Bold declaration breathes new life into battle

A bold declaration from Western Australian captain Tom Moody has offered the scent of an exciting finish to his team's Pura Cup clash with Tasmania at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart today. The mid-afternoon closure, which came with his team still well behind on the first innings, allowed the Tasmanians to reach an overall lead of 295 runs by day's end and work their way toward setting their guests a challenging target for victory tomorrow.

The enduring highlight of the day's action was the batting of Damien Martyn (122), whose seventh first-class century in the space of eleven matches at Bellerive played a huge role in helping the Warriors avoid the prospect of following-on. He received excellent support from wicketkeeper Mark Walsh (50), whose stubborn resistance at the other end in a stand of 124 allowed his team to survive the pre-lunch session without the surrender of a wicket.

After more than four hours at the crease, Martyn was dismissed courtesy of a mistimed pull. It was one of the few false strokes in an otherwise well controlled innings - an innings which swelled his Bellerive first-class average to a whopping eighty-three. But he still remained the centre of talk at the ground for sometime thereafter, given that the unexpected news that he has been made Australia's twelfth man for the First Test against the touring West Indians at Brisbane on Thursday filtered through to the ground only moments later.

Before Moody (20*) and Brad Oldroyd (5*) safely negotiated their way beyond the follow-on mark and toward the ensuing declaration at 7/298, Martyn was the second of three players to be dismissed in quick succession. That rapid tumble of wickets, for a time, raised local hopes that the Tasmanians might still have been able to ask the Western Australians to bat for a second time for the day.

Medium pacer Shaun Young (3/37) walked away with the best figures for the Tasmanians after a tremendously cunning display. Paceman Gerard Denton (2/90) acquitted himself well, and David Saker (2/66) is also entitled to look back on his exhibition with general satisfaction.

In the end, though, Moody was the one to whom the chance of calling the mid-afternoon shots fell, and he did so in a manner that made for an attractive conclusion to the day. During a slightly elongated final session, Jamie Cox (73*) joined with Michael DiVenuto (51) in an exciting century partnership that rapidly extended the Tasmanians' lead. Cox eventually needed to slow the pace down once DiVenuto, Daniel Marsh (10) and Andrew Dykes (2) fell amid the search for runs. But it was not before his team had assumed a formidable overall advantage upon which it can build briskly again tomorrow.

It will now be the Tasmanian opener's batting, and more particularly his captaincy, which will play a major role in shaping the match's final destiny tomorrow. He said after play that he will not be burned by the memory of Tasmania's heartbreaking four wicket loss to Queensland in Brisbane three weeks ago, when the Tigers watched the Bulls reach a target of 373 from seventy-one overs to snatch victory from them in a remarkable finish.

"In Queensland, two blokes batted out of their skins. There's no harm in losing a game like that when you're trying hard to win. We owe it to ourselves to have a go at winning tomorrow and I think we're good enough to take wickets tomorrow if the circumstances are correct," said an enthusiastic Cox.

It's to be hoped that the conclusion meets the expectations.