Cricket: Test quick Mitch Starc brought the heat to Aussie teammate Marnus Labuschagne in a tense Sheffield Shield battle

Test quick Mitch Starc brought the heat to Aussie teammate Marnus Labuschagne in a tense Sheffield Shield battle in Adelaide with the batsman coming out on top.

Australia’s Test stars have butted heads in a fierce Adelaide workout watched closely by chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns.

From his eyrie in the Karen Rolton pavilion, Hohns saw Marnus Labuschagne make an imperious hundred against one half of Australia’s Test attack – Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon.

Hohns watched as Mitchell Starc bounced – and hit – Labuschagne and tested all the Queensland batsmen on a bouncy surface.

In his first red-ball spell since the Sydney Test in January, Starc (2-71 from 20 overs) generated good pace in an impressive – and at times combative – display.

The Australian spearhead warned Labuschagne for backing up too far and hit the irrepressible Queenslander in the shoulder with the last ball of the first session.

It was a fearful blow, but Labuschagne was walking off for lunch even as the ball ballooned away harmlessly.

Labuschagne’s 117 (203 balls, 16 fours) – his second hundred from as many innings this Shield season — would have Hohns smiling six weeks from the first Test of the home series against India.

Starting with a scampered single and several light-sabre leaves, Labuschagne clipped a four off his toes and expertly steered Sean Abbott to the third man rope to skip to nine from seven balls.

Thereafter he dug in to grind down a strong NSW attack that had to be content with making inroads at the other end.

He brought up triple figures in typically unorthodox fashion – consecutively reverse-sweeping Lyon to the third man rope.

Marnus Labuschagne celebrates his second Sheffield Shield hundred of the season for Queensland on Friday in Adelaide

Joe Burns made only 29, but Hohns would have noted that the opener batted through the first session after NSW chose to field first on a cool, overcast day.

Usman Khawaja, however, missed a chance to impress the head selector – he played across a late-swinging Abbott delivery to be bowled for a 14-ball four.

Lyon was wicketless but would have welcomed the workout on the bouncy Karen Rolton Oval pitch after toiling on a flat Park 25 last week.

Jimmy Peirson used his feet to Lyon and swept well to make a bright 66. He fell to the second new ball, and Labuschagne to the second-last ball of the day, lbw to Trent Copeland. At stumps Queensland was 7-274.

With two ovals side-by-side, the Adelaide hub is a head selector’s dream as much as it is a player’s paradise.

But Hohns seemed to spend most of his time at the NSW/Queensland match and little wonder given the standard of cricket played by two strong sides.

MARNUS pic.twitter.com/eDRBjzTlh6

— Rob Moody (@robelinda2) October 30, 2020