Tigers seek big-ton man

Draws and losses are poor start to season

AN inability to pile on big individual scores was a major reason Tasmania was walking away from the first half of the Sheffield Shield season without points in the bag, according to coach Jeff Vaughan.

The Tigers returned home from Adelaide yesterday afternoon with a pair of draws and two losses from four matches — including the disappointing effort against NSW.

After bowling the Blues out for 64 on the opening day, T asmania firstly squandered its opportunity with the bat, before watching NSW motor to 6-522 declared in its second innings.

The Tigers then crumbled from 2-101 at lunch on the final day to 202 all out, allowing the Blues to complete their biggest come-from-behind victory in history.

While watching Victorian duo Will Pucovski and Marcus

Harris chalk up double-tons, Vaughan said his side’s failure to follow in their footsteps on some docile pitches, coupled with some at times shoddy fielding, was costly.

“We were incredibly disappointed, particularly after day one having bowled so well in the first session,” Vaughan said. “They are a very good team and a very mature team and a team full of some wonderful players. While it was a good result on day one we knew we were in for a long game ahead.

“We were disappointed from day two onwards, we didn’t make the most of the position we set ourselves up in.

“The big thing we spoke about last night was the lack of a big hundred maker. We had three centuries made in Adelaide, we had some players face some big tally of balls but we didn’t have someone make a 150-pluss core.

“We saw the Victorian team having guys making multiple double-hundreds.

“That was certainly part of the reason we weren’t able to have the ultimate success here. It’s something we need to be better at in these types of conditions.”

The lack of a quality frontline spinner also hurt Tasmania’s chances, with Vaughan praising his fast bowling cartel for toiling away in often testing conditions.

“We consistently created enough chances … I couldn’t ask more from the bowlers in regards to their efforts.

“Some really tough conditions for fast bowling.

“Our bowling group toiled well in those conditions, at different stages we fielded poorly and dropped some catches which were costly to games as well.”