Carey's ton overshadowed by Sandhu, Renshaw heroics

A timely ton by Ashes Test hopeful Alex Carey was overshadowed by an historic second Marsh One-Day Cup hat-trick from Queensland recruit Gurinder Sandhu that triggered a stunning South Australia batting collapse, and then a brutal onslaught from ex-Test opener Matthew Renshaw.

Carey and Western Australia's Josh Inglis appear to be vying for the Test keeper's vacancy created by Tim Paine's decision last week to take an indefinite break from cricket, with the South Australian short of runs in his most recent first-class outings.

But his 101 from 93 balls at the top of the Redbacks' innings today was a return that provided reassurance about the left-hander's batting form as he departs for Brisbane tomorrow to join the Australia A squad and be part of the Test team's Ashes preparation.

It was not, however, sufficient to earn his team a win after Sandhu's second one-day hat-trick while representing his third state reduced SA's total to 274 which Queensland chased down with almost eight overs spare thanks largely to Renshaw's maiden Marsh Cup century.

Renshaw finished 156 not out and fashioned a 177-run fourth-wicket stand off 158 balls with Max Bryant (68) as he warmed up for another season with Adelaide Strikers in the BBL by clubbing 54 off just 18 balls immediately after reaching triple figures.

"It was probably one of the better innings of my career," Renshaw said at day's end after posting the fourth-highest one-day score for Queensland after Jimmy Maher (187), Usman Khawaja (166) and Stuart Law (159).

"I was just trying to hit balls where I thought they should go, and I got lucky that bat I've got at the moment absolutely cannons so they were going for four and six.

"And it's probably one of my favourite stadiums in the country, I made my Test debut here (in 2016) and I'm here with the Adelaide Strikers."

It completed a remarkable turnaround for the Bulls who were staring at a sizeable run chase midway through their bowling innings and then found themselves in early strife with the bat.

Sandhu's previous hat-trick came three years ago when he was playing for Tasmania, and removed Victoria trio Matt Short, Fawad Ahmed and Andrew Fekete with the final three balls of the innings at the Junction Oval.

But the 28-year-old, who returned career-best Marsh Sheffield Shield figures with 6-57 for the Bulls against SA last week, played just five of the next 14 One-Day Cup games for Tasmania before taking a punt on a move to Queensland earlier this year.

He felt he'd trapped SA debutant Thomas Kelly lbw with the first delivery of his fifth over today, with a late inswinging yorker that yielded three leg byes and disbelief from the bowler.

But it proved a blessing in disguise as he had Kelly caught at long-off four balls later, and all-rounder Nathan McSweeney's miscued drive skied to extra cover the next delivery.

At the start of his sixth over, he reproduced the yorker from an over earlier and reprised Afghanistan and Adelaide Strikers Rashid Khan famed 'aeroplane' celebration after uprooting Nathan McAndrew's leg stump with the hat-trick ball.

Rashid was the most recent to complete a hat-trick at Adelaide Oval having achieved the feat for Adelaide Strikers in BBL|09 in January last year, but Sandhu is the first to claim the honour in one-day cricket at the famous ground.

He is also the only bowler to have secured multiple hat-tricks in the 52-year history of the domestic one-day competition.

His dismissal of Kelly, who in addition to making his interstate debut was playing his first game alongside twin brother Corey in Redbacks colours, triggered an extraordinary batting collapse in which the home team lost 6-9 in just 15 deliveries.

That implosion meant the total of 350-plus SA were eyeing after Carey and his new opening partner Henry Hunt – replacing Jake Weatherald who was ruled out with concussion after a training mishap – put on 159 for the first wicket was instead capped at 274.

Carey's start was understandably circumspect this morning having posted single-figure scores in each of his past five first-class innings, and the first 20 balls he faced yielded just five runs as Hunt (15 off his first 20) acted as aggressor.

But shortly before the day's first drinks break, the pair upped the urgency and at the same time as SA notched their first 100-run opening stand in the one-day competition for more than four years, Carey reached 50 (from 59 balls faced) with his sixth boundary.

From there the 30-year-old took to the Bulls attack, carting four boundaries from Jack Wildermuth's fourth (and final) over including three consecutive fours down the ground and offering just one chance – a bottom-edged pull shot on 77 that rival keeper Jimmy Peirson couldn't hold in his right glove.

When he reached his second one-day cup hundred of the summer with a single to fine leg off Mark Steketee, Carey exchanged a celebratory 'glove punch' with his skipper and fellow Ashes aspirant Travis Head as they passed mid-pitch.

He also allowed himself a quiet fist pump as he completed the run, acknowledging the significance of the knock from a personal and team perspective.

Unfortunately, when he misread the length of a Marnus Labuschagne leg-spinner in the next over and lost his middle stump on 101, much of the momentum he and Hunt (61 from 74 balls) had generated left the field with him.

"I'm heading up to Brisbane tomorrow to join the Australia A squad, so I'm looking forward to that," Carey said of his upcoming involvement in Australia's Ashes preparation with selectors expected to make an announcement on Paine's replacement for the start of the Vodafone Ashes Series in coming days.

"I've got no control over what happens in selection, so I'll head up there and get amongst the boys and train hard and if it's for Australia A then that's absolutely fine."

Head struggled to get going as Queensland maintained a strong presence of fielders inside the inner circle throughout the innings and managed a solitary boundary in his knock of 29 (off 37 balls) during which he was dropped on 13 and 27.

The 33-run partnership (off 27 balls) for the fifth wicket raised brief hopes the Redbacks might finish with a flourish, but the worst batting collapse in domestic cricket since Tasmania lost 6-6 at the top of their innings against Western Australia at the Gabba in 2014 put paid to that.

Queensland survived a scare at the start of their run chase when a confident lbw shout against opener Sam Heazlett was turned down, but the Redbacks made the breakthrough three overs later when Heazlett top-edged a pull shot.

The Redbacks then made two crucial incursions within an over, when Bulls skipper Khawaja (16 off 25) skied a pull to Corey Kelly on the deep square leg boundary, and Labuschagne fell victim to a neat bit of team fielding.

The Australia Test number three punched McAndrew to cover where Corey Kelly threw himself to his left and knocked the ball to Hunt at point, who then threw down the bowler's end stumps with Labuschagne short of his ground having ignored the truism regarding running on misfields.

At that stage, Queensland were 3-38 in the 11th over and sorely in need of a partnership, which duly arrived thanks to Renshaw and Bryant, a late inclusion for ex-Test opener Joe Burns who had experienced knee soreness during last week's Shield game in Adelaide.

The pair were aided by fielding that mirrored SA's lacklustre late-innings batting, with Lloyd Pope grassing a running outfield chance off Bryant (on 27) and then a straightforward caught and bowled that burst through his fingers off Renshaw when he was on 98.