Day4: Redbacks seal dominant display
At the end of four days during which they dominated their opponents, South
Australia has completed a 99 run victory over Tasmania in the teams' Pura
Milk Cup match at the Adelaide Oval today. After having been set a target
of 343 to win, the Tasmanians were bundled out for a second innings score
of 244 less than an hour into the final session.
After enlivening the match late yesterday with his decision not to enforce
the follow on, South Australian captain Darren Lehmann added a further
attacking touch by declaring the Redbacks' second innings closed at the
overnight score of 6/178. This set the stage for a terrific day's cricket.
Following a brilliant catch from Lehmann himself at a shortish forward
square leg position in the second over to remove opposite number Jamie Cox
(0), Tasmania was in tremendous touch at first. Michael DiVenuto (61) and
Dene Hills (50) played delightfully, frustrating almost the entirety of the
attack with an exciting mixture of shots. They took the score to 1/121
before they were parted, and had seemed to be giving the impetus to their
team to make a real match of things.
But with the dismissal of Hills to a leg before wicket decision as he
padded up at a ball outside the line of off stump and turning back from
Peter McIntyre (2/63) came a solid shift. That breach in Tasmania's
defences was further exposed when DiVenuto impetuously tried to smash a
Bradley Young (3/36) delivery over mid wicket in the very last over before
lunch, only to watch in horror as the result of his injudicious act was a
top edge and an easy catch to Jason Gillespie backpedalling from slip.
From there, Tasmania's shaky looking middle and lower order again
illustrated its vulnerability. On a wearing pitch which offered prodigious
turn and bounce to spinners McIntyre and Young, the Tigers were indeed
never really any chance of hauling in the target once DiVenuto had departed.
The South Australians, for their part, closed out their last home match of
the season in fine style in front of an enthusiastic crowd. All of the
bowlers performed well, even if they did err a little on the short side at
times during the Hills-DiVenuto stand. Their fielding was also excellent,
and it was probably fitting that they wrapped up their victory when man of
the match David Fitzgerald's enthusiastic pursuit of a ball from short leg
created confusion between the final Tasmanian pair and an ensuing run out.