Starc's early strikes leaves SA game in balance

The late dismissal of SA's in-form skipper Travis Head after Mitchell Starc had blasted an early hole in the Redbacks batting has opened the door for an unlikely New South Wales win as the Blues eye top spot on the Marsh Sheffield Shield ladder.

With current Shield leaders Queensland seemingly heading for a drawn result with Western Australia, NSW enter the final day at Adelaide Oval tomorrow facing a deficit of 209 and with the home team 3-93 in their second innings.

Starc had given his team an early sniff of a remarkable comeback after they found themselves chasing the game for the first two and half days when he snared key wickets in each of his first two overs.

But it was the scalp of Head – spectacularly caught at slip by David Warner off Nathan Lyon who looms as a decisive day-four influence – that buoyed the Blues given the SA skipper's recent red-hot form.

SA remain in the box seat with first innings century-maker Alex Carey (5no) at the crease with opener Jake Weatherald who has followed his day one knock of 66 with an unbeaten 42.

If the Redbacks aren't bowled out tomorrow, Head faces a tricky call as to the timing of any declaration to set up a game, given his cellar-dwelling team sorely need reward for effort after an improved, but ultimately fruitless performance in their preceding Shield match against WA in Perth.

But he will also be aware that his bowlers are yet to claim all 10 opposition wickets in nine innings so far this Shield season, and therefore needs to give them sufficient time to push for an outright win while setting NSW a run chase that will require an element of risk-taking.

The Adelaide Oval pitch has been dry and sluggish since the opening day, but it is showing no sign of breaking apart and as Head and Weatherald showed in putting together a third-wicket stand of 69 from 25 overs this evening, batting is far from difficult against seam and spin.

The Blues began day three 4-177 and more than 300 runs in arrears and were in no hurry to reel in the deficit until Sean Abbott (77) was dismissed on the cusp of tea.

Then, after a flurry of boundaries from Starc and Lyon who clubbed 27 from 10 deliveries, NSW declared 116 runs in arrears and let loose Test pair Starc and Josh Hazlewood with the new-ball.

Starc duly sent back opener Henry Hunt and new number three Liam Scott before SA had managed a run off the bat, before Weatherald and Head (44) stemmed the bleeding to ensure the Redbacks enter the final day notionally driving the game.

And while the Redbacks top-order had no answer to the early NSW onslaught, they should have pocketed a much larger first innings lead but were let down by some shoddy fielding on a cloudless Adelaide day.

Skipper Peter Nevill and allrounder Abbott were the principal beneficiaries after Kurtis Patterson was dismissed soon after posting a drought-breaking century at which stage the top half of the Blues' batting line-up was back in the sheds while still trailing by more than 250.

Nevill (62 off 165 balls) should have been dismissed for 37 when he edged a knee-high catch between keeper Carey and first-slip Scott that neither fielder got a hand to.

Abbott was given a reprieve on nine when he top-edged an attempted sweep against debutant spinner Joe Medew-Ewen and Head was unable to grasp the skied chance as he ran back with the flight from mid-wicket.

Then, when Abbott had progressed his score to 40, Scott dropped a sitter at slip off the hapless Grant, and frustration rose among the Redbacks who earlier felt they had Abbott pinned in front of the stumps on 28 but their beseeching appeal was denied.

There was no doubt, however, about the quality of Patterson's innings which was characterised by a rock-solid defence and some effortless stroke play and ended a stretch of more than two years between Shield hundreds for the former Test representative.

During that time, the 27-year-old has endured a quadriceps injury and a strong of low scores that included a solitary half-century in his 14 preceding Shield knocks before reaching his ninth first-class hundred, almost a decade after becoming the youngest NSW player to post a ton on Shield debut.

He conceded the frustration of failing to rediscover that run-making form of two years ago had been playing on his mind, and that today's innings came as a significant relief.

"If I'm honest, the mind's been wandering a bit, particularly over the last few innings post Big Bash," Patterson said tonight.

"I got a bit of time out in the middle in the last game against Victoria and then to come back yesterday and today and to be still, be present and just watch the ball and react it felt like I was back to my old self.

"I spent a bit of time in between games trying to channel what I was thinking and doing back then when I did have that run (in 2019), I think that's important to try and understand what you do when you’re at your best.

"And then the challenge is to live in that head space for as long as you can.

"Even last night, finishing the day on 80-odd not out it was just a relief to have some time in the middle.

"I certainly slept a little easier last night, and it was nice to get the three figures today but at the same time I felt like I left a few out there."

Having resumed this morning on 86, Patterson reached his first century since his purple patch of form in early 2019 when he posted a ton against Sri Lanka in his second (and most recent) Test with elegant ease.

It was therefore against the run of play when he fell soon after celebrating the milestone, chippjng a lofted drive to short cover to deliver Medew-Ewen his maiden first-class wicket.

The 23-year-old left-arm wrist spinner, who relocated to Adelaide this summer from Melbourne's Premier Cricket competition in the hope of finding further opportunities, was engulfed by his new Shield teammates who shared his delight at the vital breakthrough.

He also revealed he had received encouragement from an unexpected source prior to his debut game and again after claiming his first two wickets.

"On the first day I spoke day I spoke to Nathan Lyon a little bit, he just wished me good luck and then spoke to me at tea today as well and said congratulations on the first wicket, so that was good from another spinner," Medew-Ewen said tonight.

"It was awesome – awesome to play out on Adelaide Oval and a little bit of a relief as well bowling a few overs.

"But good to get that first wicket.

"I definitely was nervous, but I backed myself on my control."

After Patterson's dismissal, Nevill and Abbott made slow but steely progress into SA's total with a partnership of 45 from 21 overs before Nevill edged the second ball after lunch to slip and Jake Lehmann held the chance.

Abbott's half-century arrived off 123 balls faced when he steered a controlled edge through the cordon to the third-man fence, and Starc played an atypically subdued innings even against Medew-Ewen's looping wrist spin, the sort of offerings he would usually treat with disdain.

But after Abbott was caught at point, albeit at the second attempt by a relieved Weatherald, to lift his batting average for the current Shield season above 73, Starc warmed up for his bowling stint by belting SA's rookie spinner for six and four from consecutive deliveries.

Then, having gone wicketless across 21 overs in SA's first innings as he looked to regain rhythm after a period of bereavement leave, Starc was at his destructive best with new ball in hand and threatened to scythe through the Redbacks' top-order.

Hunt was adjudged lbw for a duck from Starc's fifth delivery of the innings, one of those late-swinging full balls that lives in the nightmares of opening batters in all formats of the game the world over.

In his next over he unleashed a duplicate delivery against the luckless Scott who had endured a forgettable day in the field that was crowned by a six-ball duck as the home team teetered at 2-1 with their overall lead of 117 at that stage looking worryingly inadequate.