Smith blitz puts New South Wales in command

Tasmania 6 for 173 (Doolan 100, Copeland 4-26) trail New South Wales 6 for 468 (Smith 177, Jaques 88, Forrest 62) by 295 runs
Scorecard

Steven Smith's third Sheffield Shield century for the summer put New South Wales in the prime position to take first-innings points against Tasmania. Alex Doolan brought up his second first-class hundred but was a lone fighter for the Tigers, who closed the day 295 runs behind with only four wickets in hand.

The star of the day was Smith, who reached triple-figures with a boundary over midwicket from his 197th ball. Once he had passed the milestone, Smith lifted the tempo and struck his next 77 from 50 deliveries, finishing with five sixes in the 177 that was his best first-class score.

When Smith skied a catch to mid-on, the New South Wales captain Stuart Clark called an end to the innings at 6 for 468 and Tasmania's reply didn't start well. Trent Copeland had the opener Rhett Lockyear lbw for 1 and he grabbed another three wickets to finish the day with terrific figures of 4 for 26 from 19 overs.

Daniel Marsh (29) and Ed Cowan (22) were the only other batsmen besides Doolan to reach double-figures and at stumps James Faulkner was on 1 with Xavier Doherty on 4. Doolan's 100 ended when he was lbw to Mitchell Starc but it continued a breakthrough season for Tasmania's No. 3, who has made 612 runs this summer.