Silk 90* helps Tasmania overcome Covid delay and Turner 100 for four-wicket win
Turner had helped lift WA from 7 for 81 to a respectable 218 but it wasn't enough
AAP
15-Oct-2021
Jordan Silk's unbeaten knock took Tasmania through • Getty Images
Tasmania 6 for 221 (Silk 90*, McDermott 57, Tye 4-39) beat Western Australia 218 (Turner 100, Siddle 3-31. Meredith 3-41) by four wickets
Tasmania overcame a pre-match Covid delay and a gutsy Ashton Turner century to post a four-wicket one-day cup win over Western Australia at the WACA Ground.
Turner scored 100 off 121 balls to help lift WA from 7 for 81 to a respectable 218. In reply, Tasmania reached the target in 43.5 overs, with captain Jordan Silk's unbeaten 90 leading the way.
The start of Friday's match was delayed by an hour after southern Tasmania was thrown into a snap three-day lockdown.
Although the bulk of the Tasmanian squad flew into Perth from South Australia after featuring in a Sheffield Shield match in Adelaide, Tom Andrews, Jake Doran, Riley Meredith, and Mitch Owen had all flown in from Tasmania. It meant they were told to leave the ground until WA Police could confirm the quartet hadn't visited any exposure sites in Tasmania.
"It was a bit of a funny one," Meredith said. "I left the hotel, got to the ground, was walking up the stairs to the box there, and I got the palm out from the team manager and the physio, and they said, 'nah, turn back, you've got to get in the car and go home'.
"We spoke to our manager and let him know where we'd been [in Tasmania]. And then we just had a little hour to ourselves, which was nice, and then straight back to the ground."
Western Australia slumped to 3 for 16 and 7 for 81 after electing to bat, before Turner and Andrew Tye (44 off 31) resurrected the innings.
Tasmania quick Riley Meredith did the early damage, before veteran Peter Siddle struck later in the innings, including the key wicket of Turner.
Tasmania were looking shaky at 2 for 22 after Caleb Jewell and Macalister Wright departed early. But mature knocks from Silk, opener Ben McDermott (57), and Beau Webster (39) ensured they reeled in the victory target with 37 balls to spare. Tye was the pick of the WA bowlers with figures of 4 for 39 off 10 overs.
"I guess the batting was a bit of a train wreck. You don't win many games from 7-80," Turner said. "We fell quite a few runs short. We expect ourselves to be better than that, and to post a bigger score after winning the toss and batting first."