Redbacks bowlers swing late shift after Drew's patient ton

On the back of Daniel Drew's long-awaited maiden first-class century, South Australia's bowlers enjoyed a fruitful final hour to hold the upper hand midway through their Marsh Sheffield Shield clash in Adelaide.

Drew's 130 in just his second Shield innings having been part of Redbacks squads for several years lifted his team to 366 and, after Victoria's openers Marcus Harris and Will Pucovski cut that deficit by one-third while barely raising a sweat, the home team snared five wickets in a telling momentum shift.

While Victoria's bowlers, including Ashes hero Scott Boland, struggled to gain any assistance from a flat Adelaide Oval pitch, SA's quicks found reverse swing on occasions during the day's final hour to the apparent surprise of the visitors' dressing room.

Victoria's bowling coach Mick Lewis headed immediately to the centre wicket when his team finished the day 5-151 and still 215 in arrears, and chatted with umpires Greg Davidson and David Taylor who showed him the ball.

Lewis then exchanged words with SA skipper Travis Head, but the fact SA were able to find some movement with a ball 40 overs old was explained by the maintenance they were able to perform upon it in the field coupled with the raw air speed of their quicks plus a handy breeze blowing across the ground.

"In that last hour we went pretty hard at the ball and put a bit of effort into it and got a bit of swing, which is quite hard to face when you get it going," Drew said at day's end.

"We'll try and keep doing that tomorrow and see how we go.

"They (Victoria) got a bit of seam movement, I think a lot of their bowlers were bashing a sort of five-metre length and just trying to get a bit of seam movement.

"But I don't think they got it to swing much, (although) obviously with the second new ball there was a bit of swing."

SA must have been experiencing flashbacks to Glenelg Oval last summer – where Harris and Pucovski piled on a first-wicket stand of almost 500 – when the pair both notched half-centuries in ideal batting conditions today.

In their four opening stands at Shield level to date, Harris and Pucovski average an extraordinary 216 per innings which is almost double the next-best by a combination to have opened at least as many times – Victoria pair Ben Barnett and Ian Lee who averaged 110 from four innings together in 1940.

But having added 110 to their previous stands of 486, 186 and 84, both fell to miscued pull shots as SA's bowlers dominated the final session.

Harris appeared bound for the hundred that continues to elude him in Test company when he cruised to 58, only to fall for a clearly set trap when he top-edged a short ball from Nathan McAndrew into the hands of Liam Scott on the rope at deep square leg.

Pucovski had seemed just as comfortable for much of his three-hour innings despite not having batted at first-class level since his Test debut against India in Sydney 13 months ago.

The 24-year-old, who has spent that time rehabilitating from shoulder surgery after a fielding mishap in that maiden Test, cracked the first ball of Victoria's innings firmly to point in a manner that suggested he'd barely been away from the game.

Pucovski showed trademark timing with back-foot punch shots through the off-side, and when SA's bowlers targeted him with short deliveries as is inevitable given his history of head knocks he responded with crisp pulls.

However, it was also short-pitched bowling that brought the right hander's only moments of angst, copping a blow on the right hand from a rising ball and miscuing an attempted pull off soon after posting his half-century, with the resultant deflection off his glove floating over keeper Alex Carey's head.

Nonetheless, it came as a surprise – most obviously to Pucovski himself – when he was judged to have edged another attempted pull in David Grant's next over before making his way slowly from the field, checking with batting partner Peter Handscomb as to what might have transpired.

That discussion could have continued in the Victoria rooms an over later when Handscomb was sent packing, trapped plumb in front of his stumps by a ball from Brendan Doggett that jagged back sharply from outside off.

When Jonathan Merlo drove loosely at Grant soon after, Victoria had lost 4-29 in a dramatic 10-over turnaround having negotiated the preceding two and half hours with barely a concern.

The Redbacks looked to have squandered their chance to heap further pain on the visitors when they turfed a couple of slips catches off Matt Short when he was 4 and 6, but the Adelaide Strikers opener was unable to profit from the reprieves and was eventually pinned lbw.

It crowned a strong day for the Redbacks who have not won a Shield game for two years, but have put themselves in a handy position thanks to centuries from Drew as well as opener Jake Weatherald.

Drew has been in and around the SA system for a decade having represented the state at under-17 national titles in 2012, but prior to this summer had played just one Shield match having earned his first Redbacks contract in 2017.

Apart from dominating regularly with the bat at Premier Cricket level, the 25-year-old became best known for his athletic feats during SA's pre-season training sessions including a personal best of 6 mins 15 secs for a 2km time trial two years ago.

Having earned his chance in the middle-order at the expense of auxiliary keeper and his West Torrens teammate Harry Nielsen, Drew seized the opportunity albeit with an innings demonstrably out of character.

The right-hander is renowned for his explosive strokeplay, having blasted 214 from 126 balls faced (including 19 boundaries and 12 sixes) in a Premier Cricket one-day fixture earlier this summer but his maiden Shield ton stood as a stark contrast.

His first 50 came off 182 balls as he played second-fiddle to Weatherald yesterday, and having resumed on 96 this morning he spent an agonising 40 minutes (in which he faced 21 balls) in search of the four runs needed to secure the milestone.

It arrived from the least convincing stroke he played during his eventual 317-ball stay – an inside edge past his stumps from the bowling of Mitch Perry – which prompted the usually quiet and unobtrusive Drew to pump his fist, throw back his head and thrash his bat towards the dressing room in triumph.

In addition to the routine of Steve Smith-style ticks that includes repeated touching of gloves, pads and helmet before every delivery he faces, Drew is also known to observe a number of superstitions.

"I'm a little bit OCD with a few things I do, you can probably tell in the middle as well," he said of his breakthrough knock.

"Last night was a bit of a nerve-wracking but I didn't want to chase it (the century) in the last over yesterday and hit one straight up.

"I didn't change anything, tried to get us much sleep as I could and I felt good this morning and batted on.

"That's probably the slowest I've batted for my whole career.

"I think the fields they had and the way they bowled at the start of my innings, it was quite tough.

"But I wasn't too stressed about it, Jake was batting well down the other end.

"The strike rate wasn't great but I knew if I hung in there I could put the team in a good position."

However, from the time Drew reached his hundred and SA looked to increase their glacial scoring rate in today's morning session, wickets began to fall with regularity that soon became a flurry.

Allrounder Scott was out-thought by spinner Jon Holland when he advanced down the pitch only to be stumped, and McAndrew became the first of Perry's three victims today when he top-edged an attempted cut.

The Victoria seamer then found himself on a hat-trick when he removed Drew and Doggett with consecutive deliveries, both caught behind the wicket, but SA's last man Lloyd Pope denied Perry the rare feat.

When Grant holed out to spinner Matt Short on the stroke of lunch, SA had surrendered their final five wickets for 45, with a final collapse of 4-18 off 33 balls.