Smith makes another fifty but Head fails again
- Published
Steve Smith maintained his good form before the Ashes but could not prevent New South Wales being thrashed by Victoria as Josh Hazlewood sat out the third day of the Sheffield Shield match.
Smith countered a lively pitch to make a defiant 56 not out as NSW, set 426 to win, collapsed to 125 all out to be beaten by 300 runs.
Opener Sam Konstas, who made 27, was the only other batter to make more than 13 and Smith has scores of 118, 57 and 56 not out in three innings this winter.
With 14 of Australia's Test squad playing in the Shield this week, Hazlewood suffering an injury scare and NSW team-mate Sean Abbott being ruled out of the first Test against England with injury, their other concern for the Ashes hosts on Wednesday came from another low score for key middle-order batter Travis Head.
The 31-year-old, who will have no further time in the middle before next week's Test in Perth, followed nine in the first innings with 15 in the second as South Australia fell to defeat against Tasmania.
He began the season playing for Australia's white-ball sides but had one score above 30 and four single-figure returns.
Head has only reached 40 once in his past 20 innings across formats in a run going back to June.