We’ll be switched on early
Coach hoping Tigers can wake up after sloppy start last game
A DISAPPOINTING opening two days cost Tasmania any chance of victory against Victoria, but coach Adam Griffith has praised his group for holding on for a draw and keeping its Sheffield Shield season alive.
The Tigers were set a near impossible 476 — a total Griffith said was never realistically an option of chasing down — but safely navigated their way to 5-197 before stumps were drawn early.
Batsman Ben McDermott was at his stonewalling best, scoring just five runs off 98 balls to deny the Vics.
Some missed opportunities on day one and a poor showing with the bat on day two put the visitors behind the eight-ball, but with a pair of home matches to finish the season a spot in the final is still up for grabs.
Tasmania has a quick turn- around against Western Australia starting at Blundstone Arena tomorrow and if it can bag an outright result, and NSW does not defeat Victoria, it will set up a virtual semi-final against the Blues in a fortnight’s time.
“We probably had our opportunities in the first two days to press a bit harder and keep ourselves in the game,” Griffith said of the Round 8 draw.
“Some poor catching I think cost us a little bit, we weren’t quite able to hold our channels with the ball at times and our batting on the second day left a lot to be desired with some of our dismissals.
“We talk about our outs and unfortunately we had a couple of soft ones there.
“But the last day we fought really well to get that draw, that’s what I told the boys after the game that the good teams still get the draws in those situations and don’t capitulate and get bowled out.
“We were reasonably happy with that on the last day.
“470 is a lot of runs, if they had wanted to set a game up and give us 400 or so when they declared, we definitely would have had a crack at it.”
With only three days between matches, Griffith said he was conscious of not burning out the bowlers on day three, but he said the group had pulled up well.