Worrall leads charge as SA grab second-straight win

A change of ball shortly after tea brought about a marked shift in fortune for swing specialist Daniel Worrall, who bowled South Australia to a deserved Marsh Sheffield Shield win and back into contention for an unexpected tilt at this summer's title.

SA had begun today's final session requiring five Western Australia wickets to secure consecutive Shield wins for the first time in more than three seasons, while WA were eyeing 154 runs for a victory to reclaim second place on the ladder from Queensland.

But midway through his second over after the last break – at which point he boasted the figures of 0-21 from more than 11 overs – Worrall's entreaties to have the Dukes ball changed were upheld by the on-field umpires.

And from that moment, both the replacement ball and the course of the game swung demonstrably.

"It was soft, so we were keen to change it," Worrall said tonight having finished with innings figures of 5-31 in his first Shield match of the season which resulted in a 109-run win to SA.

"It was out of shape, so the refs put it through the ring and it didn't quite fit.

"We're entitled to change it, and the next one was pretty handy for us.

"I haven't touched a Dukes ball since maybe March last year.

"My first spell in the first innings, I was a bit worried that I didn’t know where they were going.

"But it was actually a really good pitch, there was enough in it when you bent your back and it swung around most of the game."

Worrall, who missed the first half of SA's Shield campaign as he completed his recovery from a recurrence of stress fractures in his back, mesmerised WA's lower-order to snare a remarkable 5-10 from seven overs of immaculate out-swing bowling after tea.

The 28-year-old began his rampage by having Josh Philippe (29) caught behind, triggering a collapse in which WA lost their final five wickets for 34 runs in less than 13 overs with three of those victims – Josh Inglis, Matthew Kelly and Joel Paris – clean bowled by Worrall.

The win, which was SA's first at home since they beat Queensland by six wickets in February 2017, lifts the Redbacks to within a point of third-placed WA on the Shield ladder and less than seven points behind second-ranked Queensland with three rounds to play before the final.

New South Wales remain clear leaders on the Shield table despite their loss to fifth-placed Victoria today.

"We've just tried to keep an optimistic mindset after a pretty long stretch of inconsisten(cy) and under-performance," Worrall said on Monday evening, after SA had claimed their first back-to-back Shield victories since the start of the 2016-17 season.

"So to win the last game heading into Big Bash (against Tasmania in Hobart last December), and to win the one after – especially at Adelaide Oval – it's a great confidence booster for our young guys who believe that we can perform for the rest of the year, and make a Shield final.

'That's what we're here for."

SA had batted for just two overs this morning – for the addition of 17 runs – before skipper Travis Head declared his team's second innings closed, setting WA a victory target of 332 from a minimum of 92 overs.

It was a similar scenario to the previous occasion the teams met in a Shield fixture at Adelaide Oval, in November 2018 when Shaun Marsh's unbeaten 163 carried WA to their goal of 313 for the loss of just five wickets.

Consequently, when Marsh was dismissed for a first-ball duck today – caught behind from an indifferent waft at Wes Agar – the Redbacks felt they were on top, and on their way to a rare outright win at home.

But despite the loss of ex-Test opener Cameron Bancroft (19 off 47 balls) and Marsh to successive deliveries from Agar, who joined Tasmania's Jackson Bird as the Shield season's leading wicket-taker in the process, WA kept up their push for an unlikely win.

Opener Jake Carder fell on the stroke of lunch, when he slapped a short ball from spinner Will Bosisto to short cover, which meant the visitors needed a further 262 runs from almost 70 overs after the break while the hosts were hunting seven wickets.

Marcus Stoinis, player of the tournament for BBL|09, loomed as WA's shining hope as he passed 50 midway through the afternoon session and built a promising partnership with Cameron Green.

However, Green (15) holed out to backward point soon after the drinks break and Stoinis was trapped lbw by Nick Winter two overs later, and from that point WA were batting for survival.

Philippe and Inglis briefly raised the prospect of chasing the target with a sprightly sixth-wicket stand of 46 from 13 overs until SA's request to have the Dukes ball changed in the 54th over were upheld and the game's course shifted irrevocably.

Worrall had Philippe caught behind from a textbook out-swinger in his second over after the change of ball, and then rattled Inglis' stumps with a delivery that proved even more unplayable in the over after that.

He then scythed through WA's tail, bowling eight overs unchanged from the Riverbank end even though he admitted his lack of match conditioning meant he had struggled to get through WA's epic first innings in which he sent down 25 overs (1-41).

"It's good to be back," he said.

"I've been injured for a long time, so you just make peace with it.

'It's part of the game.

"But when you get the chance to come back, it's good to come back and perform and see the smiles on the guys faces when we win a four-day game."

South Australia XI: Henry Hunt, Jake Weatherald, Callum Ferguson, Travis Head (c), Tom Cooper, Will Bosisto, Henry Nielsen (wk), Nick Winter, Chadd Sayers, Daniel Worrall, Wes Agar

Western Australia XI: Cameron Bancroft, Jake Carder, Shaun Marsh (c), Marcus Stoinis, Cameron Green, Josh Philippe, Josh Inglis (wk), Joel Paris, Matthew Kelly, Liam Guthrie, David Moody