Harris bowls Queensland to victory

There were two bowling sights Australia's selectors wanted to see this week: Peter Siddle return a bag of wickets and Ryan Harris get through a match with his knee in good order. On both fronts they were satisfied. In Adelaide, Siddle took seven wickets in a Man-of-the-Match display and in Brisbane, Harris also collected seven and bowled Queensland to victory over New South Wales.

In his first match at first-class level since the Test tour of South Africa in March, Harris sent down 32.5 overs and was instrumental in the Bulls recording a 188-run win. As New South Wales chased the unlikely target of 371 for victory, Harris skittled the top order and removed Nick Larkin, Scott Henry and Nic Maddinson in the space of three of his overs to leave the Blues at 3 for 21.

When Luke Feldman added Ryan Carters, lbw for 11, the total was a very shaky 4 for 26. Kurtis Patterson and Peter Nevill did their best to recover before Patterson was bowled for 45 by Harris, who finished the innings with 4 for 59. Legspinner Cameron Boyce then picked up a handy trio of wickets as he presses for more attention from the national selectors.

Boyce ended up with 3 for 48 and James Hopes collected the last two wickets to complete the win. Hopes and Harris had been important with the bat in the second innings for Queensland; having come together with the score on 7 for 72 they compiled a 103-run partnership that ended when Harris was out for 50. Hopes was on 69 when he declared at 8 for 200.

Harris said he was pleased with his match after a long period recovering from knee surgery, but that he was not quite ready for Test cricket yet. "Probably not yet. I think I need another game and a few more overs," he said. "I'm getting better, towards the end there I was a bit tired, just lack of fitness. But I'm better with each spell I bowl."