New South Wales 4 for 333 (Cowan 125*, Maddinson 70, Henriques 54, Patterson 52) lead South Australia 229 (Ferguson 75, Carey 56, Cummins 4-57) by 104 runs
Scorecard

Ed Cowan's dominance of the Dukes ball in the Sheffield Shield continued as he plundered his third century in four matches to help New South Wales into a strong position at stumps on the second day against South Australia in Sydney. Cowan ended the day unbeaten on 125, with Peter Nevill on 1, and the Blues had cruised along to 4 for 333, already holding a 104-run advantage over the Redbacks.

In the first half of the Shield season, before Christmas, Cowan did not manage a century against the Kookaburra balls, but since the Dukes have been introduced in the second half of the campaign he has made 212, 0, 115, 51* and now 125*. In this match he came to the crease at first drop, with the score on 1 for 82 after Daniel Hughes fell for 26.

Opening the batting in his first Shield match following his axing from the Test side and subsequent time away from the game, Nic Maddinson flew to 70 from 60 deliveries before he was caught behind off the bowling of Daniel Worrall. But Cowan had plenty of support from Kurtis Patterson (52) and Moises Henriques (54) as the Redbacks struggled to make inroads.

South Australia had started the day on 5 for 169 but added only 60 for the loss of their final five wickets. Callum Ferguson failed to add to his overnight score and was caught off Pat Cummins for 75, before Alex Carey chipped in with 56. Cummins finished with 4 for 57 in his first innings of Shield bowling for nearly six years.