Marcus Wilson at Adelaide Oval
Tasmania has recorded an emphatic seven-wicket victory over South Australia in their Ford Ranger Cup match at Adelaide Oval on Sunday.
The Tigers reached the victory target of 250 with 47 balls to spare with Ed Cowan hitting the winning runs. Travis Birt was the other not-out batsmen.
Tasmania got the perfect launch pad from man-of-the-match Michael Dighton (69 runs off 56 deliveries) and Tim Paine (41 from 55) who combined for a 112-run opening stand.
South Australia worked its way back into the contest when it took 3-12 midway through the innings but the momentum quickly shifted back into the visitors' favour when Birt (68 runs from 68 balls) and Cowan (54 off 72) combined to form their own aggressive three-figure partnership.
Shaun Tait, Dan Christian and Aaron O'Brien were the wicket-takers.
The Redbacks, who decided to leave Michael Klinger out of the line-up, did well to reach 9-249 in their dig but were 20 runs short of what coach Mark Sorell thought would be a par score on the batsmen-friendly wicket.
Dighton and Paine put the Redbacks on the back foot with their punishing stint in the middle. They hit 12 boundaries in the opening 12 overs and were ticking along at better than a run a ball.
Dighton was eventually out skying an O'Brien delivery to Peter George at midwicket - ending a 126-run stand.
Redbacks captain Graham Manou made a couple of bowling changes and both paid dividends.
Christian had Paine caught behind for 41 with his first delivery while Tait came on for his second spell and had George Bailey caught at mid-on after rushing the Tigers captain into a pull shot.
There were no signs of panic from Cowan and Birt who were middling the ball from the start of their innings.
In the 38th over Birt hit a mid-wicket six and then collected a single to record his half century. Two overs later and Cowan also notched up the milestone.
Birt obviously wanted an early night as he trashed a number of boundaries to reduce the deficit quickly.
Earlier, South Australia recovered from a shaky start to compile a competitive 249.
The Redbacks lost wickets at regular intervals and were in trouble at 5-114.
An understandably cautious innings from opener Dan Harris (68 from 98 deliveries) in a 68-run partnership with O'Brien (54 off 65) steadied the ship before some hard-hitting from Christian (35 from 26) lifted the run rate.
Spinner Xavier Doherty cashed in on the home side's wobbly start and took 3-46 off 10 overs.
Brendan Drew took 2-38 while Luke Butterworth took wickets on the last two balls of the innings.
Harris batted steadily but did have some luck throughout his dig. In the first over, a Ben Hilfenhaus delivery got through his defences and rolled onto the stumps but didn't dislodge the bails.
And in the 37th over he would've been well short of his ground if Drew hit the non-striker's stumps from gully.
He was eventually bowled trying to sweep Doherty but his sixth Ford Ranger Cup half-century was an invaluable knock.
O'Brien's innings was more free-flowing and his input in a 41-run powerplay (between overs 41-45) put the pressure back on the Tigers.
South Australia first innings
Harris b Doherty 68 (98)
Smith c Krejza b Geeves 6 (14)
Cosgrove c Geeves b Drew 23 (23)
Manou c Paine b Doherty 2 (5)
Cooper c Butterworth b Doherty 19 (27)
Borgas c Dighton b Drew 22 (32)
O'Brien c Cowan b Hilfenhaus 54 (65)
Christian not out 35 (26)
Tait b Butterworth 6 (11)
Haberfield b Butterworth 0 (1)
Extras: 14 (nb 1, w 5, b 1, lb 7)
Total: 249 (9 wickets; 50 overs)
FoW: 1-18, 2-54, 3-57, 4-80, 5-114, 6-182, 7-219, 8-249, 9-249
Bowling:
Hilfenhaus 10 - 1 - 39 - 1 (1w)
Geeves 10 - 0 - 63 - 1 (3w)
Drew 6 -0 - 38 -2 (1w)
Doherty 10 - 0 - 46 - 3
Krejza 8 - 0 - 31 - 0 (1nb)
Butterworth 6 - 0 - 24 - 2
Tasmania first innings
Paine c Manou b Christian 41 (54)
Dighton c George b O'Brien 69 (57)
Cowan not out 54 (72)
Bailey c Smith b Tait 2 (4)
Birt not out 68 (68)
Extras: 16 (nb 2, w 10, b 1, lb 3)
Total: 250 (3 wickets; 42.1 overs)
FoW: 1-113, 2-120, 3-124
Bowling:
Tait 10 - 0 - 61 - 1 (1nb, 4w)
George 6 - 0 - 46 - 0 (1w, 1nb)
Haberfield 8 - 0 - 39 - 0
O'Brien 8 - 0 - 49 - 1
Christian 7.1 - 0 - 34 - 1 (4w)
Cosgrove 2 - 0 - 11 - 0
Borgas 1 - 0 - 6 - 0