Tasmania overcome New South Wales in Sheffield Shield thriller
Tasmania beat New South Wales at the Sydney Cricket Ground in an exciting Sheffield Shield game that ended on Friday. The visitors won by one wicket thanks to a last-wicket stand of 31 runs between Luke
Butterworth and Adam Maher in a low-scoring match.
Tasmania had started the day chasing a target of 163 for a win and were 73/3 overnight. They had lost their captain Ricky Ponting for 27 overnight and that meant that on a treacherous SCG track, they needed
someone to put their hand up and deliver the goods.
73/3 quickly became 73/4 when captain http://www.senore.com/Cricket/George-Bailey-c1480 departed in the third over of the day and then there was a steady fall of wickets that pushed the side back. Mark Cosgrove made only nine, James Faulkner
scored seven and by the time overnight batsman Brady Jones was sent back for 32, the Tasmanian side looked dead and buried with the score reading 107/7.
There was a vital 22-run stand for the eighth wicket between Butterworth and Jason Krejza but two quick wickets after this saw the side fall to 136/9. Maher joined Butterworth at this stage and the senior
partner farmed the strike really well to get the side closer to the win.
Nathan Hauritz dropped a dolly in the slips to allow Maher off the hook and Butterworth went on to seal the game with an unbeaten 44. Australian international Doug Bollinger bowled the last over with 12 needed
for a win, and conceded the runs on a platter. Butterworth had earlier scalped five wickets in the game and scored 39 in the first innings.
Shane Watson took five wickets for New South Wales and will take a lot of confidence into the first Ashes Test match against England.
Earlier, the New South Wales side had been bowled out for a paltry 97 on the first day of the game thanks to http://www.senore.com/Cricket/James-Faulkner-c1643’s five-wicket haul. None of the big Australian names, Watson, Simon Katich or Brad
Haddin did anything of note with the bat. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Tasmania-c854 fared not too much better, scoring 125 in the first innings with captain Ricky Ponting scoring only seven.
In the second essay, the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Watson-c96326 made only
15.
Hauritz, one of the front-runners for the first Ashes Test match, bowled only one over in the game.
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