Western Australia chase elusive win with surprise declaration

Victoria vs South Australia, Melbourne

Victoria gave a good account of themselves after having handed a 38-run first innings lead to South Australia; they fought back strongly to skittle SA out for 162, leaving themselves a target of 201 for their third win in the Sheffield Shield 2016-17. In the fourth round of the tournament, they ended Day 3 on 36 for no loss, still needing 165 runs to win with all their wickets intact on Monday (November 28).

The day started with Victoria still trailing South Australia by 142 runs. Sam Harper, along with the lower order, ensured that the home side got close to SA's 405. Harper, just 19 years of age, showed composure and maturity as he struck a well-compiled 80 before Adam Zampa went past his defence. After his dismissal, the trio of Chris Tremain, Scott Boland and Jon Holland added handy runs down the order to take Victoria to 367.

South Australia had around 60 overs to bat out the day, but that did not happen as the combination of Marcus Stoinis and Jon Holland shared seven wickets between them to roll over the visitors for 162. The only resistance coming from Travis Head, who followed up his first-innings hundred with a 52 in the second essay.

Chasing 201, the opening pair of Travis Dean and Marcus Harris had 11 overs to survive the day, the duo weathered everything that was thrown at them and came out unscathed.

Brief scores: South Australia 405 & 162 (Travis Head 52, Jon Holland 4-25, Marcus Stoinis 3-45) lead Victoria 367 (Aaron Finch 102, Sam Harper 80; Joe Mennie 4-64) & 36/0 (Marcus Harris 19*, Travis Dean 17*) by 165 runs.

Tasmania vs New South Wales, Hobart

New South Wales (NSW) continued their ascendancy against Tasmania at the end of day three in Hobart with the hosts 24 for 1 when stumps were drawn, in a chase of 415. NSW paceman, Trent Copeland had picked up four wickets on day two and added two more to his tally, ending up with returns of 6 for 53.

Beau Webster was the first Tasmanian to fall on the third day. The right-hander was Copeland's fifth wicket which left the hosts struggling at 119 for 6. A 68-run stand for the eighth wicket between Jake Doran and Hamish Kingston got Tasmania close to the 200-run mark. The wicketkeeper got to his fifty and was the last batsman out as NSW bowled them out for 209.

With a lead of 289, NSW did not enforce the follow-on. Moises Henriques and Co. decided to bat and Ed Cowan helped himself to a fifty. The southpaw added 80 runs for the opening wicket with Daniel Hughes and NSW declared with a lead of 414.

Tasmania were left with 10 overs to face, and in that period, lost Jordan Silk with Copeland providing the breakthrough in his second over. Ben Dunk and George Bailey remained unbeaten and the hosts will need something special to avoid their third defeat.

Brief scores: New South Wales 495/5 decl & 128/1 dec (Ed Cowan 66*, Daniel Hughes 33) lead Tasmania 209 & 24/1 (Ben Dunk 14*) by 391 runs.

Queensland vs Western Australia, Townsville

Western Australia made a bold decision of declaring their first innings 82 runs short of Queensland's 422. It came more as a surprise because they still had four wickets in hand and Ashton Turner was batting on 49.

Resuming day three on 187 for 3, Cameron Bancroft notched up his eighth first-class hundred, but soon was dismissed for 103. Hilton Cartwright, who was involved in a 105-run stand with Bancroft continued milking runs and fell 16 short of his own ton. Sam Whiteman and Turner made useful contributions with the bat as Western Australia declared on 340.

The decision would have been made thinking they can bowl out Queensland cheaply in the second innings, but Joe Burns and Co. did not let that happen. Even though they lost four wickets by stumps, Queensland had pushed their lead to 212.

WA are yet to open their account in the tournament, which explains their brave declaration.

Brief scores: Queensland 422 & 130/4 (Joe Burns 38; Mitchell Marsh 2-26) lead Western Australia 340/6 dec (Cameron Bancroft 103, Hilton Cartwright 84; Michael Neser 2-52) by 212 runs.