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Western Australia clinch win to go third despite Wade century

Matthew Wade punches the ball back Getty Images

Western Australia 367 (Philippe 76, Cartwright 66, Bird 5-70) & 8 for 283 decl (Whiteman 93, Short 61, Bell 3-72) beat Tasmania 197 (Doolan 46, M Marsh 3-21, Paris 3-33) & 402 (Wade 134, McDermott 69, Paris 3-64, M Marsh 3-76) by 51 runs

Western Australia's captain Mitchell Marsh found a way past the Australian Test captain Tim Paine to vault the Warriors into third place on the Sheffield Shield table after an enthralling final day of the match at Bellerive Oval in Hobart.

Needing exactly 400 on the final day with all 10 wickets in hand, the Tigers' pursuit was marshalled by a masterly innings from Matthew Wade as he maintained his push for a place on the Ashes tour with a century.

The Warriors had struck early on the final day and at 4 for 136 the game seemed to be headed inevitably for a WA win. However, Wade, who had earlier seemed intent primarily on survival, spread his wings in the company of Ben McDermott in a stand worth 183 for the fifth wicket.

At 4 for 319 with plenty of overs and time remaining, the Tasmanian chase appeared well and truly on course. But Wade and McDermott were both accounted for by the second new ball within 16 runs of each other, leaving the hosts scrapping for a draw.

This pitted Paine against Marsh, who had been dropped from the Australian side in all formats this summer. It appeared that Paine might be on the way to repeating his rearguard heroics in Dubai late last year, but Marsh coaxed a catch with the first ball of the penultimate over to hand outright points to the Warriors.

Tasmania 4th innings Partnerships

WktRunsPlayers
1st54AJ DoolanJC Silk
2nd7AJ DoolanCA Wakim
3rd41MS WadeCA Wakim
4th34MS WadeSW Willis
5th183MS WadeBR McDermott
6th16JM BirdBR McDermott
7th8TD PaineJM Bird
8th36TD PaineA Pyecroft
9th6TD PaineGT Bell
10th17TD PaineRP Meredith