By defeating Tasmania by 2 runs in the last ball of the match, South Australia equaled the record for the toughest Sheffield Shield win in terms of runs. There are three other matches where Western Australia beat Victoria in 1998, South Australia beat Western Australia in 1999 and New South Wales beat Western Australia in 2003.
Chasing the target of 429 runs, the Tasmanian team needed 4 runs off the last ball of the game when strike batsman Riley Meredith guided the ball towards deep cover and scored 2 runs. But after completing the first game, he was sent back by his batting partner Lawrence Neil Smith. Confusion in the middle led to Meredith being run out and South Australia winning.
At one point Tasmania seemed to be in cruise control before surrendering where they lost 4 wickets for just 4 runs.
Have you ever seen anything like this 🤯
Tasmania got mixed up in the middle after South Australia won with the final delivery #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 Weatherold’s 65, Jordan Silk’s 65, Mitch Owen’s 53 and Brad Hope’s 69 initially put Tasmania in the driver’s seat but the home side suffered an extraordinary collapse after the latter 2 batsmen were dismissed.
Matt Kuhneman then got out first ball and Gabe Bell was clean out for a wicket by Ashton Agar in the last over.
“I thought we went at it, then back at it, then went at it again and again. I was more than happy with the draw. But Wes hit back six beautiful yorkers. Forty minutes ago I thought they were going to (win) it five down. Will do,” South Australian captain Ben Mananti said after the match.
“Actually we needed two wickets and they needed six runs. They could hit a deep guy for six singles and drive it home. A hell of a game of Shield cricket,” he added.
With this result, South Australia is at the top of the Sheffield Shield points table, while Tasmania is at the bottom.