Tasmania stay in race for final
Tasmania survived a late mini-collapse to keep their season alive with a three-wicket win at Sydney's Telstra Stadium
Cricinfo staff
24-Jan-2007
Tasmania 7 for 182 (Paine 43, Bollinger 3-30) beat New South Wales 9 for 181 (Jaques 54) by 3 wickets
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Tasmania survived a late mini-collapse to keep their season alive with a three-wicket win at Sydney's Telstra Stadium. In a match reduced to 45 overs a side due to early rain, the Tigers got to 4 for 150 chasing 182 when they lost 3 for 10 as they pushed for a bonus point. But New South Wales were unable to make the final breakthroughs required and Damien Wright and Xavier Doherty carried the visitors to victory.
Doug Bollinger (3 for 30) removed Travis Birt and Dan Marsh within three balls to give the Blues a sliver of hope but their failure to take early wickets cost them dearly. Tim Paine and Michael Di Venuto survived some excellent swing bowling by Bollinger and Moises Henriques and built an opening stand of 66 before Nathan Hauritz dismissed Di Venuto for 32.
Paine top-scored with 43 and George Bailey entertained the crowd with 42, including two huge sixes before the match petered out to a regulation Tasmania win. The Blues let themselves down in the field and should have had Bailey on 9 when he lofted Henriques into the covers but the confused Dominic Thornely and Ed Cowan each thought the other was going for the catch.
The Tigers had the huge advantage of winning the toss and sending New South Wales in on a pitch that was dampened by rain as play started an hour late. Phil Jaques made a partial return to form with his first limited-overs half-century since November - his last was also against Tasmania - as he anchored the New South Wales innings with 54. David Warner provided a rare highlight when he lofted Marsh over the bowler's head for six to get off the mark in his FR Cup debut.
Marsh said Tasmania knew they required a bonus point at some point in their next few games to reach the final. "We were just behind the eight-ball and we just kept losing wickets," he said. "We had a go, we thought it was a good opportunity to get a bonus point after getting them out for 180."