Bulls fightback jacked up by twin tons to even the contest

Having gone more than eight years without scoring a Shield century, Jack Wildermuth has blazed two in less than a fortnight against South Australia to almost singlehandedly carry Queensland within sight of a most extraordinary title triumph.

It was Wildermuth's breakthrough ton at Karen Rolton Oval in the final preliminary round of games 11 days ago – his first since March 2017 – that secured the Bulls sufficient bonus points to reach the decider that they now hold an even chance of winning.

That's because his 111 of 140 balls today has his team daring to dream having set competition pacesetters SA a target of 270 across the last two days to win the Shield, a total not previously achieved in the play-off's 42-year history.

The fall of Queensland's final wicket at stumps on day three ended their second innings on 445, after tons to Wildermuth, Jack Clayton and an invaluable half century by tailender Mark Steketee after the top-order again wobbled.

While SA's attack toiled manfully on an unforgiving surface that literally tore the stuffing from the ball this morning, their biggest threat remained first-innings destroyer Brendan Doggett who sent down 35 overs to claim 5-109 against his former team

Coupled with his 6-31 on day one, it gave him a maiden 10-wicket match haul for the right-armer and sees him boast the best figures in a Shield final eclipsing Tasmania's Shane Jurgensen's 11-172 against Queensland in the 2001-02 decider.

He might have set a new benchmark having induced a miscued pull shot by Clayton (then on 85), but the resultant top edge landed well in front of the fielder charging in from the fine leg fence.

But Queensland's seventh-wicket duo were otherwise a textbook hybrid of studied defence and controlled aggression as the crowd that had surged into KRO hoping to see a day three triumph squirmed nervously on their picnic rugs.

"It's kind of yin and yang and the way he bats and the way I bat," Clayton said of his game-changing union with Wildermuth.

"He comes out and it's see-ball hit-ball, and we saw the way he batted last week at this venue to get us into the Shield final.

"When he's on a heater he's really on a heater, and at the moment he is and the way he batted today was fantastic.

"He played without fear, when the ball's in his area he whacks it for four and when it wasn't he was disciplined and defended well."

Alongside Clayton's more restrained 100 off 249 balls, Wildermuth lifted Queensland off the mat at 6-221 and just 45 runs ahead when the second new ball was taken at lunch, when some SA fans were already plotting an afternoon victory party.

"At lunch I thought 'geez this game could be over quickly' but it was nice to have a good partnership with Jack Wildermuth and get our team into a position where we feel like we can win the Shield final," Clayton said today.

But the final two sessions brought a stunning twist with Queensland piling on the pain by adding 224 runs for their final four wickets with SA now needing the highest successful fourth-innings run chase in Shield final history to break their 29-year title drought.

The current benchmark is Victoria's 2-239 to defeat New South Wales at the MCG in 1990-91, with that pursuit underpinned by a century from Jamie Siddons who led SA to their most recent Shield crown in 1995-96.

"It's simple isn't it," SA spinner Ben Manenti said of the assignment that now separates his team from a drought-breaking title win.

"We've got 270 to chase and the Shield's ours.

"It won't be easy but we've seen this afternoon it's still a beautiful cricket wicket to bat on.

"We'll nut it out in the morning, how we're going to go about it and hopefully this time tomorrow night we have a Shield in our hands, or have a few to chase the next day.

"It's a Shield final, it was never going to be over in two days and us have the choccies.

"It was always going to be a grind, there's always a twist and a turn especially in the final."

The second new ball that seemed set to swing the game in SA's favour when it brought a wicket in its first over instead proved a false prophet, as Queensland's backs-to-the-wall batters instead scored runs more freely than any previous point in the game.

But as Manenti noted, that went soft after barely a dozen overs due to the highly abrasive KRO wicket block and the Bulls scored 116 runs from 27 overs in the middle session having managed just 44 from the same number in the first two hours.

While Clayton provided the Bulls' backbone, it was the arrival of Wildermuth immediately after lunch that altered the dynamic of a game SA had driven since they skittled Queensland for 95 on the opening day.

There were several lbw shouts against him, the most vociferous off Nathan McAndrew when Wildermuth was 95 and his progress slowed as he neared his milestone, but apart from that he barely made a misstep.

Clayton had earlier become the first player to claim a golden duck and a century in the same Shield final, and his match-changing second innings could not have proved a greater contrast to his brain-fade first.

Where his day one run out when he pushed his first delivery and instantly took off for a kamikaze run reeked of panic, the 26-year-old – who finishes the Shield season as Queensland's leading runs scorer – was a picture of patience in a stay of almost six hours.

The left-hander offered his only genuine chance on 43 when he edged Liam Scott to slip where Ben Manenti, standing close and potentially unsighted by keeper Alex Carey up at the stumps, dived low to his right but couldn't hold the finger-tipper.

And there was a certain irony in him reaching three figures with a deft dab on the off-side followed by a scurried single, the same scenario that had brought his demise on the first morning.

He then celebrated by pointing to the 'smiley face' batting coach Wade Townsend had instructed him to draw on the shoulder of his bat to remind to "smile and enjoy" his time in the middle, though he denied that was prompted by his day one catastrophe.

Two balls later the left-hander was on his way back to join them, adjudged lbw in trying to sweep off spinner Manenti who had sent down just six overs for the match prior to achieving that crucial breakthrough.

Given the efforts of SA's all right-arm pace attack across Queensland's batting efforts to that point of the final, it seemed spin wouldn't play a part.

SA's relentless push to the title they had seemed within touching distance of since scything through the Bulls for 95 on day one was built upon the same stifling bowling pressure they've applied throughout their dominant season.

On a Rolton pitch where the day one demons had become all-but absent, the home team found a way to snare three wickets in today's morning session at a cost of just 44 runs from 27 overs, 26 of which were sent down with an old ball.

Any hope Queensland held of upping the pace was effectively quelled when Doggett struck two vital blows in the day's opening hour.

Fifteen minutes after the resumption he pinned hard-hitting Ben McDermott in front of his stumps with one of the few deliveries to move off the straight, a full-pitched offering that jagged back into the right hander and would have taken leg stump.

In his next over, Doggett reprised that ball to gain the same result against Jimmy Peirson who habitually makes runs against SA as seen with the classy 128 he peeled off when the teams previously met at the same venue a fortnight earlier.

At 5-192 and only 16 runs to the good, Queensland found themselves vexed.

The outright win they needed to claim the Shield required a sufficiently hefty lead to challenge SA's batting in the fourth innings, but the overt pursuit of those runs rendered them at risk of being bowled out.

Consequently, Clayton and Michael Neser dropped anchor at a time when scoring was tough because of the battle-scarred ball that was finding some reverse swing and they put on just 25 from 20 overs before the second new ball was taken on the cusp of lunch.

At that stage, it was going to take something of a miracle against the second new ball to stem SA's victory charge and Clayton and Wildermuth, with support from Steketee, duly delivered.

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

Squads

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

Queensland: Marnus Labuschagne (c), Jack Clayton, Lachlan Hearne, Usman Khawaja, Angus Lovell, Ben McDermott, Michael Neser, Jimmy Peirson, Matthew Renshaw, Mark Steketee, Tom Straker, Mitchell Swepson, Callum Vidler, Jack Wildermuth