Sheffield Shield Round 9, Day 1: The Pink Ball Debuts
South Australia vs New South Wales
The Redbacks won the toss and elected to bat first. There were a couple of starts before Blues spinner Stephen O’Keefe wreaked havoc on the top order. He bowled the in form Michael Klinger for 37 and then had the man 2nd on the run scorers list for the season, Tom Cooper, caught behind for a first ball golden duck. Callum Ferguson was the only South Australia to go on with it, his 75 run partnership with Adam Zampa (48) helped SA out of big trouble at 7/165. The Redbacks finished the day at 8/265, Ferguson is still at the crease on 79, a very patient innings off 194 balls. Stephen O’Keefe has figures of 4/75.
Victoria vs Tasmania
Tasmania won the toss and also chose to bat at the Adelaide Oval, as you almost always do there. The Tigers got off to a good start with openers Mark Cosgrove and Ed Cowan getting 55 and 45 respectively. The middle order faltered somewhat, but at 5/200 Tassy were still in a decent position to post a good first innings total. Calamity then struck. Paine and Dunk went, before the long Tassy tail was quickly buried by the Victorian bowlers. They lost an incredible 5/6 to be all out for 206. Fawad Ahmed was the chief destroyer for the Bushrangers, taking 4/49 off 18. The Victorian opener showed there was nothing awry with batting conditions, reaching 0/56 at stumps. Tassy need to keep pressing, we’ve seen how quickly the Vics batting can fall apart and a couple of wickets will test out their metal. No Glenn Maxwell in the line-up either.
Queensland vs Western Australia
Going against the grain, WA sent the Bulls in at the Gabba. It isn’t looking like the best decision at the moment, with Queensland finishing the day 5/269 thanks to 88 from Chris Lynn and a so far unbeaten 74 from Peter Forrest. The other talking point from the day’s play was yet another injury to Mitch Marsh who left the field after bowling 6.5 overs.
