'I needed to be dropped' - Kurtis Patterson makes successful New South Wales return

Kurtis Patterson made his highest first-class score in two years on his return to the New South Wales side as he and Jack Edwards engineered a recovery against Queensland after the visiting quicks had caused early problems.

NSW slumped to 59 for 5 during the morning session as the new ball nibbled around with 19-year Tom Straker, in his second first-class match, taking three early wickets. But Patterson, who had returned to a line-up missing a host of players on Australia duty after being dropped last season, and Edwards, himself making a comeback from injury, added 135 in 35 overs for the sixth wicket.

"I probably haven't said it publicly but I think I needed to be dropped when I was last year because frankly, I wasn't batting well enough," Patterson said. "I'd be lying if I said that thought never crossed my mind, whether I'd get another go back here. But thankfully I've kind of ticked all the boxes with [grade club] St George and got my opportunity."

However, NSW then lost 4 for 3 at the end of their innings and Queensland's openers, Usman Khawaja and Matt Renshaw, were able to get through some testing new ball spells, including Josh Hazlewood's first of the season to finishing unbeaten.

Patterson played two Tests back in 2019 against Sri Lanka, scoring a century in the second and finishing with an average of 144, but fell out of contention shortly after and last season lost his place in the NSW side after being dumped as captain.

He fought hard against the moving ball in the opening session before taking advantage of easier conditions in the afternoon and was in sight of his first century since 2022 when he was given caught behind off Angus Lovell although he seemed upset with the decision.

Edwards, who missed the last round with a hamstring injury, played positively from the outset to wrestle back some initiative for NSW. Like Patterson, he did not appeared pleased with the caught-behind decision which ended his innings short of what would have been a third first-class century.

That heralded a late collapse for NSW as Lovell and captain Mitchell Swepson cleaned up the lower order.

The day had started in similar style for the home side with Blake Nikitaras falling in the opening over when he jabbed a full delivery from Liam Guthrie to third slip. Nic Maddinson tried to take the positive route but dragged on against Straker for 10 off six deliveries with Ollie Davies then falling to an excellent delivery which nipped off the seam to take off stump.

Moises Henriques drove a wide delivery to point and Matthew Gilkes got a top edge to a short ball.

Queensland's attack did an excellent job in the absence of senior figures Michael Neser (Australia A) and Mark Steketee (injury).