Redbacks cap great day

At the end of day two, South Australia is in a great position against Tasmania in the teams' Pura Cup match in Adelaide, having secured first innings points, an overall lead of 183 runs and with nine second innings wickets still in hand.

After the tea break, Tasmania had continued the battle for survival in its first innings, eventually declaring at 9/159, with the doughty Shaun Young finishing on 50 not out, and Ben Targett not out on 3.

Putting the seal on a great day, South Australia's bowlers kept their opponents pinned on the ropes in the final session. In a tribute to the evenness of the Redback attack's effort, Mark Harrity, Brett Swain, Peter McIntyre and Mick Miller all grabbed two wickets.

It was McIntyre who snared the wicket of the aggressive David Saker for 11. Miller, meanwhile, was responsible for trapping Damien Wright in front for 11.

The plan that underpinned the start to South Australia's second innings was occupation of the crease. Following five overs during which they sought to do little more than allow the ball through to the 'keeper, the Redbacks lost their first wicket when David Fitzgerald (5) played a lazy shot to point where he was caught by Scott Kremerskothen.

Whilst the Tasmanians were buoyed by the dismissal, it didn't compensate in any way for what had been a poor day overall. Their predicament worsened further as Greg Blewett and Shane Deitz safely negotiated their way through to stumps without any further hints of a wicket. The latter was so intent on defence, in fact, that it took him until the final ball of the day - following fifty-seven minutes at the crease - to open his scoring account, with a glide to third man for three.

With two days left to play, and a forecast of further fine weather in Adelaide, the Redbacks had clearly put themselves in the box seat for outright points by the halfway point of the match. Captain Darren Lehmann is likely to press for a lead of well over three hundred and then ask his bowlers to turn his team's first two points of the season into six.

The Tigers, by contrast, have an uphill task ahead of them. They will need to capture early wickets tomorrow and follow it with a determined batting performance that sees the likes of Jamie Cox, Dene Hills, Michael DiVenuto and Daniel Marsh all performing much better than they did today.

At the start of the day, the Tasmanians would have felt they were in with a strong chance of winning this match and so it was a measure of the extent of their decline that they now find themselves in a position of having to play very well tomorrow to even save it.