Pitch issue puts dampener on Test batting shootout

The scheduled shoot-out between Australia Test aspirants Usman Khawaja and Travis Head was prematurely muzzled today due to the state of the pitch at Karen Rolton Oval.

The Marsh Sheffield Shield match between South Australia and Queensland began more than two hours late on day one due to persistent drizzle which ensured the pitch remained under covers for the entire morning.

It was billed as a bat-off between Head and Khawaja who are both vying for the one vacant batting berth after being named in the 15-man Australia Test squad last week.

When play began around 1pm local time and Queensland were sent into bat, Bulls openers Joe Burns and Bryce Street found scoring difficult but there was little indication of the trouble ahead until Burns was dismissed in the 35th over.

The former Test opener was struck on the glove after pressing forward to a ball from David Grant that lobbed to second slip and he looked ruefully at the pitch as he left the field.

He was replaced by incumbent Test number three Marnus Labuschagne who copped several deliveries during his 48-ball stay that leaped from the surface, one of which struck him on the left arm as he reeled back in surprise.

 

Image Id: 376907A398534C69811934420C57A78F Image Caption: Marnus Labuschagne pulls his gloves away from a delivery that reared up off the surface at Karen Rolton Oval // Getty

Umpires Donovan Koch and Mike Graham-Smith conducted several examinations of the surface, and then called SA skipper Head into a conference with Labuschagne which was also joined by Queensland captain Khawaja before the players left the field.

Following several meetings with match referee (and former Test umpire) Steve Davis, the umpires and captains it was agreed the day's play would be halted with Queensland 1-87 off 50 overs with the pitch to be rolled for seven minutes before being covered overnight.

With more rain forecast overnight, Davis advised further remedial work – including another light rolling – would be undertaken tomorrow morning in keeping with Shield playing conditions, with the hope the match would resume at 10am (SA time).

"It's not undulated," Davis said of the problem area that affected batters at the southern end of the ground.

"It's an area where the ball is sticking a bit, so there's obviously some dampness underneath.

"It's only about a metre square, but obviously once you see a ball doing that, if you're any sort of bowler you're going to aim for that spot.

"There's a potential of it being dangerous, so play has been suspended for today.

"It was obvious the umpires had some concerns, and the players had some concerns.

"There was a couple of people that were hit on the gloves and in the stomach area, and it was just behaving a bit unusually and that always gives you a bit of an alert.

"Both captains were very reasonable about it.

"They did check with their teams, and didn't want to make the decision right there but we did want the captains to agree and they have thankfully because they're both interested in having a game of cricket.

"We start again tomorrow, we probably won't lose a lot of overs in the game at that stage depending on other weather around."

Davis confirmed the player concerns had arisen from the batting team, and that the remedial work being undertaken was consistent with the sort of tamping-down often employed to repair bowlers' footmarks in addition to the seven-minute stints with the heavy roller tonight and tomorrow morning.

However, he confirmed that if the work undertaken by Rolton Oval head curator Trent Kelly and his team did not seem to have fixed the issue when play resumes, then further measures will be explored.

"Nobody's got any guarantees on what this work will do," he said.

"The head groundsman is quite confident this will help that situation, but until we get back on tomorrow and see how the ball behaves, we won't know.

"There's all sorts of possibilities, but if it did it again you'd have to question 'well that didn't work, what can we do now'.

"And obviously the safety of players is paramount, and both teams are keen to progress with the game."

The decision to play the final Shield game before the start of the Vodafone Ashes Series at Rolton Oval was only confirmed on Sunday evening, when Cricket Australia announced finals of the Weber WBBL would be held at Adelaide Oval on Wednesday and Thursday evenings.

As a consequence, Kelly and his staff prepared a number of pitches for both white-ball and red-ball games with the Shield pitch being located on the eastern edge of the wicket block.

Labuschagne, who was unbeaten on 21 with Street 45 not out (from 147 balls faced) when play was suspended around 5pm, would doubtless be mindful of the first Ashes Test starting at the Gabba in a fortnight.

While he was clearly concerned about the inconsistent bounce being extracted by SA seamers Grant and Nathan McAndrew, he did not appear to have suffered any significant injury and took part in end-of-day hand tennis activities with his teammates this evening.

Burns also show no ill effects of the blow he copped to his hand, but the fact the normally fluent opener faced 105 deliveries to score his 17 before being dismissed provided testament as to how difficult shot-making was on the day-one surface.

Queensland might have found themselves in even greater difficulty had the Redbacks held on to several chances their disciplined bowlers created.

Burns was on 11 when he top-edged a sweep from leg spinner Lloyd Pope, but McAndrew spilled the waist-high chance at deep backward square leg.

In Pope's next over, Street squeezed a head-high chance that sailed past the outstretched right hand of Henry Hunt at short-leg, and shortly after Burns (on 14) edged Grant but the ball failed to carry to Head at first slip.

And Labuschagne was on just one when he slapped a full, wide delivery from Pope to extra cover where Jake Carder was able only to get his fingertips to the difficult chance as he dived low to his left.

The most recent Shield game to be called off due to the state of the pitch was the game between Victoria and Western Australia at the MCG in December 2019, which was abandoned with WA 3-89 after less than 40 overs.