Tasmania win by nine wickets at WACA

PERTH - The Tasmanian Tigers hungry and grumpy after a season-long slumber mauled the Warriors by nine wickets on the third day of the Pura Cup cricket match at the WACA today.

Former Australian one-day player Michael Di Venuto smashed 48 to steer the Tigers to 0-89 and record the Tigers' second consecutive outright win after an unproductive season.

In doing so they climbed out of the Pura Cup basement and above South Australia to answer captain Jamie Cox's (30no) pre-match challenge to finish the season with at least one win from its last two games.

Western Australia's first innings hero Jo Angel made the early breakthrough, his 400th first class wicket, when he found the edge of Dene Hills' bat to offer wicketkeeper Mark Walsh a simple chance when the Tigers had wiped just a single from the run chase.

Di Venuto was ruthless, if not a little reckless, as he threw his bat at anything outside off stump to rack up nine boundaries and in the process receive two lives from Sean Marsh's dropped catches at gully.

The Warriors were all out in the eighth over after tea, leaving the Tigers 24 overs to chase victory with an option of an extra half hour.

Their hopes of building a defendable total died with the dismissal of 20-year-old Scott Meuleman, who top-scored on debut.

Meuleman batted for 191 minutes to reach 46 before he was bowled by Shane Watson to make the score 7-119.

Pace pair Andrew Downton (2-14) and Shaun Young (2-20) were the chief destroyers as Western Australia's top order collapsed, leaving Meuleman the only batsman to reach 20.

Opener Mike Hussey, who finally broke his summer-long run drought with a hard fought 90 in the first innings, made 15 of the Warriors first 22 runs before edging Saker (3-38) to Di Venuto at slip.

But of more value to the Tigers was the prized scalp of new Warriors skipper Simon Katich, who was caught behind off Downton for a duck after facing 19 balls without scoring.

Downton followed up next ball to trap out-of-sorts former Zimbabwe Test star Murray Goodwin lbw when lunch was called.

Young then took over, first removing Marcus North for nine and then drawing an edge off 17-year-old Shaun Marsh (16) for Di Venuto to swallow.

The Tigers resumed this morning at 7-249 in reply to Western Australia's 229 with three wickets in hand.

They added 31 runs before they were bowled out by veteran paceman Jo Angel (5-78).

Cox described the win as the best he had played in as a captain and praised the efforts of his bowlers for sticking to the game plan to rout the Warriors for 229 and 139.

"We identified them as a side of excellent back foot players and we just wanted to deny them the opportunity to play the shots that they thrive on," he said.

He said the Tigers would now reasses their goals, of winning two of their last three matches, and return to Hobart for next week's match against South Australia looking for victory to elevate themselves to third on the ladder.