South Australia survived a batting collapse to score a four-wicket win over Victoria with 22 deliveries to spare in their top-of-the-table one-day cup clash.
Victoria scored 8 for 241 at the MCG on Wednesday night and South Australia were in cruise control in reply before losing 6 for 48.
However some late hitting from wicketkeeper Tim Ludeman (26 not out off 11 balls) took the heat out of the contest as the defending champions posted a total of 6 for 246 to move to 18 points on the table, trailing Victoria by one point.
Paceman Scott Boland had claimed 5 for 63 off 11 overs to give the Bushrangers a sniff of victory but also contributed seven wides.
Michael Klinger (88) and Phil Hughes (73) looked set to carry the Redbacks to a 10-wicket win but after an opening stand of 164, they departed in consecutive overs.
Klinger was lbw to Boland and Hughes's new-found ability to play the pull shot hit a snag when he top-edged to deep-square leg.
Boland went on a bumper barrage and it paid off with three key wickets in two overs.
Callum Ferguson (7) top-edged a cut shot to third man and Dan Christian (1) and Tom Cooper (13) holed out to the square-leg boundary as the Redbacks put themselves under pressure with poor shot selection.
Boland struck again in the 44th over with another short ball as Alex Ross (14) popped a catch to gully at 6 for 212.
However Ludeman and Johan Botha (11 not out) were able to steer the visitors to victory.
Left-arm swing bowler Gary Putland claimed 4 for 44 from 12 overs in Victoria's 8 for 241, continuing his fine form after taking match figures of 12 for 92 in South Australia's Sheffield Shield win over the Bushrangers on Monday.
Victoria chose to bat first on Wednesday in sunny conditions but the home side's batsmen struggled to counter South Australia's disciplined line-and-length bowling.
Some loose shots contributed to Victoria slumping to 5 for 134 before 21-year-old Peter Handscomb (65) and 20-year-old Alex Keath (28) added 74 for the sixth wicket.
In-form opener Aaron Finch made 46.
"To have 16 wickets in two games is world-class," Redbacks captain Botha said of man-of-the-match Putland's efforts.
Boland said skipper Cameron White had told his bowlers to tempt the Redbacks' batsmen with high bouncers.
"The pitch maybe got a bit skiddy and we thought the best tactic was to try and bump them because we thought with their batters they'd try and take it on and they did," Boland said.
"Whitey said 'I would rather you be high at their head, because you can't control (the shot) from up there'. So we would take the wides and just try and get them out.
"It ended up working quite well but we were just probably 30 to 40 runs short with the bat."
AAP
Tags: sport, cricket, melbourne-3000, vic, adelaide-5000, sa, australia First posted November 28, 2012 21:45:42
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