Cox, Marsh lead way for Tasmania again

The two 'Mr Reliable' figures in Tasmanian cricket, Jamie Cox and Daniel Marsh, have enjoyed another good day at the outset of the Pura Cup clash with Western Australia here in Hobart today. Their respective half-centuries, in the midst of brilliant individual starts to the first-class season, guided the Tigers to the sound scoreline of 4/279 by stumps against an attack badly blighted by an injury to its spearhead.

On the way to a near-third century in succession in the first-class arena, Cox (87) acted as the mainstay through the difficult early period that the Tasmanians endured after losing the toss. Showing that his skills with the bat far outweigh his ability to convince coins to fall on the correct side, he played another assured innings. Although he was not quite at his best, he also again outshone Dene Hills (15), Michael DiVenuto (13) and Andrew Dykes (13) at the other end.

Those three players had departed the stage before the Tigers' total had reached three figures and, not for the first time this weekend, the possibility of the locals' middle order losing its way carried grave implications. It was then that the defining features of the day's play - the batting of Cox and Marsh and the absence from the field of speedster Matthew Nicholson - enjoined instead.

It took the Warriors until the penultimate delivery before tea to capture their next wicket. That came when Cox was adjudged leg before wicket as he played across the line at a delivery from left arm spinner Brad Oldroyd (1/23). The Tasmanian camp later hinted that the ball might have been inside edged into pad, but the fact that their captain ended the innings with his season's first-class average standing at ninety-one ensured there was not too much room for lasting disappointment. Their pain would surely also have been salved by the innings of Marsh (93*), who clinically ploughed his way past the half-century mark for the fourth time in five innings this season. The strongly-built right hander joined with Shaun Young (43*) in an unbroken stand of 107 in the final session that decisively tilted the day's honours in his team's favour.

Already deprived of the services of pacemen Brad Williams and Jo Angel because of fitness concerns prior to the match, the loss of Nicholson (0/13 off just four overs) was a setback that the Warriors could ill afford. And the implications of an injury to his right knee became increasingly obvious throughout the afternoon. Having brought into this match an attack that contained only four specialist bowlers with which to begin in any case, and been forced to ply their trade on a pitch not offering them a huge amount of encouragement, the Western Australians' task of beating the Tasmanians' bats became unenviable.

In a testament to the exacting nature of the search for consistent breakthroughs, they called on as many as eight bowlers. Of them, Oldroyd and paceman Gavin Swan (0/80) were possibly the most impressive. Swan's opening spell at the Church Street End was the best of the day and, in it, he might well have been able to claim Cox's scalp if Brendon Julian had not grassed a hot chance at backward point when the Tasmanian skipper had only fourteen runs on the board. It was Julian (2/69), in fact, who ended with the best figures. But it wasn't a day for any of the bowlers to remember with especially great fondness.