across the ensuing 15 minutes of mayhem during which the game's complexity changed in barely believable fashion.

Doggett's first ball of the match saw Khawaja attempt to pull a short delivery that bounced marginally more than anticipated, with the resultant top-edge smartly judged by McAndrew who flung the ball annoyedly into the turf rather than gleefully in the air.

McAndrew might have claimed Labuschagne an over later when the Test number three was surprised by a delivery that jagged back off the pitch, and rebounded from the batter's back leg with some force on to the stumps without dislodging a bail.

SA's suspicion that luck was sorely against them were relieved next ball when Labuschagne flicked a back-of-length ball from his hip to Lehmann who had been stationed in the unfashionable leg gully position for much of the morning.

It was a neat catch given Lehmann would have been unsighted by the batter until the ball was within reach, but that act of fielding inspiration was topped next delivery when Jack Clayton self-combusted in a bid to get off the mark.

Clayton, Queensland's second-highest runs scorer of the Shield season to date behind keeper Jimmy Peirson, took immediately upon pushing McAndrew to cover and was midway down the pitch before hurriedly about-turning.

However, he had no chance of beating Liam Scott's smart pick-up on the run from extra cover and laser-like throw that slammed into the base of middle stump with Clayton a metre or more from salvation.

When Khawaja's opening partner Angus Lovell – replacing Matthew Renshaw who didn't make the trip south with his wife, Josie, expecting the couple's second child – nicked off to Doggett the Bulls had crashed to 4-18.

Sheffield Shield final 2024-25

March 26-30 (10.35am ACDT): South Australia v Queensland, Karen Rolton Oval, Adelaide

The Sheffield Shield final will be broadcast live on Foxtel, Kayo Sports, cricket.com.au and the CA Live app

Teams 

South Australia: Henry Hunt, Conor McInerney, Nathan McSweeney (c), Jason Sangha, Alex Carey (wk), Jake Lehmann, Liam Scott, Ben Manenti, Nathan McAndrew, Brendan Doggett, Jordan Buckingham

Queensland: Usman Khawaja, Angus Lovell, Marnus Labuschagne (c), Jack Clayton, Ben McDermott, Jimmy Peirson (wk), Michael Neser, Jack Wildermuth, Mark Steketee, Mitch Swepson, Callum Vidler