Handscomb finds rhythm as Vics leave Redbacks rocked

While it might not have been music to the ears of the game's purists, nor even some of the more progressive players involved in today's Marsh Sheffield Shield match in Adelaide, rock and roll cricket proved to the taste of Victoria and particularly their captain, Peter Handscomb.

Day three of the match dominated by the visitors since the opening session was played out against the backdrop of live music that thumped from the south-east corner of Rolton Oval where a new $3 million public skate park was formally opened with a party entitled 'Skate Daze'.

"Loved it, loved it," Handscomb said of the concert feel at day's end.

"More music, just get it going. It actually meant I could switch off between balls, listen to what's going on, watch the mosh pit.

"I was going to head over there if I got out a bit earlier.

"Some of the (tunes) were a little bit obscure for me. I don't mind that music, but I hadn't heard much of that before."

With a line-up of local bands that included Towns, The Birds are Spies, and Jongo Bones and the Barefoot Bandits, Victoria danced their way to an overall lead of 424 at which point – with the soundtrack eventually silenced – Handscomb declared to grant his bowlers 12 overs at SA's top-order.

Redbacks' opening pair Jake Weatherald (28no) and Henry Hunt (9no) reduced that requirement by 38 without loss by stumps, with coach Jason Gillespie conceding it will be a tough last-day assignment even if the pitch continues to flatten out.

"It's going to be an interesting chase," Gillespie said.

"We know it’s going to be a challenge and hard work, but we've got to have a positive attitude towards it.

"We're here to win games of cricket."

SA will be buoyed by knowing their remaining target of 387 from a minimum 90 overs tomorrow (at a rate of 4.3) is identical to the equation set by NSW at the end of last summer when the Redbacks produced a venue-record 5-328 off 76 overs to snare their first Shield win in more than two years.

Today's mix of high energy original tunes and often recognisable cover versions might have provided a different – and occasionally discordant – ambience, but it proved a familiar theme for Victoria who have not lost to their fierce southern state rivals in Shield cricket in almost seven years.

That streak is in no small part due to the batting feats of Handscomb whose 132 today lifted his aggregate against the Redbacks over that period to 1026 runs (at an average of 64) and Marcus Harris whose match double of 85 and 42 grew his return to 1285 (at almost 56).

Handscomb was imperious as he orchestrated his team's innings – watchful early against SA's steady seam attack before taking toll of the spin and increasing the tempo further as the declaration loomed.

He gave just one chance – a tough diving effort at square leg from a sweep shot to which Hunt was able to get only his fingertips – and was dismissed less than six overs before he called time on the innings, neatly caught on the deep backward square boundary.

Shortly after reaching his 14th Shield century – his fourth in his past eight matches against SA – Handscomb signalled his team's intentions by launching a huge six over midwicket that might have imperilled the concert goers had they not already dispersed and headed to the skate bowl.

In conjunction with first-innings, first-time century maker Will Sutherland, Handscomb took to the tiring Redbacks pace attack as the pair added 85 from 107 balls and pushed their team's lead towards 400.

"It's definitely flattened out," Handscomb said of the pitch that proved problematic batters when the game started.

"Day one was really, really hard and since then it's gotten flatter and flatter.

"Hoping tomorrow it starts to play a few tricks and a few divots come into play and they start to roll, or it starts to turn.

"But it's going to be an absolute grind tomorrow and if it means we get it done in the last over, then we get it done in the last over."

In keeping with the game's non-musical score, after the opening session of day one when the hosts had Victoria on the back foot at 4-56, the opportunities SA created continued to slip through their fingers.

This morning it was missed catches from opening pair Will Pucovski (on five) and Harris (on 16) which likely increased anxiety levels in the Redbacks rooms where memories of the pair's 486-run first-wicket stand at Glenelg Oval two years ago remain hauntingly clear.

The Pucovski blemish – when Jake Lehmann failed to hang on to a shoulder high offering to his right at slip off David Grant – didn't cause much heartburn when the Test-capped opener was trapped lbw by Wes Agar having added four additional runs to his tally.

Given his four-ball duck in the first innings, it represented the just the second time in the 24-year-old's 22-match Shield career to date he's fallen for two single-figure scores in the same match, the previous coming against Tasmania at Hobart in 2019 (where he made three and seven).

Pucovski also gave the impression he felt he had hit the ball before it struck his pads, staring long and hard at the inside edge of his bat as he slowly trudged off although replays suggested the dual noise might have resulted from contact with front and back leg in quick succession.

The life afforded Harris seemed likely to prove more costly, partly because of the straightforward nature of the chance shelled by Jordan Buckingham off Agar when the opener's attempted upper cut looped languidly to point.

But even more ominous was the form Harris had shown in the first innings when he was the only batter among his team's top six to surpass 10, and the comfort he subsequently showed in reaching 42 shortly after the day's first drinks interval.

That's where SA finally caught a break when the Test opener – who had showed good form during his recent stint with English county team Gloucestershire where he posted three centuries during the northern summer – attempted a pull shot and was adjudged caught behind.

Like his opening partner, Harris initially seemed unimpressed by the decision off a ball from Grant he might have expected to swat for four, but it appeared to have brushed his glove with umpire Greg Davidson doing well to hear the resultant noise above the accompanying din.

By lunch, Victoria had made steady progress to reach 2-97 and an overall lead of 177, but it became immediately clear after the resumption they were keen to get moving.

That ambition was facilitated by the introduction of off-spinner Nathan McSweeney who was belted for consecutive sixes by Nic Maddinson in his first over, and then back-to-back boundaries by Handscomb in his next as the Victoria skipper reached 50 and the lead passed 200.

Having conceded 25 from his first two overs, McSweeney had cause to smile in his fourth when he coaxed Maddinson into a miscued slog-sweep that Travis Head marked safely on his chest at mid-wicket.

But Handscomb continued unfazed, despite the loss of Matthew Short (10) and Sam Harper (37) either side of tea, with the Victoria keeper slightly hobbled by an injury to his left ankle he sustained while running an innocuous single.

Harper's dismissal also signalled the end of the day's musical entertainment, but the start of the on-field pyrotechnics.

Handscomb reached his 18th first-class hundred with a thunderous pull for four off Buckingham (SA's best bowler with 4-78) and Sutherland (40 from 69 balls) resumed where he finished on Thursday when he posted his maiden ton.

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