Vics end day two in dominant position

South Australia will need to overcome the overbearing precedent of history if they are to claim a drought-breaking Sheffield Shield title after Victoria assumed a daunting position in the competition-decider in Alice Springs.

The Bushrangers, needing only a draw to be crowned Sheffield Shield champions for the third consecutive year, batted stubbornly for the majority of the second day before eventually being bowled out for 487.

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They hold a 468-run lead, with Jake Weatherald (five) and Callum Ferguson (12) taking the Redbacks to 1-19 at stumps.

No side has ever conceded more than 450 in the first innings of a Shield final and won.

A dour 383-ball, 139-run seventh-wicket partnership between James Pattinson (80) and Seb Gotch (52) lasted the entirety of the second session to keep the Redbacks roasting in near-40 degree temperatures.

And if it wasn’t for the sterling efforts of unfaltering paceman Chadd Sayers, whose haul of 7-84 was the fifth-best innings figures ever in a Shield final, they may have found themselves fronting up for a third straight day in the field.

Not to mention the meticulous glovework of Alex Carey, who took five catches to notch his 58th dismissal of the season, equalling Chris Hartley and Wade Seccombe’s all-time Sheffield Shield record.

But after so much toil from the Redbacks, their hearts sunk when second-gamer John Dalton had his off-stump violently uprooted by a fired-up Pattinson in the first over to reduce them to 1-0.

South Australia had begun the second day in far better fashion, resurrecting hopes of their claiming the Shield silverware for the first time in two decades when they claimed 3-7 in the space of 41 balls in the morning session.

After starting with an uncharacteristically wayward five wides, Sayers got his radar right to have Rob Quiney (48) edging behind as Carey took a sharp diving catch to his left.

Skipper Cameron White (17) followed him back soon after when he laced a wide Sayers outswinger straight to Jake Lehmann at cover.

And after Daniel Worrall fed Carey another catch with Daniel Christian (four) nicking behind, the Bushrangers were on the back foot for the first time in the match.

But a deflating partnership between the diminutive ‘keeper-bat Gotch and the imposing speedster Pattinson cooled the Redbacks’ hopes of a larger collapse.

Pattinson though should have been run-out on 18 when he bizarrely began a quick single after being struck on the pads by Worrall.

The 17-Test quick thought the ball had eluded the diving Carey, yet after the gloveman gathered the ball, his hurried underarm shy missed the stumps – just about the only error the 25-year-old made in the 166.2 overs – with Pattinson stranded metres down the track.

The spin duo of Travis Head and Adam Zampa were largely ineffective, with their 71 combined overs costing 237 runs and bringing a solitary wicket.

Pattinson looked every bit the top-order batsman in his 210-ball stay, a square-cut for four off a regulation Sayers offering a demonstration of his class with the willow.

The left-hander departed when he edged behind to give Sayers his fifth scalp and bring about a quick end to the Victorian innings.

Gotch, a pocket-sized part-time gloveman who was called into Victoria’s side after Sam Harper was concussed in February, posted his maiden first-class half-century but was trapped lbw by Joe Mennie soon after, to give the recent Test debutant a well-deserved scalp. 

Carey took his best catch – a diving one-hander to his right - when Chris Tremain, coming off a century as a nightwatchman in his last match at this venue, poked at a length ball from Sayers to depart for a duck.

No.11 Holland also failed to trouble the scorers as Sayers and Carey combined yet again.

And after Pattinson rearranged the woodwork of Dalton, Victoria’s opening pair of him and Chris Tremain continued to bowl with venom, and Holland also looking  threatening in his two overs of left-arm spin before the close of play.

Weatherald and Ferguson ensured no further damage was done, with their side facing a mammoth task to stay in this five-day contest.