South Australia and Queensland are poised to fight out a tense final day in the Sheffield Shield despite a stellar performance from Nathan McAndrew threatening to blow the match open for the Redbacks.
McAndrew claimed six wickets on the third day of the Gabba clash to reduce Queensland from a strong position at 1-82 in its first innings to just 238 in reply to the Redbacks’ 5-359 declared.
His scalps included returning Bulls captain Usman Khawaja, who feathered an outside edge through to Harry Nielsen to depart for 3 after McAndrew drew a false shot away from his body.
It was an underwhelming return for the Test opener after he was rested from Queensland’s previous two matches in Mackay and Hobart along with a pair of Marsh Cup games.
First innings centurion Henry Hunt fell shouldering arms for a duck as the Redbacks set out to build their lead but slumped to 8-124 just before stumps as Gurinder Sandhu (3-19) and Mark Steketee (2-25) tore through the lower order.
South Australia had a lead of 245 runs with two wickets in hand, setting up an intriguing fourth innings as Khawaja and Matt Renshaw look to make up for their first innings failures.
Victorian captain Will Sutherland said he wouldn’t lose any sleep over his decision to send Tasmania in at the toss following a drawn run-fest at the CitiPower Centre.
Only 22 wickets fell over four days before the two sides agreed to call off play at tea on Wednesday following a bizarre two hours which included two overs of off-spin from Marcus Harris.
Todd Murphy bowled leg-spin and concussion sub Campbell Kellaway was thrown the ball as Tasmania took 68 overs to eke out 2-183 in the second innings.
Tigers captain Jordan Silk topscored with an unbeaten 82 as opener Tim Ward finished the game on 78 not out.
Sutherland bore no ill will towards Tasmania’s conservative tactics with bat and ball, saying there was little either side could do to break the game open on a lifeless Junction Oval wicket.
We still tried to set up a game and if we had bowled superbly, we might have been able to do it,” he said after shaking hands with Silk.
“That’s no fault of the Tassie boys, it’s just the way the game went.
“Do I regret my decision (to bowl first)? I’m not sure, but hopefully I can win some tosses that are a bit more important to come.”
Victorian quick Fergus O’Neill rolled his ankle while sending down his first delivery on Tuesday and came from the field, but returned on day four and bowled two more overs as the Vics said he had no lingering injury concerns.
Marcus Harris was named man of the match after his first innings 164, which trumped in-form Tasmania No. 3 Charlie Wakim’s assured 148 on the opening day of the clash.
