Runs were hard to come by on the first day of the Sheffield Shield match between Queensland and South Australia, with 14 wickets lost.
South Australian all-rounder Liam Scott produced the best performance of his career, but picking up four final session wickets for Queensland means he will soon be back in the Sheffield Shield contest at the Gabba.
After sending the Bulls into bat, SA routed Queensland for 185 in 66.5 overs and lost to the Stamps 4-62 on a wicket-packed opening day.
Scott took 5 wins and 33 losses, recording his second five-wicket haul in the Sheffield Shield and his first in this competition in almost four years.
The 25-year-old, who scored 365 runs in this season’s Sheffield Shield at an average of 40.55, did the job for the visitors with the ball on the green Gabba wicket, providing plenty of assists to Brisbane’s seamers.
In response, Queensland’s pace attack overcame South Australia’s top order to get the game back on track.
Jem Ryan (2-24) picked up the vital wicket of Alex Carey (18) later in the day after a fine catch from Hugh Wibgen at gully sent the Australian Test wicketkeeper back to the changing room.
SA bowler Nathan McAndrew was used as night watchman and reached the stumps along with Jason Sangha (15th), but endured 10 balls without scoring.
Opening the bowling for the visitors, Campbell Thompson (2-16) bowled four maidens in his first four overs against former Australian Test opener Usman Khawaja in Sheffield Shield cricket.
The left-handed quick troubled Khawaja time and time again, but diving Nathan McAndrew (1-38) nearly made a miracle catch in the precinct, putting the left-handed bat away. This boundary marked the first run off the 25th delivery bowled by Thompson.
Scott, who replaced Thompson in the sixth over, trapped Hugo Vardon (22 years old) with the second ball of the match and broke the open stand with 34 runs.
Labuschagne, who matched Jordan Buckingham (2-70), withstood the South Australian’s frantic LBW screams on the fifth ball without bothering the scorers.
After reaching two boundaries in the next Buckingham over, Labuscagne (8) was dismissed after the paceman found the edge of the Queensland captain’s bat, followed by a catch by wicketkeeper Carey.
On the very next ball, Khawaja (15) picked up Scott’s second scalp and it was South Australia’s second wicket in two balls, with Carey completing his second catch to upset Queensland at 3-50.
Weipgen (11 points) and Lachlan Hearn (8 points) then added 21 points before a right-handed bat was bowled by McAndrew, the Bulls’ fourth wicket to fall before lunch.
Thompson, who finished the interval with 4-73, dismissed Hearn and Michael Nether in the same over (0) to take his first two wickets in first-class cricket.
Jimmy Pearson, 52, and Hayden Carr, 43, then became the Queensland resistance.
The pair beat the Bulls 6-75 to 6-161 at tee time, more than doubling Queensland’s score at a crucial juncture for the hosts.
Immediately after the break, the seventh wicket partnership was broken by Scott, who removed Kerr and ended an 88-run stand for the third wicket.
Tom Straker (3) became Scott’s fourth victim in the next over, giving Pearson his 24th first-class fifty and second half-century in the Sheffield Shield this season.
Pearson lost another partner as Mitch Swepson (9) was bowled by Buckingham, giving SA their ninth Bulls wicket.
Scott then dismissed the Queensland wicketkeeper and took his fifth wicket of the innings as the Bulls were bowled out for 185 and lost 4-24 after tea time.
SA were under pressure from the very first ball of the innings, when opener Mackenzie Harvey (21) endured a loud cry from Nether Pond.
Fellow opener Henry Hunt (0) was the first SA batsman to be dismissed after being caught for a duck on the third ball off Straker’s bowling.
Nether trapped South Australian captain McSweeney (3) and batted in the 5th over, but Harvey was caught by Labuschagne at second slip and SA slumped to 3 wins and 28 losses.
Sanga and Carey put on a 34-run partnership before the keeper found Vibgen in the valley.
SA resumed their first innings on the second day and defeated Queensland by 123 runs with six wickets in hand.