Maddinson shines again as Shield clash peters out

Nic Maddinson has pushed his Marsh Sheffield Shield average beyond 98 this season as Victoria was forced to bat out another draw after a meandering day's cricket against Queensland at Junction Oval.

After beginning day four on 3-69 and only a slim hope of forcing a result, the Bulls put the foot down an hour before tea and when Victoria slipped to 2-18 in their fourth innings it was suddenly only the visitors who appeared likely victors.

Test squad member Marcus Harris was the next to go, trapped on the crease by part-time off-spinner Matt Renshaw. With the hosts 3-33, a game that had progressed slowly for three-and-a-half days had suddenly come to life.

It was left to first innings century-maker Nic Maddinson and Matt Short to bat out the remaining overs, and with up to eight fielders crowding the bat at times, Maddinson smashed Mitch Swepson to the fence a handful of times to back up his 110 not out with an unbeaten 48 in the second dig.

The 30-year-old now has 492 runs at 98.40 in four Shield matches this season as he prepares to go into three days of isolation from Wednesday as a standby player for Australia's tour of Pakistan.

Short was also unbeaten on 31 when players shook hands on Monday evening with the Vics 3-104 after a pointless final hour where Gurinder Sandhu reverted to bowling off-spin.

The draw has pushed Victoria out of top spot on the Shield table, with Queensland remaining in fifth and quickly slipping out of the race for spot in the top two, with the finalists to be determined by an average of points given teams are playing an uneven number of matches.

It's the second draw in a row for the Vics who batted out almost an entire day at Adelaide Oval on the back of Peter Handscomb's epic 148 not out to also split the points with South Australia.

Victoria coach Chris Rogers said they had every intention of trying to chase down the target but just fell into a hole against the new ball.

"It was always going to be tough against the spin on that kind of wearing wickets with those footmarks," he said after the match.

"We took the gamble yesterday to try and bat past them … but we lost five quick wickets or whatever it was from that point it was always on us to bowl them out and chase it down so no, I didn't expect any favours from Queensland."

The day started promisingly as Jimmy Peirson and Sam Truloff added 30 runs in the first 30 minutes of play to take the visitors lead beyond 100.

But when young quick Mitch Perry (3-61) was introduced into the attack and struck in his first over – as he also did yesterday – to send Truloff on his way for 25 (off 77), the scoring rate slowed as Jon Holland operating around the wicket into the rough was repeatedly padded away by the Queensland skipper.

Debutant Jack Clayton – who scored a maiden first class century on Saturday – batted through a low grade quadricep strain for 23 off 57 balls as the Bulls went to lunch 5-151 with a lead of 140 runs.

With his dismissal, Handscomb again provided one of the highlights of the match with a remarkable catch off Holland (3-67) as he anticipated a reverse sweep and hung on to a sharp low chance at slip.

Will Sutherland threatened to break the game open with the second ball after the break as he had Gurinder Sandhu (1) edging behind to Sam Harper, but Peirson and James Bazley consolidated and then launched their own counterattack.

Bazley crunched Perry for consecutive boundaries straight down the ground and Peirson followed suit by flat-batting Holland to the mid-wicket fence, over long-on for six and then through point for a second boundary before holing out to Maddinson at long-off for 76 (141) in the same over.

Mark Steketee, who later bowled only two overs and didn't return to the field after tea with a sore side, had a dip as well with consecutive boundaries off Perry, at which point Handscomb sent all nine fielders back to the fence.

The declaration came soon after, leaving Victoria with 236 to win off 45 overs and a tricky period of about half an hour to negotiate before tea.

The hosts lost opener Travis Dean (1) edging to third slip off Sandhu during that period, while Handscomb also had a nervy moment before the final break as he almost chopped on a rising delivery from Bazley.

He was adjudged out caught behind pulling after tea for three, with Harris departing 10 overs later before Short and Maddinson survived another 30 overs to ensure the draw.

Swepson, who leaves for Australia's tour of Pakistan with teammates Steketee, Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne, sent down 52 overs for the match with a return of 1-145 in a welcome workload boost after running the drinks for most of the summer.

"He's a little bit tired, he's bowled a lot of overs," Peirson said.

"He was always going to bowl a lot of overs, that's probably a good thing, Sweppo's one of those guys that when he is bowling lots and lots he's at his best so now he's been given the perfect prep for going to Pakistan.

"I'm excited, I've got a really good feeling he's going to get a Baggy Green on this trip, I'd love to see Australia play two spinners."

The two sides face off again on Wednesday at the Junction Oval in the Marsh One-Day Cup.