Bulls keeper sweeps up all-time Shield dismissal record

TEN wickets separate Bulls captain Chris Hartley and celebrations, 13 summers in the making, with Tasmania going to stumps at 0-10, chasing 352 runs to win their Sheffield Shield clash at the Gabba.

In a milestone yesterday in Brisbane, wicketkeeper Hartley surpassed Victorian Darren Berry, claiming a record 547th dismissal to help roll Tasmania for just 200.

And after Sam Truloff and Marnus Labuschagne hit quickfire scores of 44 and 31 re- spectively in Queensland’s second innings, Hartley declared at 6-146 to leave the Tigers a tricky 15-minute period before stumps on day three.

They survived through openers Jordan Silk (0) and Jake Hancock (5), but the story of the day was Hartley. He went to the top of the charts when he caught a driving Simon Milenko off Michael Neser’s bowling to surpass Berry’s previous mark of 546 dismissals by a Shield keeper.

It was one of three wickets for Neser (3-39) after he had ripped through the Tigers’ top order on Thursday.

Fellow quick Mark Steketee (3-66) also claimed three, including the key wicket of George Bailey for a patient 55 when he had a ball nip back at him to take his off stump. Resuming at 4-113 in response to Queensland’s 9 (dec)-405, Bailey had earlier forged a 71-run fifth-wicket partnership with Dom Michael before he chopped on pushing at a Steketee delivery for 55.