Queensland has denied NSW a drought-breaking victory in the opening round of the Sheffield Shield after superb centuries by Jimmy Peirson and Michael Neser forced a draw at Sydney Olympic Park.
The pair put on 200 runs for the sixth wicket after a three-wicket burst from Chris Tremain had left the Bulls in a precarious position at 5-91 early on Day 3, still trailing the Blues by 179 runs.
Peirson was trapped leg before wicket by Chris Green for 106 but Neser continued on to make 140, pressing on with Jack Wildermuth (52 not out) to carry Queensland into the lead.
It was the third consecutive red-ball match in which Neser has scored a century, with the 33-year-old again staking a claim to be considered for the Test all-rounder role as well as the specialist bowling slots.
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Bancroft begins Shield season with ton | 00:44
Wildermuth faced a marathon 172 balls for his half century as Gurinder Sandhu was impenetrable at the other end with 32 off 74, leaving captains Moises Henriques and Usman Khawaja to shake hands with Queensland 110 runs ahead at 7-417.
Jack Edwards was named player of the match after claiming career best figures of 6-36 in the first innings, which he followed with a fluent 87.
NSW captain Moises Henriques said the Blues were ruing missed half-chances during the second innings on what he described as a “docile” wicket.
“Given how well we played I felt for almost all of this match, it’s always disappointing to win the game but not collect the winning six points,” he said.
“It was a really strong partnership there from James (Peirson) and Michael (Neser) … at 5-90, we were looking pretty ominous.
“It’s a nice welcome back to four-day cricket really, it’s a tough grind and you have to play four games of cricket to win.”
Tassie crush SA within three days | 01:04
Elsewhere, WA surged towards an innings victory over Victoria in a red-hot start to its Sheffield Shield title defence, reducing the visitors to 8-163 at tea on Day 4 with 67 runs still required to make the Warriors bat again.
After a promising 39 in the first innings, Will Pucovski’s return to Shield cricket ended in disappointment after he played at a rising delivery from Aaron Hardie and was caught by Cameron Bancroft at second slip for a second-ball duck.
The in-form Hardie (2-40) and off-spinner Corey Rocchiccioli (2-13) worked through Victoria’s top order to leave the visitors languishing at 5-81 as they tried to reel in a first innings deficit of 225 runs.
Rocchiccioli, 25, could jump ahead of the injured Ashton Agar in WA’s spin pecking order after another polished performance in his 15th game, leaking only 13 runs from his first 26 overs in stark contrast to rival finger-spinner Todd Murphy’s expensive outing for Victoria.
Rocchiccioli dismissed Travis Dean and Campbell Kellaway in quick succession before Hardie struck again to remove vice-captain Peter Handscomb and effectively end Victoria’s resistance.
