Carder leads SA fightback against his former state

A career-high score by new Redbacks recruit Jake Carder coupled with four wickets from leg-spinner Lloyd Pope helped haul South Australia back into a game that had been dominated by Western Australia's heavyweight batting across the first day and a half.

Midway through the Marsh Sheffield Shield season opener, South Australia are 2-164 with Carder 58no and skipper Travis Head unbeaten on 45 in reply to the visitors' daunting total of 9(dec)-465 which included half-centuries today from Josh Philippe and Hilton Cartwright.

Carder was enlisted by SA from Perth to solve their number three batting woes of recent years, and he was given an immediate illustration of why his services are required when the home team lost opener Jake Weatherald (3) in the fifth over of their innings.

It meant he was welcomed to the crease for his maiden innings in a red cap by his former teammates from across the Nullarbor, who doubtless wasted little time in referencing a scoreboard showing 1-10.

But the 25-year-old left-hander, who was likened to former Australia Test opener Matthew Elliott when presented with his SA cap yesterday, showed he has temperament to match his talent against WA's four-pronged pace attack plus rookie off-spinner Corey Rocchiccioli.

Carder's first runs for his new state came courtesy of an exquisite on-drive for four and he appeared unfazed against a near-new ball, which was unsurprising given he began his Shield career for WA as an opener before being installed in the lower-middle order last summer.

He had reached 23 when SA's other opener Henry Hunt (36) managed only a faint touch to an attempted pull shot, but then joined forces with Head for an unbroken third-wicket stand of 96.

Carder posted his maiden half-century for SA with a single to deep point off Rocchiccioli and surpassed his previous highest Shield score – an unbeaten 57 against Queensland last year – with a deft flick off his hip in the shadow of stumps.

WA had made their intentions for day two clear from this morning's resumption as Cartwright and Philippe added 49 runs in the first hour, a bulk of which were scored by the latter.

Phillipe has started the domestic summer in blistering touch, smashing a century in last week's Marsh One-Day Cup game against SA and cruising to 77 from 107 balls today before surrendering his wicket in the chase for quick runs.

"It's the way I like to play spin, I'm quite an attacking player," he said at day's end.

"I probably need to wind it back a little bit.

"I tried to take Popey on and got out, so I probably didn’t need to do that but I'm just trying to stay true to the way I play."

It represents a marked turnaround from his fortunes after a tough introduction to international cricket in Australia's limited-overs outfits this year.

 

The 24-year-old averaged 13.80 from his 10 T20I innings in New Zealand, the West Indies and Bangladesh and 21.66 from three ODI appearances in the Caribbean with a highest score of 45 across both formats.

He surrendered his berth at the top of the order to Ben McDermott for the final three T20Is in Dhaka, and was overlooked for Australia's 15-man squad for next month's T20 World Cup in the UAE and Oman with selectors preferring his WA teammate Josh Inglis as a back-up keeper-batter.

"I didn't quite perform as I would have liked, but if 12 months ago I could have looked back and said I'd play 10 T20s and three ODIs for Australia, I would have thought it was a pretty good year," Philippe said this evening.

"So I'm super proud about it, it didn’t quite go as well as I would have liked but plenty of learnings and hopefully I can keep getting lots of runs and get back in the (Australia) team.

"I'm just really hungry to make some runs and perform well for WA.

"I wasn't around a lot in the last 18 months for WA due to the IPL being on in the first half of (last) season so I'm just enjoying my cricket and playing for WA at the moment."

Player of the match in Wednesday's Marsh One-Day Cup opener at the same venue, where he plundered 137 from 116 balls at the top of the order, Philippe reverted quickly to one-day mode today when left-arm spinner Sam Kerber took the ball.

 

The second and third deliveries of Kerber's spell were lofted beyond the long-on boundary as WA cruised past 400 for the loss of just five wickets.

But the visitors' seemingly inevitable push to a score of 500-plus was slowed when Pope came into the attack shortly after the morning's drinks break.

It's not that WA treated the budding leg spinner with respect belying his years.

Indeed, it was their haste to go after Pope, who punctuated his fiercely fizzing leg breaks with some looping full tosses and wide long-hops, that brought about their undoing.

Philippe's ambitious heave across the line in Pope's second over yielded a top edge that landed in Jake Lehmann's hands at mid-wicket before Cartwright – who had failed to cash in a couple of gifts Pope presented him at the start of his spell – clubbed consecutive sixes from the leggie.

 

Undeterred by the treatment, Pope gained revenge when the former Test allrounder holed out to deep mid-wicket before claiming the wickets of Matt Kelly (0 ) and Inglis (via another catch in the deep for 28) as WA closed their innings soon after lunch.

After sending down just seven of SA's 96 overs on the opening (for 0-36), Pope finished with 4-56 from 8.2 overs on day two with his economy rate of seven per over for those four scalps neatly encapsulating the risk-reward equation his bowling brings.

Pope has made something of a habit of striking success at season's outset, only to lose his place in the SA line-up as summer progresses.

In his second Shield appearance at the start of the 2018-19 campaign, he claimed career-best innings figures of 7-87 against Queensland before going wicketless in his next two and half games.

The 21-year-old started last summer with a similar bang, snaring 5-164 on day one of the Shield season against WA and then saw his next three wickets come at a cost of around 175 each.

 

But he's been working hard during the off-season on having a bigger impact early in games, and achieving greater consistency.

"We've been working on day-one bowling pretty hard over the pre-season, how to work out ways to bowl good balls on wickets that aren't spinning a lot," Pope said after play today.

"Just being really consistent.

"I didn't bowl exactly how I would have liked, there was a couple of loose balls today but in general I think it was pretty good.

"Fortunately enough, today there was a little bit more there for me.

"The wicket is starting to spin a bit, so it will be interesting to see how that plays out.

"It's not going ridiculous, but it seems to be getting a bit drier."