As Australia built a mammoth first innings lead against the Indian tourists at a soggy Adelaide, Shield games around the country were also affected by the weather, with two of the three matches affected by rain.
Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney
New South Wales capitalised on bowling out Queensland cheaply on day one by slowly and steadily accumulating their own runs, creeping towards a first innings lead.
On an overcast day that was destined to be cut half an hour short by the weather, a magnificently stoic performance by Ryan Carters (111*) lit up the Sydney Cricket Ground. Carters was watchful and patent, taking 262 balls to bring up his century, to put the Blues in a dominant position going into day 3.
Queensland gave themselves a glimmer of hope before lunch, when Cameron Boyce (1-55) and James Hopes (2-42) took the wickets of night watchman Will Somerville (26) and Henry (5) respectively.
Somerville was arguably lucky to still be at the crease for Boyce to claim his wicket, as he was initially given out caught off debutant spinner Cameron Brimblecombe. However, upon conferring, the umpires adjudged the ball to have taken a deflection off the helmet of the man at silly mid-off, which resulted in a dead ball being called.
After Henry was dismissed however, Patterson came to the crease, where he remains not out on 89 from 158 balls overnight, a partnership of 156 with centurion Carters.
Queensland bowled well, restricting NSW to a run rate of only 2.5 runs per over, and standout man James Hopes bowled his 24 overs at a misery 1.75 runs per over, however failing to take a wicket in the final 56 overs of the day is not good enough to be in a position to win the game.
Play will start half and hour early on day 3 to try and catch up overs lost.
Bellerive Oval, Hobart
The promised showers eventuated in Hobart on day 2, as Tasmania were bowled out shortly before lunch. The Redbacks made a promising start to their first innings before the rain intervened.
South Australia knocked off the Tasmanian tail in the morning session, with Dunk (23), Hilfenhaus (16), Doherty (20) and Fekete (0) falling to Lawford (5-82) who took career best figures and day one hero Mennie (4-68), with Jackson Bird (7*) the not out batsman. Putland (1-50) was the other wicket taker, with Sayers (0-64), Botha (0-82) and Cosgrove (0-5) going wicketless.
South Australia made a steady start with the bat, with Cosgrove (60*) the stand out performer not out overnight with Time Head (8*). Cosgroves opening partner fell early to Hilfenhaus (1-26), while Ferguson (19) and Cooper (20) got starts before falling to Faulkner (1-20) and Fekete (1-32) respectively.
The Redbacks will resume at an earlier start time of 10:00am, with play due to extend to 6:00pm if possible to account for the lost time today, 248 runs behind with 7 first innings wickets in hand, and with no rain expected for the rest of the match, there is still plenty to play for for both sides.
WACA, Perth
Western Australia did well to limit the impact of the Victorian tail, but lost valuable wickets in this top of the table clash at the WACA.
The Warriors will resume tomorrow trailing by 131 runs with half their wickets remaining in what promises to be an intriguing second half of the match.
The Victorians were bowled out before lunch, with a collapse after losing the wicket of Wade (68), who departed curtesy of the pick of the WA bowlers Mackin (3-55).
Tremain (0), Bolland (1) and Ahmed (0) all capitulated soon after, with John Hastings (37*) providing the only resistance to the WA bowlers. It was Mackin – who missed out on a hat trick – and Rimmington (2-64) who accounted for the tail, as Behrendorff (1-97), Hogan (3-65), Agar (1-53) and Voges (0-9) failed to improve their figures.
The Western Australian batsmen struggled to get going against a Victoria side who utilised 7 bowlers so far this innings. Only Shaun Marsh (55) and Adam Voges (91*) provided any real resistance as he closes in on another first class century.
Bancroft (29), Klinger (5) – who was taken caught behind down the leg side by an absolute beauty of a catch from Wade – Beaton (18) and Behrendorff (2) all failed to get a start, leaving the home side with a bit of work to do on day 3 to match the Bushrangers first innings score.
The wickets were shared between Stoinis (1-29), Bolland (1-18), Christian (1-50), Ahmed (1-29) and Maxwell (1-8), who accounted for Marsh in one of his two overs. Tremain (0-39) and Hastings (0-36) failed to get a wicket so far. Bolland looks to have bowled particularly well, limiting the WA batsmen to only 1.5 runs per over off his 12 overs.
This match is almost certainly building to a crescendo, and is living up to its billing of first verses second in the table. It will be interesting to see how it plays out, with no rain expected out west for the duration of the game.
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