Paine, Gulbis prove too much for SA

An unbeaten century from Tim Paine and a South Australian capitulation have kept Tasmania’s finals hopes alive with a bonus-point victory in the Matador BBQs One-Day Cup.

Paine earned man-of-the-match honours for his superb 109no that set up the 93-run win and sees the Tigers leapfrog the Redbacks into third position on the table.

After opting to bat first and posting 4-234 on a slow pitch at Blacktown International Sportspark, the Tigers looked in trouble when Redbacks skipper Travis Head and fellow opener Tim Ludeman raced out of the blocks to reach 0-57 after 11 overs.

“That’s what we want to be doing, we want to be positive,” Head told cricket.com.au.

“Then it just became tough and losing wickets in clumps like we did isn’t great.”

Allrounder Evan Gulbis halted their charge with the breakthrough of Ludeman for 21 to begin a constant stream of wickets.

WATCH: Gulbis routs Redbacks with four

Head looked in dominant touch early with some strong driving to the boundary through the off side, but he became the second wicket for Gulbis when he pulled a short ball straight to Kingston in the deep.

The Redbacks failed to produce a meaningful partnership from that point on as left-arm tweaker Clive Rose chimed in with two wickets of his own – including a beauty to bowl Alex Ross – and some poor running between the wickets contributed to two more departures.

Watch: Tasmania innings highlights 

Gulbis was the pick of the bowlers to finish with 4-12 from 6.4 overs as he cleaned up the Redbacks tail and rounded out an outstanding performance with the ball.

“It was nice to firstly get a few runs on the board,” Paine told cricket.com.au after play. “Then we bowled and fielded as well as we have.

“Hopefully we can keep building from this match.”

Earlier, Tassie openers Ben Dunk and Paine made a watchful start to their innings as they looked to lay a platform that had been sorely missing from their previous two outings.

Dunk passed 50 for the second time in the tournament before the pair recorded a 100-run partnership shortly after the halfway point of the innings.

Paine notched his half century from 92 balls, but the wicketkeeper-batsman soon set about upping the ante in the latter half of the innings.

WATCH: Paine posts fighting hundred

The former Australian representative lost Dunk, Dom Michael and captain George Bailey in the space of six overs, but partnered with allrounder James Faulkner to push towards a competitive total.

Paine brought up his seventh List A century from 136 balls in the penultimate over as the Tigers took 65 runs from the final 10 overs.

The 30-year-old finished not out on 109 with just five boundaries in the 141-ball knock.

“The positive was that despite two bad losses in a row we were still in the mix had we won today,” Paine said.

“We haven’t played our best cricket, but we’re right where we want to be at this stage of the tournament.”

South Australia will now need to bounce back in another crucial clash against the Commonwealth Bank Bushrangers on Friday, while Tasmania will prepare for the Alcohol.Think Again Western Warriors on Saturday.