Tasmania has cruised to a six-wicket Bupa Sheffield Shield win over New South Wales, reaching their victory target of 147-runs in the 44th over, just short of the tea break at Blundstone Arena.
The Tigers were never really troubled in the run chase and are now four points adrift of second-placed Western Australia on the Shield table, setting up an intriguing run home as the Tasmanian outfit looks to defend its 2010-11 title.
But by falling to an outright loss, the Blues have surrendered any chance they had of making the final and will be playing for pride for the rest of the season.
Resuming at 5-75 on Thursday morning, the Blues were well-served by skipper Steve O’Keefe (35) who batted bravely against a short-pitched barrage from the impressive James Faulkner (4-52) but couldn’t find a willing partner as the Blues’ tail fell away to be 9-150 when the innings concluded.
Simon Katich was unable to bat in the second innings, still suffering the ill-effects of a blow to the head while batting on Monday.
His loss while on 46-not-out not only harpooned the visitors’ first innings, but robbed them of valuable resilience during the second dig and may have proved to be a telling factor in the result.
Young Tasmanian quick Jackson Bird also finished with four wickets, running through the NSW tail to add three scalps to the wicket of former Test opener and top-scorer Phil Hughes (36) who he removed before bad light stopped play on Wednesday.
Ed Cowan (39) looked set to bat through for the Tigers before shouldering arms and losing his off-stump to Josh Lalor (1-25) while George Bailey looked as fluent in making 22 as he had in his first innings 117 before playing on to Trent Copeland (1-21) in sight of the victory target.
As it was, Mark Cosgrove (25 not out) bought up the winning runs with consecutive boundaries, echoing his performance in the Shield final last March.
The Tigers’ win was particularly impressive given that much of the second day was lost to rain and they lost further time due to an umpiring error on Wednesday, but they did control large parts of the match after O’Keefe had declared with the Blues racing to 7-341 on Day 1.