Blues youth lead Shield revival

NSW skipper Peter Nevill has credited coach Phil Jaques' decision to take a punt on the likes of young guns Jack Edwards and Jason Sangha for the Blues' JLT Sheffield Shield revival.

Heading into the mid-season KFC Big Bash League break, second-placed NSW are firmly in the box seat to return to the finals following their draw with South Australia at the SCG on Monday.

While the Blues attack failed to get the job done - after the Redbacks resumed day four on 0-16 - they did well to reduce the visitors to 6-239 and cause a few nervous moments in the final session.

Regardless of the stalemate, the once-powerhouse state are showing signs that their rebuild is well on track after their woeful 2017-18 campaign in which they finished fifth with just three wins.

After the Blues ended the season with a seven-game winless run, that included five defeats and two draws, coach Trent Johnston was sacked and his successor Jaques rang in generational change.

The likes of Nic Maddinson and Gurinder Sandhu moved to other states while Ed Cowan and Doug Bollinger hung up their spikes.

In their place the likes of Sangha and Edwards have been gifted opportunities and taken them with both hands.

"There's been a lot of work done throughout the pre-season, a lot of work from (Jaques) to develop a clear direction," Nevill said.

"What we were looking to do throughout the pre-season is to bring the young guys on as quickly as we could to be as successful as they could.

"It's been great to see guys like Sangha, Jack Edwards ... Greg West got a start in this game, and do really well. It's pretty pleasing to turn these things around, unfortunately we couldn't make it three wins in a row."

After six rounds, Nevill is the only member of the NSW top seven not to make a century season and openers Nick Larkin and Daniel Hughes have made two tons in their last three starts.

The likes of Larkin (49.44), Kurtis Patterson (47.55) and Hughes (46.2) boast the kind of averages this Shield season that if sustained, could lead to them grabbing the attention of Test selectors.

"Even Moises making 99 the other day changed the context of the game (against South Australia), he was able to allow us to speed up that innings and give us a chance of winning the game," Nevill said.

"Our opening partnership made 200 two out of the last three games. There's some very good signs batting-wise."