Dawes bowls Queensland to victory

After an opening session which promised plenty in the way of rearguard resistance, South Australia's middle order has collapsed to present ladder leader Queensland with a ten wicket win on the final day of the teams' Pura Cup match here at the Adelaide Oval.

Comprehensively achieved, it was a victory which not only secured the defending titleholder a place in this season's Pura Cup Final but also handed it a potentially unbridgeable four point buffer over opponent Victoria in the race to clinch the all-important home ground advantage in that match.

That the South Australians even made the victors bat a second time was incidental. An enjoyable partnership of seventy runs in sixty minutes between Nathan Adcock (48) and Paul Rofe (18) took the game into the last hour before the inevitable occurred - Queensland needing just twenty-one to win after the Redbacks were dismissed for a modest second innings total of 280.

Strapping quick Joe Dawes (7/98) - with a career best haul of ten wickets in the match - steamrolled the Redbacks, picking up five wickets in the middle session as South Australia lost six wickets for a mere sixty-six runs to crumble from a lunch score of 2/153 to 8/219.

Queensland now holds a four point advantage over second-placed Victoria in the Pura Cup and goes into next week's home clash against New South Wales seemingly needing just first innings points to seal a home Final and secure a massive advantage in its bid to win back-to-back titles.

The day had begun offering little hope for South Australia. But by lunch a draw loomed as a distinct possibility, with the Redbacks having reached that mark of 2/153 and whittled their overall deficit down to 107 runs. Mike Smith (76) and Darren Lehmann (45) proved a resilient combination, effectively blunting the Queensland attack in the two hours of play that opened the day.

Smith enjoyed some good fortune - especially when he was dropped, with his score at 20, by wicketkeeper Wade Seccombe off Dawes - but he played attractively to both sides of the wicket. Somewhat atypically, Lehmann was content to rely mainly on defence and didn't produce too much of the belligerent strokeplay for which he is renowned. Instead, the shot of the day - if not of the match - came when Smith drove a delivery from off spinner Andrew Symonds to the northern sightboard just before reaching his maiden fifty.

However, given the way that South Australia had batted for much of this match, it was too good to last. Smith missed a quicker and shorter one from Symonds as he played back and, once Queensland had decided to utilise the second new ball the moment it was due at 3/201, the trouble started. South Australia proceeded to lose a devastating 4/5 in a spell of forty balls, Lehmann starting the rot when he edged a Dawes ball to the floating slip in the third over with the new rock.

Ben Higgins (10) tamely edged Dawes and, from the following delivery, Graham Manou (0) top edged a misguided hook shot to deep long leg where Adam Dale took an excellent catch. Somehow Adcock avoided the hat trick, playing and missing outside off stump but it didn't curtail the clatter of wickets: in Dawes' next over, Peter McIntyre (1) edged to slip to leave the Redbacks eight down and still fifty runs in arrears.

Adcock and Rofe then had a merry time on either side of tea. Adcock cut and pulled well, but probably needs to think about giving away the hook because, as a tall man, he often seems unable to keep the ball on the ground. The pair hung around for sixteen overs before the hook stroke duly brought about Adcock's undoing. He was caught at deep backward square leg, thanks to a great diving effort by Clinton Perren who has done himself proud throughout this match.

Rofe edged the next ball to the wicketkeeper to hand Dawes a well deserved tenth wicket and his fortieth of a brilliant Pura Cup season during which he has claimed those victims at only a tick over twenty runs apiece.

The ending was a little strange, given the visitors needed just those twenty-one runs to win. Skipper Lehmann set a 9-0 off side field to the bowling of Rofe, in what was interpreted by many as a veiled protest against Queensland's own tactics in the field. But, in reality, if the home side's batting had been a little more disciplined, there would have been no real need to complain about such matters. To lose 8/75 and 6/53 at various times was unforgivable, even for a depleted side which is without a number of its better batsmen.

Dawes quite rightly was named Man of the Match, and will doubtless be full of confidence as he and his fellow Bulls take on New South Wales from Thursday at the 'Gabba.

The South Australians now find themselves in bottom position in the competition standings. But they do at least have a chance to redeem themselves on Thursday in Hobart where they take on the in-form Tasmania at Bellerive Oval.