We got there ... just
TASMANIA won its Sheffield Shield match against SA at Blundstone Arena yesterday, but it had to defy a rain delay and some stubborn Redbacks batting before getting a win it both needed and deserved.
TASMANIA survived a stonewalling century from Callum Ferguson and Hobart’s fickle weather to claim a crucial outright Sheffield Shield victory against South Australia.
The Tigers had the Redbacks on the ropes at 7-132 halfway through yesterday’s second session when Riley Meredith struck twice in three balls, only for Ferguson (111) and Nick Winter (26) to dig their heels in until the heavens opened half an hour into the last session of the match.
When the rain hit there were still 30 overs remaining in the day, and the Tigers were just two overs from obtaining the second new ball.
After nearly a two-hour wait the covers were removed and the hosts were left with 19 overs to capture the remaining three wickets, and when spearhead Jackson Bird (4-65) immediately broke the 64-run stand with the new Kookaburra it was the opening the Tigers needed.
Bird trapped Ferguson plumb in front shortly after, leaving Gabe Bell (3-44) to wrap up the win with nine overs spare when Kane Richardson edged to man of the match Jordan Silk at first slip.
“The rain was probably the best thing for us, the wicket was pretty flat and the rain probably juiced it up a little bit,” Bird said.
“It was a bloody good team bowling performance today, I was the lucky one at the end but the pressure we created in the two sessions before that, we got the rewards at the end of the day. We spoke at the start of the day that the way the wicket had been playing it was going to be a grind at some stage and it happened to be at seven down.”
The Tigers were marching to a comfortable win earlier in the day when they split open the Redbacks top order to leave them 4-51.
Former Test batsman Ferguson played a near lone hand, notching his 18th first-class century before his 246-ball resistance, which contained 19 boundaries, ended just when he had given his side a glimmer of clinging on for a draw.
The result saw Tasmania join NSW and Western Australia in a log jam behind Victoria on the points table, with just two points separating the three heading into the last round before the Big Bash break next week.
“We just wanted the oppor- tunity to get back out there … luckily it cleared up for us and gave us a little window to have a crack at them,” Tigers coach Adam Griffith said on the nervous wait to see if play would resume. “The last 15 to 20 overs with the old ball the air really went out of it, Winter batted well but we couldn’t really challenge him the way we wanted to until we got the second new ball.
“It keeps us in the hunt, we have one more game to go against Queensland next week and if we bat the way we batted this game with the fight and grit we showed in the first innings, and if we bowl as a group like we did, I think we’ll be as good a chance as any.”