South Australian captain Daniel Harris has praised his team's 'fighting spirit' after the Redbacks held off the Bushrangers for a draw in the Sheffield Shield match at Adelaide Oval.
South Australia were in deep trouble when Victoria scored 9-643 to lead by 351 after the first innings but the home team survived for more than four sessions to keep its rival at bay.
Harris said his players did well after making a poor start to the contest.
"We spoke about pride and getting the job done and playing our roles so it was good to come out of that and get a draw," he said.
"On day two it felt like we couldn't do anything right, that hurts a lot so it means you have extra incentive to get some runs."
"I thought they bowled well and we tried to break the day up and things went our way."
Harris spearheaded the fight back by scoring an unbeaten 166 and sharing in a 200-run partnership with Cullen Bailey.
The 29-year-old made an under-stated salute after reaching triple figures, conceding he felt his job was only half done.
"We still had a fair bit more to go so I was conscious of not having that big emotional high and then getting out straight away because there was still a fair bit of play left," he said.
Harris said his innings, which saw him register his highest score at first-class level, was one of his more rewarding stints at the crease.
"That's right up there. I got a hundred at the WACA which got us six points, so getting six points is probably more important, but that was very satisfying."
While it was a gritty finish by the Redbacks, Harris admitted the team had plenty of room for improvement.
"We've got to learn from our first innings because the first innings is where you set it up and where you win the game from," he said.
"We had four or five guys get between 20 and 60 and they had three hundreds in their first innings so that was a major difference."
"And we can learn a lot from them. They bowled really well and batted really well in their first innings."
Bushrangers captain David Hussey said his bowlers worked hard on a wicket which favoured the batsmen.
"All credit to Daniel Harris, he played really well and a bit of pride was taken out of the game but we still get two points out of it and we look forward to Wednesday and the Ford Ranger Cup match," Hussey said.
"We tried everything, we got up to plan 'D' I think by the end and unfortunately we got three wickets."