Batting meltdown but Redbacks beat Tigers & gain place on international T20 stage

South Australia have won a place in the T20 Champions League and the right to host the Big Bash final. .

They did so by beating Tasmania 131 (18 ov) to 9/108 (20 ov) in a low scoring match, one in which their batting after a promising start collapsed losing 6/4 (that's 6 wickets for 4 runs) precipitated by a hat trick (nos 6,7 & 8) by Rana Naved-ul-Hasan.

Fortunately the Redbacks bowlers once again rose to the challenge: Shaun Tait took wickets from the first two balls of the Tasmanian innings and Aaron O'Brien, Dan Christian and Shahid Afridi maintained sufficient pressure to keep the Tigers well and truly caged, even they didn't undergo a Redbacks type meltdown.

Now there's one more minor round game to play in the Big Bash comp followed by the final at home then, whatever happens from now on, off to India. T20 may not be my preferred form of the game (though I did go to the 91 run trouncing of Victoria last week ) but you can be sure I'll be, like many other South Australians, barracking for the Redbacks as they take those next steps.