Mail delivers as SA crumble

New South Wales 9 for 350 decl. and 2 for 242 (Mail 126*, Phelps 62) lead South Australia 129 all out (Flower 44; Nicholson 5-36) by 463 runs
Scorecard

South Australia equalled the record for the most ducks in a Sheffield Shield/Pura Cup innings during a deplorable batting display at the Sydney Cricket Ground. By the close of play, New South Wales were out of sight, 463 ahead, with Greg Mail scoring his second hundred of the match.

New South Wales need a outright win to have any chance of making the Pura Cup final, and Matthew Nicholson did their cause no harm with a fiery spell that produced figures of 5 for 36.

But the real talking point was the utter ineptitude of the South Australian batsmen. Ben Cameron, Graham Manou, Mark Higgs, Michael Miller, Mark Cleary and Paul Rofe all quack-quacked their way to the pavilion as they were shot out for 129, in response to New South Wales's first innings score of 9 for 350 decl.

The sextet of zeroes matched the six by NSW against South Australia at the SCG in 1932/33, when only Don Bradman (56) saved face in a total of 113, and South Australia's own six-pack against Queensland in 1976-77, when Jeff Thomson (5-32) routed them for 96.

Steve Waugh, however, didn't enforce the follow-on, and New South Wales sauntered to 2 for 242 by stumps, with the in-form Mail unbeaten on 126, the first New South Welshman to score two centuries in a Shield/Cup match since Mark Taylor did so against Queensland in 1989-90.

New South Wales have two more days to claim victory, and if they can beat Queensland, without giving away any points, in the first week of March, a place in the final - considered out of the question a week ago - is still possible. For South Australia, who started the season so promisingly, it can't end soon enough.