Gurinder Sandhu and Josh Hazlewood rolled through South Australia’s meek batting lineup early on Saturday, setting up a chase of just 91 for an outright victory to keep their Sheffield Shield season alive.

Resuming at 4-93, the Redbacks folded to be all out for 127 well before lunch on day three, remarkably opening the door for the last-placed Blues to reach next week’s Shield final.

A successful chase will earn NSW the maximum six points, lifting them to 29 points and putting them in a position to even host the final – depending on results from the two other Shield games in play around the country.

Sandhu, who snared four wickets in the first innings and hit a valuable 44 to secure first innings points for the Blues, struck with the third ball of the day to dismiss Jake Brown (21) and had Tim Ludeman out lbw in his second over to finish with 3-20.

By the time Hazlewood (3-35) added the wicket of Johan Botha (4), and former Test paceman Trent Copeland knocked back the off stump of Chadd Sayers (0), the Redbacks had a lead of just 72 and were in all sorts of strife.

Fringe Australian batsman Callum Ferguson played a lone hand as the visitors fought for their season, hitting eight boundaries in his unbeaten 44.

But he had precious little support.

Former Blues skipper Stephen O’Keefe chipped in with the wickets of tailenders Gary Putland (5) and Peter George (0) to end an embarrassing capitulation from the visiting batsmen.

AAP jb/rj