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'Absolutely pathetic': Anger over 'embarrassing' Aussie cricket farce

australian associated press

The Sheffield Shield season-opener between Victoria and South Australia has petered out to a yawn-inducing draw, with the focus quickly turning to who is to blame for the stupefying stalemate.

Plenty of fingers will be pointed in the direction of the flat, slow Junction Oval pitch that saw a combined total of 1,287 runs scored for the loss of just 12 wickets.

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After winning the toss on Thursday morning, Victoria skipper Peter Handscomb declared at 6-616 about 40 minutes before tea on day two.

The match was declared a draw half-an-hour before the scheduled tea break on day four with SA on 6-671, their highest score against the Vics and their third-highest ever.

The match descended into an absolute farce soon after tea on Saturday when it became clear SA would keep batting, rather than declare.

Handscomb bowled himself and fellow trundler Marcus Harris for 18 meaningless overs.

Paceman James Pattinson eventually returned to the attack, but only to bowl off-spin for the first time in his national career.

James Pattinson, pictured here bowling off-spin against South Australia.
James Pattinson resorted to bowling spin. (Photo by Kelly Defina/Getty Images)

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There had been discussions off the field about whether SA would declare behind, to let Victoria bat again.

The home side then most likely would have declared as well, given how few wickets have fallen, to manufacture a victory target in the last 80 overs of the match.

But Victoria wanted to set 350 and apparently SA would only agree to a target of around 300-320.

As Cooper and Andrews kept batting, 12th man Wes Agar made several visits to the middle to keep them updated on the bizarre situation.

The rock-hard pitch has not helped and it showed no signs of breaking up after four days.

In SA's defence, Victoria are the defending Shield champions and it is 13 matches and counting since the visitors have won in the competition.

Peter Handscomb, pictured here laughing with his Victorian teammates.
Peter Handscomb (L) has taken a dig at South Australia. (Photo by Kelly Defina/Getty Images)

Handscomb takes shot at South Australia

With a win off the table for both sides as the Redbacks' first innings continued, the main talking point became the soured relations between them.

Handscomb expressed bitter disappointment over counterpart Travis Head's refusal to set up a final day run chase with a sporting declaration.

“I'm just annoyed the game is dead,” he said on Saturday evening.

“At the end of day three we have two more sessions tomorrow that we have to play of dead cricket.

“We'll shake hands at tea and tell everyone 'thanks for coming, sorry for such a boring game of Shield cricket’.”

However fans were left fuming over Handscomb’s comments, saying he should have declared way earlier if he really wanted a result.

The tense situation took the sheen off some fine batting, albeit on an exceedingly docile wicket.

Tom Cooper made a career-high 271 for SA, Alex Carey a polished 117 and Tom Andrews (101) a break-through maiden first-class century.

Nic Maddinson top-scored with 224 for the Vics, with Test opener Harris (116) and young gun Will Pucovski (123) also making hundreds.

Maddinson had to leave the field with a bruised finger in the middle session on day three after he was struck at short leg and Aaron Finch was rested after suffering back spasms during his quickfire 57.