Cosgrove blasts Tasmania to victory

Tasmania 258 and 0 for 106 (Cosgrove 86*) beat Western Australia 108 and 255 (Robinson 98, Marsh 50, Butterworth 4-59) by 10 wickets
Scorecard

Mark Cosgrove demolished Western Australia for the second time in the match to drive Tasmania to a comfortable ten-wicket win on the third morning at Bellerive Oval. Set 106 for victory, the Tigers got there with ease, as Cosgrove blasted an unbeaten 86 from 53 deliveries, with his opening partner Ed Cowan on 18 when the winning runs arrived.

It continued Cosgrove's strong form after he made 100 in the first innings and since being axed by South Australia and given a lifeline by Tasmania, he has made 510 Sheffield Shield runs at 56.66. However, Cosgrove was lucky to be there at the end, having been dropped on 74 when he drove Michael Beer to Shaun Marsh at long-on.

The day began with the Warriors 76 runs in front with six wickets in hand, but a horrible collapse meant a tiny chase for the Tigers. Luke Butterworth ran out Adam Voges for 38 and then helped to run through the Western Australia lower order with 4 for 59, as the Warriors could only get 20 runs from their last six batsmen.

Adding to their problems, the in-form fast bowler Ryan Duffield is expected to miss six weeks with a stress fracture in his back. The Big Bash runs through January and the Warriors don't have another Sheffield Shield outing until February 10, and the coach Mickey Arthur said with his side sitting on the bottom of the table, major changes were expected to the squad.

"I think we're going to have to sit down now and make some serious decisions about where we want to go with the squad," Arthur told AAP. "There's no beating around that bush. We're clearly not able to challenge for Shield positions with the squad we've got."