Sheffield Shield: South Australia equals league record for tightest win in terms of runs against Tasmania | Cricket News
South Australia equalled the record of the tightest Sheffield Shield victory in terms of runs when they defeated Tasmania 2 runs in the final ball of the match. There are other three matches with the same margin of victory with Western Australia beating Victoria in 1998, South Australia beating Western Australia in 1999 and New South Wales defeating Western Australia in 2003.
With the Tasmania team needing 4 runs off the last ball of the match in a chase of 429, on strike batter Riley Meredith guided the ball to deep cover and looked for 2 runs. But after completing the first, he was sent back batting partner Lawrence Neil-Smith. The confusion in the middle led to Meredith being run out, handing South Australia the win.
At one point though Tasmania looked to be in cruise control before capitulating where they lost 4 wickets for just 4 runs.
HAVE YOU EVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE IT 🤯
South Australia win on the final delivery after Tasmania have a mix up in the middle #SheffieldShield
Watch the final over: https://t.co/PgYbmiZl5K pic.twitter.com/F5ZrBl2iYe
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) December 9, 2024
Tim Ward’s 142, Jake Weatherald’s 65, Jordan Silk’s 65, Mitch Owen’s 53 and Brad Hope’s 69 initially put Tasmania in the driver’s seat but after the dismissal of the latter 2 batters, the home team suffered an extraordinary collapse.
Matt Kuhnemann was then dismissed first ball and in the final over, Gabe Bell was cleaned up Ashton Agar for a duck.
“I thought we were gone, then back in it, then gone again and back in it. I was content with the draw more than anything. But Wes nailed six beautiful yorkers back to back. Forty minutes ago I thought they would (win) it five down,” South Australia’s captain Ben Manenti said after the match.
“Realically we needed two wickets and they needed six runs. They could have hit six singles to the deep guy and walked it home. Hell of a game of Shield cricket,” he added.
With the result, South Australia are on top of the Sheffield Sheld points table while Tasmania are lodged at the bottom.
