Weatherald stars with century after NSW batting folds again

As he looks to plot a path back to Test cricket, Jake Weatherald made his first century of the season, from just 97 balls, as South Australia held the edge on the opening day of their Sheffield Shield game against New South Wales, having withstood a rollicking start from the home side who then hit back with late breakthroughs.

Weatherald's unbeaten 112 from 118 deliveries took South Australia to 162 for 5 at stumps as they lost 3 for 35 in the final session to make it 15 wickets in the day. NSW had folded for 204 after an opening stand of 81 in nine overs between Ollie Davies, the leading run-scorer in the Shield so far, and Sam Konstas as Jordan Buckingham claimed a five-wicket haul in his first game in the competition this season.

This time last year, Weatherald was on the verge of his Test debut against England, but his career has stalled at six caps after he was dropped following the opening match against Bangladesh in August. That came after he had made adjustments to his technique that were still bedding down following his first foray into Test cricket.

"It is a bit of a relief sometimes," Weatherald said of scoring runs after his technical work. "As a cricketer, all you're trying to do is get better and better, learn from your mistakes and try to get in a place where you can make more runs and average more and contribute more in games. So for me, it was going back and making sure that I was doing the fundamentals right. I probably wasn't doing them as well as I could. But at the same time, I had a lot of strengths that I didn't want to give up either."

Having started the Shield season with a duck and then being unable to convert three starts in his next four innings, he brought up his century with the second of two sixes in four balls against Davies when he played a straight slog-sweep down the ground. He raised his arms in celebration, removed the helmet and gave the badge a kiss. It was a largely faultless innings that also included 12 boundaries and was just his second first-class century since the season before he made his Test debut, with the other coming for Leicestershire.

"I wouldn't say I felt that great today, so maybe that's the key," he said. "I've been feeling really good up until that game, so I sort of had to grind away a bit. It was a good challenge against Gary [Nathan Lyon] there, he's sort of had my number for quite a while, so to find my way through him was good and I was just happy to contribute."

Davies termed Weatherald's innings "a bit of a clinic". He had earlier raced out of the blocks with four boundaries off the opening over of the game and brought up a half-century from 36 balls. But after the opening stand of 81, NSW lost 3 for 4 and later 6 for 50 as they fell from 154 for 4.

Konstas had scored at better than a-run-a-ball alongside him but fell in ugly fashion when he advanced at Buckingham and drove to cover. Kurtis Patterson, who could also be a contender for the Test team after Marnus Labuschagne's axing, clipped off his pads to square leg for a duck and Will Salzmann edged behind.

It could have been worse for NSW but Nic Maddinson was given a life first ball when he pushed a full delivery back to Buckingham who couldn't hold on in his follow through.

Davies reined in his scoring rate as wickets fell but couldn't make it through the first session, driving Ben Manenti to cover for 70 off 73 balls.

Either side of lunch, Maddinson looked to rebuild after his early reprieve and continued the brisk scoring rate with two sixes. After a lean return to Shield cricket in the previous round against Tasmania following his shock call-up to the Test side, Maddinson had a half-century in sight when he flashed to gully where Weatherald held a sharp chance.

South Australia then made short work of the lower order with Buckingham claiming his fifth wicket when Ben Dwarshuis edged to gully.

It was the fifth five-wicket haul of Buckingham's first-class career and highlighted the depth of South Australia's pace stocks with Brendan Doggett (rested) and Nathan McAndrew (injury) missing from this round.

Weatherald dominated the scoring in South Australia's reply, to such an extent that when Henry Hunt edged Sean Abbott to slip he had provided just 6 to the opening stand of 56.

As dark clouds briefly approached the ground, Nathan McSweeney had to work hard in conditions where both sides said the ball nipped around throughout. He offered a very tough chance to short leg on 10 when he flicked Lyon firmly off his pads and flashed an edge past slip in the same over before nicking a back-foot drive against Liam Hatcher.

NSW chipped away late in the day to give themselves a lift. Dwarshuis trapped Jason Sangha lbw and Jake Lehmann edged a flashing drive to gully against Abbott, who claimed a third removing nightwatcher Buckingham.