It wasn't only for the fact that a dry and parched Hobart saw one of its few decent rainfalls for six months. This was a day of milestones and drought-breaking feats all round.

Quite apart from the notion that John Smeaton's arrival gave the match its fifth umpire in three days, Shaun Young became the leading wicket taker in Tasmania's first-class history, Michael DiVenuto claimed his one hundredth first-class catch, and the Tigers amazingly went through an entire innings without bowling a single no-ball or wide. Regrettably for South Australia, the wrong sort of statistics kept flowing: captain Greg Blewett (0) scored his first duck of the season and the team became the first in eight summers to follow on here at the Bellerive Oval.

At the end of it all, the visitors are in grave danger of outright defeat. Having been dismissed for a first innings score of 185 and been forced to follow-on 228 runs behind, the Redbacks were at 3/71 in their second innings by the time that bad light finally brought matters to a halt at 6:47pm.

As a mixture of gently tumbling drizzle and short showery bursts swept across the city, there were smiles on a lot of faces among the rain-deprived locals. Not quite so amused, though, were the South Australian players and officials who have gathered here this week.

Not only was the entirety of the third day's middle session and a frustrating eighty minutes of the opening session wiped out by the weather. But, in such play as was possible, the wheels fell almost completely off the Redbacks' cause. Only Graham Manou (38), with a series of powerfully clubbed blows, showed real defiance as his team crashed to lose nine wickets for a total of just 130 runs overall.

It was the medium pace of Young (3/24 and 1/8) which presented the Redbacks with their greatest headaches. In just the second over of the day, he gained a thin touch from the bat of Ben Higgins (52) as the left hander tried to turn a delivery toward square leg. It made for a big moment; in snaring that scalp (his 219th for his state), Young moved past Colin Miller to become the all-time leading wicket taker in first-class cricket for Tasmania. It also ushered in a long period of little more than begrudging resistance from South Australia.

Young harried and cornered a succession of batsmen with suffocatingly accurate, typically economical, bowling on a pitch and in overcast conditions that offered assistance throughout the day. Nathan Adcock (9) was the next to be undone by him, driving loosely and presenting Daniel Marsh with a waist high catch at slip.

Even when Manou defended Young safely into the covers, the batsmen seemed beset. Partner Mike Smith (8) responded to the wicketkeeper-batsman's call for a quick single hesitantly and never looked a chance of beating home Jamie Cox's direct hit at the stumps. Later, a crease-bound Manou also found himself deceived by the Tasmanian stalwart.

Alongside Young's efforts, it was a similarly good day for Damien Wright (3/42 and 2/17). The blond speedster wrapped up the South Australian first innings with the wicket of Paul Rofe (5) and then returned at the start of the second to remove danger players David Fitzgerald (10) and Blewett in rapid succession. He quickly found the outside edge of Fitzgerald's bat - although the Tasmanians had already been denied a caught behind decision in his previous over. It even looked like the ultimately successful appeal would be denied too, an interminable delay ensuing before the South Australian opener, to his great credit, walked in apparent lieu of an affirmative decision from Umpire Tony McQuillan.

An even more grievous blow for the visitors came just six minutes later as Blewett played down the wrong line and had Wright uproot his off stump. And, just to cap the duo's efforts off, Wright and Young then combined forces just before the close; the former producing a brilliant low catch in the gully as a stubborn Shane Deitz (24) drove at a pitched-up Young delivery.

© 2001 CricInfo Ltd