Bailey's hundred stuns Western Australia

Tasmania 234 and 8 for 348 (Bailey 117, Di Venuto 53) beat Western Australia 405 and 176 by two wickets
Scorecard

George Bailey struck his maiden century to guide Tasmania to a stunning win over Western Australia at Perth. The visitors lost eight wickets in pursuit of 348 before Darren McNees and Adam Griffith saw them through to victory,

Michael Di Venuto and David Dawson gave the visitors a solid foundation for their run chase with an opening stand of 95, but they appeared down and out when they slumped to 224 for 6, including the dangerous Michael Bevan for 21. Bailey was defiant, however, as he and Shannon Tubb (45) put on 81 for the seventh wicket, both producing their highest first-class scores before David Bandy trapped Tubb leg-before with a further 43 runs still to win.

Bailey brought up his hundred with a clip off his pads, but fell for 117 attempting to hit a six to win the match. Despite only needing two further wickets, Western Australia couldn't make the breakthrough and fell to their fourth straight loss of the season.

"Obviously it's extremely disappointing to walk away from two fixtures against Tasmania without a win," reflected stand-in WA captain Marcus North. ""It's our worst start to four-day cricket for a number of years now and it's extremely frustrating for all of us. Hopefully it will turn around sooner rather than later.

"It is a young team, but that's no excuse," he added. "A lot of the guys have played a couple of years in and out of the first-class team."