South Australia v Victoria, Pura Cup, Adelaide, 3rd day

Bushrangers sniff victory after four quick wickets

Cricinfo staff

October 16, 2007

South Australia 249 (Gillespie 49, Denton 3-42, Nannes 3-60) and 4 for 27 (Nannes 2-7, Denton 2-14) trail Victoria 438 and 4 for 158 dec (Hussey 74*) by 320 runs
Scorecard

Jason Gillespie kept South Australia's hopes alive with a first-innings 49 but his top-order colleagues could not copy him © Getty Images

South Australia's top order was dreadful again at Adelaide, where the Redbacks replied to Victoria's generous declaration by crashing to 4 for 27 at stumps. The target of 348 in a day plus 18 overs became significantly less attainable when Dirk Nannes had Cameron Borgas caught behind and trapped Mark Cosgrove lbw with consecutive balls.

It meant they had lost three wickets in nine deliveries after Jason Borgas was the first to go, edging behind off Gerard Denton, who went on to claim Daniel Harris in the third-last over. The collapse left Matthew Elliott on 5 with the nightwatchman Jason Gillespie on 1 at the close as South Australia needed a further 321 to steal the match.

The batting shambles was essentially a repeat of the first innings and threatened to fritter away the hard work Gillespie had done before lunch to clean up that mess. He frustrated Victoria with 49 as he and Dan Cullen (20 not out) compiled the Redbacks' biggest partnership of the innings, with their 61 for the last wicket pushing the score to 249.

Cameron White chose not to enforce the follow-on and Victoria aimed to set a tough chase quickly. Ryan Harris did what he could to halt that plan, removing Nick Jewell and Michael Klinger in consecutive overs to have Victoria wobbling at 2 for 27. However, David Hussey followed his first-innings 104 with 74 not out, including two sixes, as he and White (38) steered the visitors to 4 for 158 before the declaration.

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