Counter-attacking Lehmann tees off in hopeless situation for Redbacks

A badly inconvenienced Darren Lehmann produced an astonishing counter-attacking innings but Queensland continues to hold most of the aces over South Australia after day two of the Pura Cup clash between the sides at the 'Gabba in Brisbane today.

There was the spectacular clatter of wickets today that a green-tinged pitch had failed to produce after the Queenslanders were invited to bat first yesterday. But not before the Bulls had established a position of command on the back of a 145 run partnership for the fourth wicket between Stuart Law (87) and Andrew Symonds (85). Both players were at their authoritative best this morning as they took their team from the overnight mark of 3/229 to 3/322 shortly before lunch.

It was probably a measure of Queensland's dominance of the South Australian pace attack again this morning that it took the unlikely figure of Shane Deitz (2/17) to finally inspire a Redback recovery in this match. Deitz is an emerging batsman, and part-time wicketkeeper. But he is not highly regarded, it is fair to say, as a leg spin bowler. So when the twenty-five year old snared the wickets of both Law and Symonds inside the space of eight deliveries to disrupt their association and then trigger a collapse, it had an ironic touch about it.

The last five wickets tumbled for twenty-nine runs as Brett Swain (4/96), Paul Wilson (1/46) and Mick Miller (1/62) finally crashed through a tame Queensland lower order. Swain was, in fact, on a hat-trick at one stage after claiming Lee Carseldine (5) and Brendan Creevey (0) with successive deliveries.

But, having reached a score of 378, the Bulls were already in a sound position. And it didn't take long for them to thoroughly consolidate their advantage.

By stumps, the visitors had collapsed to the grisly predicament of 8/110 - still 268 runs behind and holding little hope of avoiding the ignominy of following-on tomorrow. In spite of a debilitating hamstring injury that left him severely incapacitated, Lehmann (56*) smashed the attack late in the day to provide some glimmer of a recovery. But not before Adam Dale (3/33), Joe Dawes (2/34) and Creevey (3/42) had ripped through the Redbacks' line-up in an astonishing display.

The pace bowling trio reduced the visitors to a mark at 8/57 at one point in late afternoon, inviting thoughts that the South Australians might not even exceed the mark of 66 that represented their previous all-time worst in first-class meetings with Queensland.

Dale and Dawes snared the first half of the line-up in a shade more than twenty overs before Creevey produced a spell in which he fired out Miller (9), Graham Manou (1) and Swain (2) for the cost of only three runs. Other than for Lehmann and for number ten Wilson (6*), who played the most junior of partners in a swashbuckling fifty-three run stand at the end of the day, the Redback batting was a shambles.

Openers David Fitzgerald (0) and Deitz (3) disappeared within eight balls of each other in the second session; Greg Blewett (18) and Ben Johnson (10) failed to build on remotely promising starts; and the in-form Jeff Vaughan (2) never got going.

By the necessity of the injury he sustained yesterday, Lehmann demoted himself to as low as number six in the batting order, and spent a long period simply trying to survive. He barely even bothered to run singles such was the crippling extent of the problem. But, once the eighth wicket fell, he changed the focus of his innings completely. No bowler was spared his considerable wrath. Creevey endured particular punishment when he was belted for four pummelling boundaries in succession at one point. The sad part for South Australia is that not even their captain's courageous effort seems likely to help them out of the messy overall situation in the match into which they plunged so rapidly today.