Familiar tale emerges on Shield's opening day

Australia's first-class summer is barely a day old, but a familiar tale is being spun with rising batting star Cameron Green inking his name for an Ashes berth as he – in tandem with veteran Shaun Marsh – hammered South Australia to start the Marsh Sheffield Shield season.

Green returned to Adelaide's Karen Rolton Oval, where his surge into Test cricket was launched last summer, and slipped straight back into character with an imperious 106 in WA's day one total of 4-324 with captain Marsh contributing 118.

When the first-class season got underway in Adelaide's bio-secure bubble a year ago, Green announced himself as the most exciting batting talent in the country with a knock of 197 against a near-Test strength New South Wales attack.

While today's opposition can’t quite lay claim to that level of firepower, national selection chair George Bailey would have enjoyed what he witnessed from the Karen Rolton Oval's pavilion as Australia's plans for the upcoming Ashes series take shape amid a disjointed domestic schedule.

On an early-season pitch that offered little in the way of extravagant bounce or lateral movement, the 22-year-old was studious in defence and unleashed his undoubted hitting power when SA's bowlers erred in length or width.

He was particularly productive in driving back past the bowlers along the ground, but clubbed consecutive sixes over mid-wicket off leg-spinner Lloyd Pope to reach his half-century (off 85 balls) and show his capabilities as a power hitter.

The star allrounder gave one chance, a sharp catch that barely carried to the left of Travis Head at slip when Green was 63 but was rarely otherwise troubled during his 161-ball stay.

 

He and Marsh put together a third-wicket stand of 199 that was ended in slightly odd circumstances late in the day when Green appeared to try and withdraw his bat from a ball that debutant Nathan McAndrew angled across him but appeared to graze the face of the bat on its way to keeper Alex Carey.

It was a wicket against the run of play, and was followed four overs later by Marsh's dismissal when he drove expansively at McAndrew and was spectacularly caught by Sam Kerber who flung himself to his right at cover.

McAndrew's return of 3-48 from 21 overs was the undoubted bright spot for the hosts who laboured diligently after losing the toss on a pitch that both teams will be hoping takes spin in the final days.

A strongly built allrounder who has built a reputation in the KFC BBL, McAndrew delivered as coach Jason Gillespie had promised by running in hard and hitting the deck, as did fellow seamer David Grant who bowled better than his end-of-day figures of 1-68 suggested.

The day had begun positively for the Redbacks, with new red caps presented to recruits Jake Carder (WA) and McAndrew with the latter receiving his maiden Australia first-class cap from his former Sydney Thunder skipper (and ex-SA batter) Callum Ferguson.

McAndrew, whose only prior first-class experience was a three-match stint with Auckland in New Zealand during the 2015-16 summer, then snared a wicket in his third over when he nipped a delivery past Cameron Bancroft's inside-edge to have him adjudged lbw.

 

The 28-year-old was central to SA's second wicket shortly after lunch when WA opener Sam Whiteman miscued a hook shot off Grant who was operating around the wicket and McAndrew accepted a low catch running in from deep backward-square leg.

But that was where the fun stopped for the hosts, as WA's most experienced and most exciting batters flexed their considerable muscle.

Upon reaching 53, Marsh became just the fourth player to reach 8000 Shield runs for WA, and eight runs later he moved past Michael Hussey on that all-time runs-scorers list with only Tom Moody (8853) and current Australia men's team coach Justin Langer (9406) ahead of him.

He also took his tally of Shield centuries to 20, just one fewer than his dad, former Test opener Geoff.

At age 38, and now father of three young children with wife Rebecca, Marsh shows no outward signs that his hunger for success is dimming.

He was third-highest scorer in the Shield competition last summer behind Green and rival captain in this game Travis Head with 734 runs at an average of 56.46 featuring three centuries and as many fifties.

And with Bailey watching from the sidelines, Marsh sent a typically subtle reminder that – should the era of travel restrictions and quarantine requirements – mean player resources are increasingly stretched, his game remains in peak condition.

 

Both teams went into the series opener without the services of their respective strike bowlers.

WA had hoped Test-capped Jhye Richardson would begin his return from a series of shoulder injuries and make his first Shield appearance in almost two years.

But the 25-year-old, who announced himself as a future Australia representative in his two Tests against Sri Lanka in 2019, suffered a low-grade abdominal strain in the final training session before the squad flew from Perth last Monday.

He is expected to be available for WA's next fixture, as is newly recruited SA fast bowler Brendan Doggett although the ongoing travel restrictions resulting from COVID-19 means the date and location of those upcoming fixtures remains unclear.

In Doggett's absence, the Redbacks went into the season-starter with just three seamers, one of whom was allrounder McAndrew.

It meant part-timer Travis Head sent down six overs of off-spin in the day's opening session, and Head, leg-spinner Lloyd Pope and left-arm orthodox Sam Kerber bowled 31 of the day's 96 overs for a combined return of 0-145.

WA's decision to play off-spinner Rocchiccioli was doubtless influenced by the presence of six left-handed batters in SA's top seven, the first team so heavily populated by southpaws since Queensland's top-order was equally over-represented six years ago.

With Richardson ruled out, fellow quick Cameron Gannon was relegated to drinks duties.

South Australia XI: Jake Weatherald, Henry Hunt, Jake Carder, Travis Head (c), Alex Carey (wk), Jake Lehmann, Sam Kerber, Nathan McAndrew, Daniel Worrall, David Grant, Lloyd Pope.

Western Australia XI: Sam Whiteman, Cameron Bancroft, Shaun Marsh (c), Cameron Green, Hilton Cartwright, Josh Philippe, Josh Inglis (wk), Joel Paris, Matthew Kelly, Corey Rocchiccioli, Lance Morris.