Time was running out when the allrounder struck twice in an over to end NSW’s resistance
27-Nov-2024 • 53 mins ago
Tasmania celebrate their first Sheffield Shield win of the season • Getty Images
Tasmania 364 (Ward 92, Silk 74, Webster 61, Radhakrishnan 55) and 268 for 8 dec (Ward 96, Abbott 4-71) beat New South Wales 338 (Patterson 99, Gilkes 62, Bell 4-52) and 239 (Philippe 55, Kuhnemann 3-76) by 55 runs
Test dark horse Beau Webster has iced Tasmania’s tense 55-run Sheffield Shield defeat of New South Wales on an emotional day when the SCG commemorated the 10th anniversary of Phillip Hughes’ death.
A stubborn ninth-wicket partnership from Adam Zampa and Chris Green and a lightning-enforced delay combined to frustrate Tasmania in the final hour after they looked on top declaring 294 runs ahead.
But Webster, a chance to come into Australia’s XI this summer if allrounder Mitch Marsh needs a break, produced two crucial late wickets to dash any hopes of NSW holding on for a draw.
The towering 30-year-old enticed Australian white-ball mainstay Zampa into nicking off to Jake Doran in the first ball of his new spell. Jackson Bird to Tim Ward in the slips without scoring later that over, with NSW all out only 13 minutes before play was due to close on day four.
The bowling heroics from reigning Sheffield Shield player of the series Webster came after handy contributions of 61 and 49 with the bat and sealed a first win of the season for Tasmania.
“He’s a special player at the moment,” Tasmania captain Jordan Silk said of Webster. “Any time I feel like we’re in trouble, I feel like I can throw him the ball and he just seems to be able to create something.
“I know there’s a bit of talk around him potentially as a back-up [Test] allrounder and I’m very supportive of that move if they are to go that way.”
The day began on a sombre note as tributes to Hughes brought the SCG to a standstill. The former Test batter died 10 years ago on Wednesday after a bouncer struck his neck while batting in a Shield match at the famous ground.
The man who bowled that delivery, Sean Abbott, was consoled by NSW team-mates as he wept during the pre-match minute’s silence.
Abbott went on to inspire a Tasmanian collapse of 4 for 10 early in the day, dispatching of Webster as the most crucial of his three wickets.
After Tasmania declared, Matthew Kuhnemann made his mark by breaking a 61-run partnership between Oliver Davies and Kurtis Patterson that had NSW on track.
Doran stumped Davies from a Kuhnemann delivery that bounced fiendishly outside off stump, before the spinner made headway on a deep NSW batting order later in the day.
As pressure mounts on the Australian top order, former Test player Patterson missed a chance to further reassert his international credentials. The in-form left-hander skied Tasmania’s Kieran Elliott to wicketkeeper Jake Doran, who took a catch on the run at backward square leg.
It was the first time in five knocks since his first-class recall that Patterson failed to make a half-century.
When Matthew Gilkes was also caught behind by Doran the next over off Kuhnemann, NSW were wobbling at 120 for 5 with 175 more runs required for victory.
Josh Philippe provided some resistance before Mitch Owen bowled him on return to the attack, with Webster doing the rest in the final half hour.
