Michael Neser and Ashton Agar achieve rare double in the space of an hour

Within the space of about an hour on adjacent grounds in Adelaide, Michael Neser and Ashton Agar completed a feat that had not been achieved in the Sheffield Shield for 10 years by scoring a century and taking five-wickets in an innings during the same match.

Neser, the Queensland seam-bowling allrounder, was the first to the landmark at Gladys Elphick Park when he brought up his maiden first-class century with consecutive boundaries thrashed through the leg side off Riley Meredith. It followed his opening-day figures of 5 for 32 to help bowl out Tasmania for 250.

On the next-door ground at Karen Rolton Oval, Agar was working his way through the Western Australia lower-order and completed his five-wicket haul when he claimed a return catch offered by his brother, Wes. That haul followed Agar’s century which he completed yesterday as part of a 266-run stand with Josh Inglis.

Before today, the last player to complete this double in the Sheffield Shield was Mitchell Johnson when he scored 121 not out and claimed 5 for 35 against Victoria at the MCG in November 2010. Before that, Steven Smith bagged the doubled when he made 100 against South Australia then took 7 for 64

Neser is still waiting to earn a Test debut having been a regular part of Australia’s Test squad over the last 18 months while Agar, an established part of the limited-overs squad, played the most recent of his four Tests – which included the famous 98 on debut against England – in 2017.