See you later Tassie
TASMANIA started the day yesterday needing a double-bonus point win against Queensland to scrape into the finals of the JLT Cup one-day cricket tournament. Unfortunately, they didn’t get close at Blundstone Arena, outclassed in the field and then bowled out 83 runs short of a victory. Former Test batsman Joe Burns (main picture) led the way for the Bulls with a fine 79, while for Tasmania, Alex Doolan (left) cracked three boundariesdaries before being dismissed for 13, and George Bailey top-scored with 62.2.
TASMANIA’S unlikely push for a JLT Cup finals berth failed to get out of neutral after skipper George Bailey revealed his men never seriously gave thought to an unrealistic chase at Blundstone Arena last night.
Needing a double-bonus point victory against Queensland — only achievable by mowing down a target in 25 overs or keeping the Bulls to less than half of a score posted — to overtake Victoria in third place on the ladder, the bowlers failed to fire as the Bulls racked up 8-339.
It left the batsmen with a near impossible requirement of 13.6 runs an over and when the top order was blown apart by Michael Neser, even overhauling the target proved too much as they eventually fell 83 runs short.
Neser removed Ben Dunk for a duck in the first over and bowled Alex Doolan with a ripping off cutter in the ninth, part of a brilliant opening spell that yielded only 14 runs from eight overs including three maidens.
Bailey top scored with 62 but aside from Matthew Wade’s 38 and some lusty hitting from Cameron Boyce (52 from 33 balls) at the death there was little joy for the home side, which realistically put itself out of finals contention after three heavy losses to open the summer.
“We spoke about not worrying about it, it was a target we had to try to chase a couple of times in Perth and we had fallen short,” Bailey said. “We talked about the blueprint, the way we wanted to chase those scores, and we had done it quite well batting first in terms of getting around that total, but again another opportunity to try to do it chasing and found it to be a bit challenging.
“Once again the lack of wickets up the top . . . the times we have struggled in this tournament is when we haven’t taken wickets at the top.”
The Bulls total, the second largest in domestic one-day cricket at Blundstone, was built on contributions of five of the top six batsmen.
Simon Milenko took four wickets but went for 80 runs from his 10 overs.
The Tigers will now turn their attention to red ball cricket, where they open their Sheffield Shield season against WA in Perth next Thursday.