Blues ride on another Katich century

South Australia 178 and 0 for 24 trail New South Wales 309 (Katich 117, Cleary 3-40, Cullen 3-75) by 107 runs
Scorecard

Simon Katich continued to pile on the runs in his productive Pura Cup season, scoring his second consecutive century as New South Wales cruised to a 131-run lead in Adelaide. At stumps South Australia had reduced the margin to 107, reaching 0 for 24 with Matthew Elliott on 17 and Shane Deitz on 7.

Katich's name would have been pencilled in high on the national selectors' list of players to monitor following his magnificent 306 in the last match and some highlighting and underlining might be added after his latest effort. He came in at 3 for 86 and while several of his partners failed to capitalise on their starts, he stayed for 182 balls and registered 117.

His best assistance came from Matthew Nicholson, who made 44 before he was the seventh man out, giving Dan Cullen one of his three wickets. There was little resistance after that and Katich missed the chance to remain unbeaten when he was lbw to Ryan Harris late in the day.

The Redbacks were not helped by the loss of Mark Cleary, who had hurt the top order with 3 for 40 before leaving the field with back soreness. They had already lost Darren Lehmann with a back problem and Mark Cosgrove with an arm injury, both of whom withdrew from the side on the first morning.