Denton engineers a debacle

South Australia 112 (Denton 3-34) v Tasmania 207 (Cleary 4-41) and 175 for 3 (Watson 43*)
Scorecard

Gerard Denton took control for Tasmania as South Australia crumbled on the second day of their Pura Cup match at Adelaide. At stumps, Tasmania had built on Denton's efforts with the ball to close on 175 for 3, an overall lead of 270. Although Michael Dighton fell lbw to the last ball of the day, it could not detract from an excellent day's work.

Dighton had added 90 for the third wicket with Shane Watson, comfortably the highest partnership of the match. It was a stark contrast to SA's poor batting effort, in which they mustered 112, their lowest-ever total against Tasmania. They appeared to have held the upper hand when they dismissed Tasmania for 207 on day one, but threw away their advantage.

At one stage, SA had been comfortably placed at 105 for 4, but then lost their last six wickets for seven runs in a ten-over debacle. Darren Lehmann, their captain, later admitted that the pitch had nothing to do with the disaster. "It's a good wicket, it's definitely not a 207 and 112 wicket, more like it is now, 175 for 3, so there's been some good bowling in the first innings from both sides and some poor batting."

Denton, who took 3-34, started the slide when he had Greg Blewett caught at second slip for 39, then knocked Graham Manou's middle stump out of the ground with his next ball. He obtained plenty of swing and movement off the pitch at pace, and followed up by having Mark Cleary caught behind for a duck in his next over.

At the other end, left-arm spinner Xavier Doherty chipped in with two wickets and also pulled off a run-out with a direct hit to complete the rout and finish with the figures of 3 for 23.