Redbacks poised for overdue outright success

Following the completion of day three of its match against Tasmania here at the Adelaide Oval, South Australia appears almost certain to achieve its opening outright win of the Pura Cup season. The Redbacks will head into the final day with the Tigers already five second innings wickets down and still requiring another 268 runs to achieve what would shape as a near-miraculous win.

The Tigers had opened the final session requiring the nowhere-near-unrealistic total of 337 runs to win. The makeshift opening pairing of Jamie Cox (10) and Andrew Dykes (14) started off in positive style, but things soon went awry. Possibly unsettled by the loss of close confidant, Dene Hills (who was still feeling the effects of being struck on the helmet by a Graham Manou pull shot earlier in the afternoon), Cox (10) was the first to go, departing to what appeared to be a bat-pad decision, when a catch flew high to gully off the bowling of Brett Swain (1/15).

Swain was in the midst of a wonderful spell from the Bradman Stand End by this stage. He was proving a constant handful for the batsmen, and had a number of lbw and caught behind appeals turned down.

In the over following the one which brought about the demise of Cox, Mick Miller (2/20) joined the party by snaring Dykes with an lbw decision. Much as it had done in the first innings, Tasmania's upper order was already displaying an air of shakiness.

Michael DiVenuto (9) fared little better than his two fallen teammates. He never really looked settled, found it difficult to break a tightly set field and, in the end, lost patience. He drove loosely at Miller and lobbed an easy catch to David Fitzgerald at point. By this stage, the Tigers had slumped to 3/35.

Following something of a contextual drought between the fall of Tasmanian wickets, Redbacks captain Darren Lehmann tried to unsettle the stubborn pairing of Shaun Young (10) and Daniel Marsh (14) by bringing leg spinner Peter McIntyre (2/15) into the attack. It proved a masterstroke. Like he had done yesterday, the veteran dropped on to a fine line and length from the outset and his reward came when Young edged a leg break through to Manou behind the stumps.

Scott Kremerskothen (6*) joined Marsh and simply tried to last until stumps. Marsh had endured a bad day with the bat yesterday; he was involved in the disastrous run out of DiVenuto and later played a wild shot at McIntyre to be bowled. And, unfortunately, matters didn't improve much for him today. His dismissal was possibly the most cruel of the match; he leaned forward to defend a ball from McIntyre but had the ball roll back between his legs and tilt back a stump before he had the chance to retrieve the situation.

So dire had affairs become by this point that the injured Hills (4*) was forced to come to the crease. He at least made it through the day unscathed but not without surviving one chance; Shane Deitz dropping a reasonably difficult catch close in to the bat from McIntyre's bowling.