Tasmania left to fight for final berth

Tasmania 300 and 5 for 155 (Doolan 42) drew with Victoria 535 and 158 (Wade 46*, Geeves 6-47)
Scorecard
Points table

Brett Geeves stung Victoria with six wickets but his career-best bowling figures were not enough to keep Tasmania's chances of a win alive and the match drifted to a draw. After Geeves was responsible for dropping the Bushrangers to 5 for 59 on the third afternoon, Tasmania had a sniff of an unlikely success that would have retained second place.

However, they dropped to third behind Queensland and must beat South Australia outright in Adelaide from Thursday - and hope the Bulls don't win - if they are to meet Victoria in the final on March 13. Matthew Wade, who followed his first-innings 100 with 46 not out, was the main problem for the hosts as the Bushrangers scrapped to 158 all out at lunch.

Tasmania were left dreaming of 394 for victory in two sessions and while they started brightly, the wickets fell too regularly and the game was called off early. John Hastings gained three victims to have the Tigers 4 for 109 and they lost the top scorer Alex Doolan for 42 shortly before the captains agreed to the stalemate with Tasmania at 5 for 155.

Geeves picked up three more victims on Sunday, starting with the captain Cameron White for 16 early in the first session. Tasmania sensed a chance when Geeves dismissed Darren Pattinson, leaving the Bushrangers at a precarious 7 for 82, and they were 8 for 91 when Hastings departed. Wade guided the team through the damage with help from the tail, Damien Wright adding 17 before becoming Geeves' sixth wicket and the debutant Steve Gilmour picking up 13.