Stumps Victoria 110 for 4 (Harris 26*, Peake 16*, McAndrew 2-37) trail South Australia 198 (McSweeney 52, Scott 37, Sutherland 4-54, O’Neill 3-30, Boland 2-63) by 88 runs
Sutherland felt the morning session on the third day would be crucial given Victoria’s batters will restart against a 35-over-old ball.
“We saw the first 30-40 overs in our innings the ball did plenty, and I’m sure it’s going to keep doing a bit tomorrow,” Sutherland said after the day’s play. “So I think if we can have as many wickets in hand for when a little bit air comes out of the ball, then hopefully we can get a score a decent way ahead of them.”
Earlier, McSweeney’s half-century was crucial in the context of the game with SA failing to register any first innings batting bonus points. They now have to win the game outright in order to win the Shield.
“I think the game is evenly balanced,” McAndrew said after his two wickets in the evening session. “Obviously now with the bonus points, we’ve got to put a win outright. Probably expect there’ll be a result anyway, so I don’t think it’s the end of the world.”
Victoria’s bowlers were extremely disciplined after the early success on the rain-shortened day one. McSweeney and Alex Carey started solidly on the second morning. McSweeney was impressive in the difficult batting conditions, showing why he remains highly regarded by Australia’s selectors as a Test prospect.
His footwork and shot selection shone in the face of some of excellent spells from O’Neill and Boland. Anything straight was picked off and anything outside his eye-line was left alone. Carey was well held at the other end, unable to break the shackles in an 88-ball 26. A hint of width from Sam Elliott brought about his undoing as he dragged an attempted back-foot drive on to off stump.
Jake Lehmann showed his desire to cut anything fractionally wide. Sutherland set an excellent field with a deep point to protect the boundary. Lehmann tried to cut finer to gully and picked out Dylan Brasher, who took a sharp catch.
McSweeney had stood firm and deserved his fifty when Kellaway’s wild throw gifted him four overthrows to get there. But Boland was unrelenting when he returned from the southern end. Having hardly made a mistake in 126 balls of graft, McSweeney finally nicked his 127th trying to defend Boland from the crease.
It left SA in a deep hole at 117 for 6. But Scott and Ben Manenti countered strongly. Manenti cracked five fours and a towering six in his 28. He fell by the sword, though, picking out deep square when there were three catching men back on the leg side to hand Sutherland his third.
O’Neill picked up the next two with stunning deliveries. He snaked one back through McAndrew’s gate to hit the top of leg. A similar delivery nipped in off the seam to thunder into Thornton’s pad, although the lbw decision could have been debated on height and whether it was hitting leg.
It left SA 186 for 9, needing 15 runs to register 0.01 bonus batting points to give them a chance of claiming the Shield in the event of a draw. Scott manipulated the strike with the field out. He swung hard but was unable to clear the rope. He even top-edged a ball into the grill of his helmet attempting to hoick one over midwicket.
He fell trying to defend, two short of the team’s 200. Sutherland angled from wide of the crease and straightened to beat the outside edge and hit the top of off.
Harper blazed out of the blocks at the start of Victoria’s reply, uppercutting McAndrew for six to get off the mark before launching Jordan Buckingham over deep forward square. McAndrew won the battle, though, when he had him caught behind. Buckingham got a bonus when Brasher tickled a loose delivery down leg to Carey. Handscomb copped a beauty from McAndrew to leave Victoria struggling.
Kellaway looked superb in difficult conditions, playing a sweet on drive and two fabulous cut shots. But out of nowhere Thornton extracted some extra bounce as Kellaway closed the face too soon and McSweeney took an excellent diving catch coming in from cover.
Hunt’s drop shortly after was costly, and to add injury to insult he was forced to run off to get a cut to his nose checked after the lobbed catch burst through his hands and hit him in the face.
Alex Malcolm is an associate editor at ESPNcricinfo
