Warriors win thriller nine down

Western Australia 359 and 9 for 68 (McDermott 7-24) beat Queensland 251 and 175 (Burns 43, Beer 3-19, Rimmington 3-28) by 1 wicket
Scorecard

Alister McDermott's seven-wicket haul narrowly failed to earn Queensland a stunning win at the Gabba, where Western Australia chased 68 for victory and got there nine wickets down. In a thrilling finale, Ben Cutting collected the eighth and ninth wickets from consecutive balls with the Warriors still needing four to win, but the No.11 Michael Hogan picked up two from each of the next two deliveries to secure the win.

Nathan Rimmington was at the other on 16 when the winning runs came, the top seven batsmen all having fallen to McDermott, whose 7 for 24 easily eclipsed his previous best first-class figures of 3 for 36. The small target started to look a bit tougher when McDermott had Liam Davis caught behind in the first over, Wes Robinson caught down leg side in the third over and Marcus North lbw in the seventh over.

It left the Warriors at 3 for 23 and worse was to come when both Marsh brothers were caught pulling, Shaun for 12 and Mitchell for a duck. That gave McDermott his maiden five-wicket haul in his fifth first-class match, and he followed up with Luke Ronchi caught behind for 1 and Adam Voges, the top scorer with 18, snapped up at second slip.

When Cutting chipped in with the wickets of Nathan Coulter-Nile and Michael Beer it left Queensland with a great chance to keep their unbeaten season alive, but Hogan edged two and then drove down the ground to secure the win. Remarkably, the Bulls also dropped two catches as the Warriors wobbled their way to 9 for 68, but the result was enough to push Western Australia within four points of the top-of-the-table Bulls.

Earlier in the day, Queensland had lost their last six wickets for 64 runs, as Beer collected 3 for 19 and Rimmington also picked up three victims. Joe Burns top scored for Queensland with 43.