Brad Haddin broke a two-year century drought in first-class cricket to spearhead a New South Wales revival on day one of the Sheffield Shield cricket match against Tasmania at Bankstown Oval on Wednesday.
The Blues were 2 for 1 and 3 for 7, but two fifty-run partnerships and a 168-run sixth-wicket stand between Haddin (114) and Moises Henriques (83 not out) lifted them to 7 for 302 by stumps.
Australian representative Haddin's last first-class century was against England in Brisbane in November 2010 in the opening Test of the Ashes series.
He struggled for form in Australia last summer and returned from the Australian Test tour of the West Indies earlier this year after his young daughter Mia fell seriously ill.
Matthew Wade took over the wicketkeeping duties in the West Indies, but Haddin showed on Wednesday he still had plenty to offer.
In front of a surprisingly big crowd of 1207 including Australian selector Rod Marsh, Haddin displayed his trademark aggression.
He played numerous attractive, well-timed shots around the ground.
Haddin struck 14 fours and two sixes before miscuing a pull shot off Jackson Bird (3-59) to Luke Butterworth at mid-wicket.
In-form Henriques followed up scores of 78 in both the one and four-day fixtures against Western Australia with another fluent innings.
Michael Clarke (37) and Steve Smith (64) started the fightback with a partnership of 57 and Smith and Haddin added 60.
Former Bankstown junior Bird triggered the Blues early batting woes.
Bird had Peter Nevill (1) lbw with his first ball and then caught Scott Henry (0) in the slips off Luke Butterworth.
He then had Nic Maddinson (0) caught in the slips by Ricky Ponting, ending a fruitless 19-ball innings for the highly touted left-hander.
Bird, last season's Sheffield Shield rookie of the year, didn't concede a run until his 21st delivery.
Butterworth, Mark Cosgrove and Adam Maher each chipped in with a wicket.
AAP
Tags: sport, cricket, bankstown-2200, nsw, hobart-7000, tas, australia First posted September 26, 2012 19:22:37
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