Fade by Wade in hope for Ashes

MATTHEW Wade may have kissed his Ashes hopes goodbye as Tasmanian cricket continues to be stuck in Groundhog Day in the Sheffield Shield competition.

The Tigers are staring down the barrel of a second defeat to start the 2017-18 season, yesterday blowing a golden opportunity to ram home a dominant position against Queensland at Blundstone Arena.

After the bowling unit gave the home side a slender fiverun first innings advantage by keeping the Bulls to 181, Jordan Silk (44) and Alex Doolan (58) dug their heels in to have Tasmania in control at 1-92 just after tea.

But when Silk undid all his grinding work by chipping a catch to short cover off the back foot facing first-innings destroyer Michael Neser, it opened the door for the Bulls and they came storming through.

Last Sunday in Perth, the Tigers lost 8-26 to be steamrolled for a paltry 63, their lowest ever Shield total.

Yesterday Silk’s departure triggered a collapse of 3-14 in 30 balls and 8-30 in total, with five players failing to trouble the scorers and Beau Webster adding just one.

Wade, fighting to retain his position as keeper for the first Test against England at the Gabba next month, reached double figures for the first time in four innings this summer, but on 17 hooked Mark Steketee to fine leg where Neser took a brilliant catch low to the ground diving forward.

For the second time Sam Rainbird (16 not out) and Jackson Bird (11 not out) combined for the second-highest partnership of an innings for the 10th wicket, taking Tasmania to 9-150 at stumps and an overall lead of 155.

Despite the Tigers unravelling in the last session, Doolan firmly believes the match remains in the balance.

“I’m very confident in our bowling group that they will have a crack at whatever we can scrape together,” he said.

“We stumbled a little bit there through our middle batting period but I think scores have dictated that no one has scored 200 yet.

“Whatever we make, we are pretty confident we can be in with a fighting chance.

“It is going to get continually harder to bat on.”

Bulls skipper Usman Khawaja praised his attack for the fightback.

“To claw back the way we did in the last session was really good. The guys bowled beautifully, really disciplined and created a lot of chances from just being disciplined,” he said.