An Usman Khawaja century and bad weather has helped New South Wales avoid defeat in their Sheffield Shield clash against South Australia at Adelaide Oval.
ScorecardAn Usman Khawaja century and bad weather has helped New South Wales avoid defeat in their Sheffield Shield clash against South Australia at Adelaide Oval.
Needing to bat out the final day to save the match, the Blues reached 5-402 and a lead of 141 runs before play was eventually called off late in the final session due to a second rain shower.
Resuming day four at 2-194 and still 67 runs behind the Redbacks' massive 9-478 declared in their first dig, the Blues recovered from the early loss of Simon Katich to slowly edge clear of SA's total.
Khawaja was responsible for saving the Blues with a superb 101 to ensure SA wouldn't get maximum points.
His patient knock was the highlight of the final day with the Test No.3 resisting the temptation to hit boundaries in preference to finding gaps in the outfield.
He lost his wicket just before tea, but Moises Henriques (65) and Peter Neville (28) finished unbeaten to safely guide their side away from defeat.
Test spinner Nathan Lyon looked to have wrestled some hope back for the hosts when he trapped Khawaja lbw just before the tea break, but the Redbacks couldn't land any more scalps.
Forced to follow-on on Wednesday after being skittled for 217, the Blues lost just three wickets on Thursday.
The Redbacks secured the early breakthrough they wanted, with stalwart Katich (20) caught at slip after lunging at a wide delivery from left-armer Dan Christian.
Katich stood his ground, suggesting the ball missed his bat and instead ballooned out of the footmarks to SA skipper Michael Klinger, but he eventually walked, leaving the Blues at 3-195.
Skipper Ben Rohrer (29) fell leg before when seamer Gary Putland caught him on the back foot midway into the second session and when Khawaja was dismissed a Redbacks victory looked possible until the heavens opened up for the first time.
The Blues were red-faced when forced to follow-on but stubborn second-dig resistance led by Phil Hughes (61) and his opening partner Nic Maddinson (77) put a stop to the Redbacks' dominance in the match.
All-rounder Christian, who scored a century on Tuesday, finished with figures of 1-87, Putland had 2-56 while Test paceman Peter George went wicketless after his 5-36 in the first innings.
Lyon finished with 2-107 and 11 maidens from 41 overs as he shouldered most of the bowling load on a wearing fourth-day pitch.
An outright win would have seen the Redbacks join Western Australia and Queensland at the top of the table on six points after the opening round of the season, but they had to settle for just first-innings points.
New South Wales batted one short for the entire match with Beau Casson returning home to Sydney following treatment for a congenital heart condition that flared on Monday.
