Forgotten man Chadd Sayers helped ripped through Queensland’s top-order on Thursday to put South Australia well on track for an outright win in the Sheffield Shield match at the Gabba.
The Bulls limped to 135 late on day two, with Chris Hartley on 33 top scoring in his 100th first-class match before he fell to swing king Sayers (3-40).
The Redbacks opted not to enforce the follow-on and went to stumps at 0-22, a massive lead of 290 runs.
On a sombre day, players from both sides wore black armbands in honour of 11-year-old Luke Batty, who died after being bashed by his mentally ill father following a cricket training session in the Victorian town of Tyabb, southeast of Melbourne, on Wednesday night.
This time last year, the 26-year-old Sayers was being mentioned as a bolter for the Ashes summer series against England, with question marks hanging over Mitchell Johnson’s red-ball form and a slew of injuries to Australia’s young pacemen.
In his breakout Shield season of 2012-13, Sayers bagged 48 wickets at an astonishing 18.52 to firmly put his name in the minds of national selectors.
This season he’s been less effective on more batsmen-friendly wickets, but he is still the competition’s equal leading wicket-taker with 25 victims.
Sayers did the early damage against the home side on Thursday, dismissing openers Luke Pomersbach and Joe Burns as the Bulls went to tea at 5-54 in reply to the Redbacks’ 403.
He was ably assisted by Daniel Worrall and former NSW seamer Joe Mennie, who took the key wickets of ex-Test batsman Usman Khawaja and Peter Forrest.
At one stage, the hapless Bulls were 6-57 before Hartley and bowling all-rounder Ben Cutting steadied the ship somewhat with a 48-run partnership.
But the cause seemed lost when Cutting was caught in the deep and it was all over when Hartley edged behind late in the day.
The Redbacks will be desperate for maximum points as they look to claim their first Shield title since 1995-96 while any title aspirations appear gone for the Bulls, who have just one outright win from six matches.
