New look Tassie top of table after first-up Shield win | cricket.com.au

Coming into the first Marsh Sheffield Shield round minus more ‘big name’ players than were contained in their starting XI, Tasmania have stunned everyone bar themselves by crushing South Australia by seven wickets inside three days on their home patch.

Tasmania’s first Shield win since they triumphed over Victoria at the MCG last November came shortly after 4.30pm on day three when two of those incumbent ‘names’ – Matthew Wade and skipper Jordan Silk – stole a cheeky single.

Their triumph would have been completed even earlier but for the regular rain delays that cost almost two hours of playing time on day three.

After finishing second-to-bottom on last summer’s Shield ladder, and with so many first-choice players unavailable through injury for this season’s opener in addition to losing Ben McDermott, Jackson Bird and Peter Siddle through the winter, few expected Tasmania to bounce back so emphatically.

But in the absence of top-order batters Tim Ward and Jake Doran, player of the match Charlie Wakim (110 and 25) and aspiring Test opener Caleb Jewell (87) proved batting mainstays while Beau Webster’s all-round contribution of 62 plus four wickets and as many catches was exemplary.

And despite missing pace bowlers Riley Meredith, Nathan Ellis and Tom Rogers through injury as well as Billy Stanlake whose return to four-day cricket continues to be managed, the new-look attack of Gabe Bell (six wickets for the match), Lawrence Neil-Smith (five) and Mitch Owen (two on debut) barely missed a beat.

Bell, who spent the off-season playing league cricket at Stoke in the English midlands, went from being unable to win a berth in Tasmania’s Shield line-up to assuming the role of attack leader, a promotion he admits he relished.

“It’s always good to play for Tasmania, I love doing it,” Bell said in the wake of his team’s comfortable win.

“Obviously I was behind Bird and Siddle the last few years which I completely understand, they are very good players in their own right.

“So it was awesome to get the opportunity to play again, and I’m really enjoying the challenge of leading the attack.

“The feedback I got in the last couple of years was always positive, which was really good.

“But I went off to the UK this off-season, that was something I wanted to do to put my best foot forward going into the season.”

It was a more sobering start for South Australia who had entered the summer buoyed after the gains made last season, only to show the same top-order batting frailties that have plagued them in years past.

The Redbacks crashed to 4-49 then 3-10 in their two innings of this game, and by getting bowled out for 157 in less than 45 overs today they recorded the second-lowest completed Shield innings total posted at Karen Rolton Oval.

Redbacks coach Jason Gillespie conceded his team were “not good enough” across all disciplines, most notably their top-order batting.

But with Adelaide’s Premier Cricket competition not starting until this weekend and no Toyota Second XI fixture prior to their next Shield outing against New South Wales starting October 15, there are few opportunities for potential replacements to push their case.

“We showed glimpses of what we can do, but glimpses don’t win you many games of cricket,” Gillespie said at game’s end.

“First innings 4-49 then 4-55 second innings, we’re not driving games forward.

“We’ve got a pretty disappointed bunch of players in there … but one game doesn’t make a season, win lose or draw.

“So I wouldn’t expect too many changes to the team, we’ve got absolute belief in this group of players.

“These guys are going to do the job for us, mark my words.”

If there was a positive for SA to take from the humbling loss, it was the character of the new drop-in pitch at Karen Rolton Oval that delivered on its mission statement to produce results and was acclaimed for its similarity to Adelaide Oval’s tracks by both teams.

Having surrendered three wickets inside the first eight overs the previous evening, SA resumed on day three trailing by 27 but with first-innings century maker Jake Lehmann and in-form Australia A representative Nathan McSweeney undertaking a salvage job.

But that task became more insurmountable when Lehmann was pinned lbw by Bell’s first delivery of the morning, reducing the Redbacks to 4-55 and still 19 runs shy of forcing Tasmania to bat a second time.

The situation’s bleakness didn’t quell Jake Fraser-McGurk’s inherent aggression, the precociously talented Victoria recruit unleashing a flurry of boundaries in reaching 29 off 20 deliveries.

Dropped on 12 when Bell failed to clasp a waist-high chance driven at pace, Fraser-McGurk celebrated the reprieve by thrashing three fours from successive deliveries.

However, as was the case in SA’s first innings, no sooner had the 21-year-old got going than he got out, this time dragging back on to his stumps when caught in two minds whether to defend or withdraw.

From there, the Redbacks innings descended into another grimly familiar freefall.

Having rattled on runs at the rate of one per minute in the day’s first hour, McSweeney went searching for an ambitious drive in the second over after the drinks break to begin the procession.

SA’s last five wickets then fell for 45 in 12 overs with Webster claiming four of them as Tasmania’s recast attack relentlessly targeted the stumps.

They were aided by some exceptional catching, notably from Webster whose low return grab off Brendan Doggett was a highlight.

The only halt in the parade of SA wickets came from rain interruptions either side of lunch, and some typically spirited late-order resistance from Ben Manenti who finished unbeaten on 29 and demonstrably frustrated when left stranded by the clatter of tail-end wickets.

Tasmania’s victory chase began amid light drizzle, and Jewell was understandably aggrieved when trapped lbw by the second ball of the innings only to see players leave the field due to rain one delivery later.

But the ensuing 25-minute delay did little to quell the visitors’ victory charge which was completed with a day to spare, ensuring both teams experienced wildly contrasting starts to their first-class summer.

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