Australia v India: Matthew Wade throws down challenge to Cameron Green

The calls to elevate emerging allrounder Cameron Green to Test ranks are growing - but the man he would replace may have just delayed the young star’s debut.

Matthew Wade shored-up his position in the Test side. Picture: Mark Brake/Getty

In defying Western Australia’s bowlers to salvage a draw, Matthew Wade has dared the selectors to replace him in the Test side.

The Tasmanian skipper clawed and scrapped and scowled for 143 balls to ­ensure Tasmania drew a high-scoring clash with WA at Park 25 in Adelaide on Monday.

The calls to elevate emerging allrounder Cameron Green to Test ranks are growing, especially as Green is back bowling — and took two Tasmanian wickets on his return to the crease.

But the man he would ­replace, Wade, is not going anywhere based on his 83 in the first innings and his unconquered 57 on Monday.

Matthew Wade produced a match-saving innings. Picture: Mark Brake/Getty

You cannot overlook ­mature expertise — he ticked past 8000 first-class runs on Monday — especially against Virat Kohli’s Indian tourists this summer.

“He’s hitting the ball beautifully,” Tasmanian opener Charlie Wakim said on Monday night.

“He’s moving well. He seems really confident in his plans and his game. I’d be surprised if he’s not playing in the first Test.”

The match was an attritional affair but there was assistance for the quicks on Friday, when WA lurched to 5-64 under bowler-friendly skies. Thereafter the batsmen dominated.

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“It’s a little bit of a grind, no doubt,” Wakim said. “But that’s the brand that you need to play. To take it deep and grind the other team out of it.

“[But] we had a bit of seam action on day one with some wind and some rain, so we felt right at home.”

The game was called off at 5.12 with Tasmania 2-117 after being set 307 runs to win in 61 overs.

The Tasmanians briefly flirted with the idea of chasing the runs before they shut up shop in the second session.

Cameron Green has been called the best since Ponting. Picture: Mark Brake/Getty

WA’s Sunday century-makers added only one run to their overnight scores when play resumed.

Sam Whiteman fell for 117 before Cam Bancroft did it yet again. Yes, he was caught in the arc behind square leg after succumbing there in the first innings and six out of seven times last summer.

This time his leg-glance went finer than he would have liked — so fine that keeper Tim Paine accepted the catch.

Blues crack Swepson’s perfect 10

Mitchell Swepson bagged a maiden 10-wicket match haul to bowl Queensland within a single wicket of victory before coming up agonisingly short in a gripping Sheffield Shield clash won by NSW on Monday.

After posting his best first-class figures of 5-97 in NSW’s first innings, Swepson topped that with 5-74 in the second in yet another effort to put him on the national selection radar.

Despite the efforts of the leg-spinner, the Blues snuck home by a wicket in a thrilling and high standard match at Karen Rolton Oval, Adelaide.

With 15 scalps at 20.33 this season, Swepson has vaulted to the top of the Shield wicket-takers list and edged ahead of Ashton Agar as Australia’s No.2 spinner behind Nathan Lyon.

For a moment on Monday, Lyon was a hero with the bat when he slashed Michael Neser over point to level the scores.

Mitchell Swepson couldn’t finish the Blues off. Picture: Mark Brake/Getty

Drama then ensued when Sean Abbott drove Swepson to mid-off and took off for a run. Lyon refused to go and was run out at the striker’s end.

That meant No.11 Harry Conway was on strike to Swepson. Conway kept out the remaining four balls of the over, whereupon Abbott heaved Marnus Labuschagne over mid-on to win the game and walk off unbeaten on 18.

Swepson’s match haul of 10-171 made him a worthy man of the match, presumably just ahead of Trent Copeland, whose second innings 5-17 set up the NSW win.

Still in his batting pads 20 minutes after the gripping climax, Abbott said the winning blow barely cleared mid-on, so the game was decided by a matter of centimetres.

Abbott said Swepson bowled even better on Monday than he did in the first innings, when the leg-spinner ripped one across Abbott to flick the top of off-stump.

“He was bowling quite fast and hitting the rough (on Monday),” Abbott said. “I felt like if he missed the rough, I could take him over the top straight, but we lost a couple of wickets at the wrong time.

“He didn’t give me – or anyone really – any bad balls today. He bowled really well, which is what you expect from a quality spinner on a fourth day.”

Resuming on 3-71, needing 135 to win, Daniel Hughes and Daniel Solway batted through the first hour to whittle the target down to 97.

Hughes cover-drove attractively and defended with the deadest of dead bats. It took a great ball from Swepson – a ripper that sneaked through the left-hander’s gate – to dismiss him, for 43 from 98 balls.

The compact and consistent Solway – he’s made double figures in each of his 15 completed Shield innings to average 54.91 – played pace and spin with equal ease and was severe on anything even a smidgen short.

Needing 206 to win, NSW was cruising at 4-162 but the Bulls roared back after lunch to get Peter Nevill for 25 and Solway for 52.

Bulls skipper Usman Khawaja used the full array of his attack – even starting the day with the occasional spin of Matt Renshaw so Swepson could switch ends.

Labuschagne tried to bounce Solway out as the Bulls tried to manufacture something on the still-true pitch.

The Bulls stuck to their task even as the Blues edged closer, their quicks charging in hard right to the very end.

Originally published as Australia v India: Matthew Wade throws down challenge to Cameron Green