Travis Head 76 leads South Australia recovery after Jon Holland nabs three

South Australia's captain Travis Head provided the most substance to a halting first innings from his side against Victoria on day one of the Sheffield Shield match at the Junction Oval in Melbourne.

A dry surface that offered appreciable turn for Jon Holland and the debutant offspinner Todd Murphy created a fresh set of problems for the visiting South Australia side, who also discovered this week that they would have to bid farewell to the reliable seam and swing of Chadd Sayers at the season's end.

Holland and Murphy twirled down 48 overs between them and might have hoped to scythe through the remainder of the South Australia batting when Jake Weatherald fell for 46 to leave them 3 for 98 shortly after lunch.

Henry Hunt had been flummoxed by a sharp turning delivery from Murphy that had could only deflect onto the stumps, and Liam Scott did even less to a Holland peach that dipped just short of his forward defence and spun past it to flick the off stump.

However, Head, the leading run-scorer so far in the Shield this season, formed pesky unions with Alex Carey and then Harry Nielsen to take South Australia into more competitive territory.

Though Head was annoyed to be out for 76, snicking an attempted forcing shot, Nielsen, Jake Lehmann and Sam Kerber did enough to prolong their team's innings into the second day.