A highly-disciplined New South Wales team completely outplayed Tasmania in the last two hours to record a convincing win in this Mercantile Mutual Cup tie, the last for each team before the semi-finals next weekend. Running first and second on the ladder before today, the win confirmed NSW's position at the top, finishing with four wins and a narrow loss, while Tasmania slipped to third, losing badly on the net run rate formula today. The Tasmanians will be relying on a Western Australian win tomorrow to sneak into the semi-finals in fourth place.
David Boon won the toss and sent the visitors in on a pitch that gave a modicum of assistance to the bowlers all day. Dean Waugh, younger brother of the Waugh twins, and making his debut for his State at this level, teamed up with Mark Patterson to record a first-wicket stand of 49, made in good style before Waugh charged Ridgway and was comprehensively bowled. Just before this, Patterson hit an enormous six off Ridgway that landed on some concrete and bounced off into the distance; it was nearly five minutes before the ball was retrieved.
NSW slumped alarmingly from 0 for 49 to 3 for 54 when Patterson and Kevin Roberts fell in quick succession to Ridgway. This bowler tightened up considerably, conceding 29 runs in his first six overs, but only four runs in his last four overs, as he bowled his ten overs on the trot.
Martin Haywood and Richard Chee Quee partly restored the NSW innings with a partnership of 55 in 58 minutes, and Greg Matthews played an intelligent innings of 30 off 36 balls after Chee Quee was brilliantly stumped by Atkinson. He hit a flat six that came within a metre or two of hitting a special sponsors sign that would have earned him a cool $90000. Haywood was quite content to anchor the innings before his departure, seventh out after a misunderstanding with Neil Maxwell. His 57 off 84 balls ultimate- ly transpired to be the highest individual score of the match.
Despite a few lusty blows from Maxwell, NSW could only muster 207 off its 50 overs, a total that was generally considered to be insufficient. This view was reinforced in the first hour of the Tasmanian innings, which featured some explosive batting from Michael di Venuto. Coming in at the fall of Jamie Cox, he hit five fours in his first ten overs at the crease, and the score raced to 67 in the first 15 overs, at which point more defensive fields were permitted.
This seemed to be the signal for the Tasmanian team to selfdestruct. Dene Hills fiddled at a ball outside the off-stump after scoring a patient 18 off 46 balls, and David Boon disappointed his fans with a second-ball ``duck'' as Anthony Stuart struck twice in his sixth over.
When di Venuto holed out to deep mid-wicket off his only poor shot of the day, Tasmania had slumped to four for 86. Rod Tucker and Shaun Young batted sensibly until Greg Matthews lured Tucker to his destruction with a perfectly-flighted off-break, and then Shaun Young, still not fully fit, was run-out for the second one-day match in a row when he failed to beat Haywood's throw from backward point.
Four for 122 quickly subsided to seven for 132 when Atkinson was overwhelmed by the pace of Neil Maxwell, and despite the hopes of the crowd of 1678, there was to be no last-minute rescue act as there was two weeks ago against Queensland. Inept tail-end bat- ting had no answer to the aggression of the visitors, who quickly closed in for the kill. Tasmania still had over six overs to bat when Michael Farrell became the tenth to succumb to the relent- less pressure.
Tasmania in all lost its last nine wickets for 78 runs in just over 27 overs, an appalling collapse that the team will be keen to forget if it is fortunate enough to qualify for the semis next week. There was no denying the mainland team, however, a victory that was made all the sweeter by the fact that seven first-choice players were away on World Cup duty. NSW reserve strength still continues to be one of the admirable features of Australian cricket.
Source: CricInfo
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