Bevan creeps home with three balls to spare

Tasmania 6 for 187 (Bevan 73*, Paine 57) beat Queensland 9 for 186 (Perren 50) by four wickets
Scorecard

Michael Bevan played his most famous role as he guided Tasmania to a final-over victory with an unbeaten 73 against Queensland at Bellerive Oval. Chasing 187, the Tigers were struggling at 5 for 83 in the 28th over before Bevan was joined by Tim Paine, who fell in the penultimate over for 57, and the duo carefully staged a 100-run recovery to help secure the four-wicket win with three balls to spare.

A master of last-gasp victories as an international, Bevan was playing his first one-day match since recovering from knee surgery and he stopped Tasmania limping. Bringing up his half-century from 105 balls, Bevan plotted the response perfectly and benefited from dropped chances on 32 and 53.

Michael Di Venuto, who was Mitchell Johnson's second wicket, sent Queensland in and they were in early difficulty after losing the openers Jimmy Maher and James Hopes by 30. Clinton Perren set up the innings with his third half-century of the season, an 89-ball effort with five fours, and the Bulls had to rely on scrambling contributions from Brendan Nash (32), Chris Hartley (14) and Johnson (17) to reach an under-par 9 for 186.

Darren McNees struck twice in the middle order to stall Queensland's target-setting while Ben Hilfenhaus and Adam Griffith also collected two wickets. The win moves Tasmania off the bottom of the table and they are now ahead of Western Australia in fifth spot.