Victoria's remarkable recovery earns bonus point

Victoria 200 (White 50, Griffith 3-45) beat Tasmania 145 (Paine 56, Lewis 3-32) by 55 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Andrew McDonald claimed the key wicket of Ricky Ponting © Getty Images

Victoria engineered a massive turnaround to transform from what appeared to be a certain defeat into a bonus-point win over Tasmania at the MCG. After restricting the Bushrangers to 200, Tasmania were cruising at 1 for 74 before they spluttered to 145 all out.

Ricky Ponting did not enjoy a rare outing for his state side, falling for 10 to start the collapse, and Victoria secured their first one-day success of the summer. "We got going very well, we were 0 for 50, going along beautifully and then things came to a halt," Ponting said after the match. "The momentum went away and that cost us a win."

Jon Moss was Man of the Match for his frugal spell of 1 for 20, which tied up the Tigers middle order, while the debutant Clinton McKay also put on the brakes with 1 for 34. However, Mick Lewis created the most damage with 3 for 32 after the opener Tim Paine began with a calm 56.

Cameron White, the Victoria captain, saved his side from serious problems with a half-century from No. 3 before he was run out by Luke Butterworth. Adam Griffith, Ben Hilfenhaus and Brett Geeves all made inroads and the Tigers sensed victory at the break. However, White was confident his bowlers would exploit a slow and low pitch and defend the small total.

"We know these conditions pretty well and created some pressure," White said. "After the new ball, if you can take the pace off, it can become really hard to score."