Tigers hungry to atone after stunning collapse
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2019 themercury.com.au SUBSCRIPTIONS 1300 696 397 TASMANIA will be looking to bounce back today against Western Australia after losing the unlosable on Monday against Victoria at the WACA in its opening game of the domestic one-day competition.
In the pursuit of chasing a bonus point, the Tigers lost an astonishing 6-12, giving up not only the bonus point but also the win. The Tigers needed 14 runs in 11 balls to clinch the bonus point and had Ben McDermott (78) and Beau Webster (20) at the crease with six wickets in hand.
When Webster skied a Chris Tremain (4-36) delivery to the safe hands of Will Pucovski the collapse began.
Next over Jackson Coleman (4-46) had James Faulkner (one), McDermott, and Gurinder Sandhu (one) all caught, before Tremain returned to finish off the job.
Tigers coach Adam Griffth wasn’t concerned about his side’s form, putting the loss down to poor execution.
“We have reflected on it a bit, we played really well for 95 per cent of the game,” Griffith said.
“We’ve discussed what we did wrong and how we’ll go about that scenario if it happens again.
“You have to hold the batters accountable, they’re there to win games and they didn’t do that.
“We will back them in every single time to get the job done and after the lessons learnt we have no doubt next time they will.”
Earlier in the game, Tasmania’s bowlers were impressive with openers Jackson Bird (2-27) and Faulkner (2-45) troubling the Victorian batters with the swinging ball, before debutant Nathan Ellis (3-35) did the damage in the middle and later overs.
Tasmania will now turn its attention to Western Australia today, which is coming off an impressive win against Victoria in its first game of the tournament.
They will also welcome back captain Mitch Marsh.
“We won’t change a lot, we played well for most of the game,” Griffith said.
“They have an explosive batting line-up, which we’ll need to be conscious of.
“They also have a lot of experience in their bowling.”