18 Nov 2014

TIM Ludeman issued national selectors another reminder about his immense talent by posting his second first-class century for South Australia yesterday.

The former Nestles cricketer helped the Redbacks take control of their Sheffield Shield clash against Victoria with an invaluable 106 at the Adelaide Oval.

Ludeman started the day unbeaten on 98 and reached three figures in the third over with an edge off Peter Siddle, which rushed to the boundary.

He was out lbw to Chris Tremain the next over. His stay at the crease lasted 183 balls and included seven fours and two sixes.

Ludeman and Callum Ferguson, who made 140 batting at first drop, put on a state record of 208 for the fifth wicket.

Their efforts helped South Australia recover from 4-107 and declare at 8-431. Victoria was 1-201 in reply at the close of play.

Ludeman’s century ensured he remains in selectors’ thinking when it comes to settling on a wicketkeeper to replace Brad Haddin in the Australian squad.

The 27-year-old has long been considered a natural glovesman — his coach Darren Berry went as far as calling him “the best keeper in Australia” in 2012.

But he is yet to make enough runs at Shield level to come into serious contention for national duty.

His averages the past two seasons are 25.64 and 26.61, although his century yesterday lifted his mark to 41.33 this campaign.

Matthew Wade (Victoria), Peter Nevill (New South Wales) and Sam Whiteman (Western Australia) are regarded as ahead of him in the pecking order.

Nestles president Gary MacLean played alongside a 15-year-old Ludeman during the Factory’s flag-winning 2002-03 season.

He believed Ludeman would “hold his own if he got the chance” to play for Australia.

“You’ve got people like (Australian chairman of selectors) Rod Marsh saying he’s as good a glovesman as going around,” he said.

“I know Darren Berry was a very good glovesman himself. He’s been in the paper stating Tim Ludeman is the cleanest glovesman he’s seen.

“But he’s got to keep chipping away at his batting. He’s still in the right age group. He’d be 26, 27.

“You look at Brad Haddin. He fell out of favour at 36 and now he’s playing some of the best cricket of his life. If Timmy can stick at it, he’s certainly in the picture.”

Ludeman grew up at Nirranda and joined Nestles to play colts. He was a member of the division one side for a handful of seasons in the early 2000s.

But greater challenges loomed for the then-teenager, who joined Carlton before leaving for Port Adelaide in search of more state-level opportunities.

“He hasn’t changed a bit. He’s a typical country kid. Whenever he’s in town he wants to catch up with people,” MacLean said.

“Obviously this year he’s been named as our number-one ticket holder. We’ve never done that before.

“But Timmy, for our cricket club, he’s the furthest anyone has ever been as far as playing state cricket and what he’s been able to achieve.”