McDermott's ton leads Tigers to victory in superb chase

A sudden change in responsibilities has not perturbed Ben McDermott who struck a superb century to anchor Tasmania's win over Western Australia in the Marsh Cup.

With former Australian Test captain Tim Paine a late withdrawal from the match on Friday morning in order to take a "leave of absence" from cricket, McDermott was handed the gloves at Blundstone Arena.

The right-hander played a measured knock at the top of the order, mixing his well-known power hitting (eight fours and five sixes) with calculated risk-free batting as wickets fell around him early in pursuit of Western Australia's 9-294.

When Tasmania lost in-form captain Jordan Silk for a duck to a stunning boundary catch by substitute fielder Cameron Gannon, the Tigers has lost 2-0 in the 17th over and McDermott was in desperate need of an ally.

Young batter Mac Wright hung around, but it was McDermott who did the bulk of the scoring in their 136-run fourth wicket stand that saved the Tigers chase and got them back into the contest.

The 26-year-old hit Matthew Kelly out of the ground with a powerful flick over square leg, before he brought up his fourth domestic one-day century with a glorious off drive through the infield.

It was McDermott's first century of the season and will no doubt give him confidence heading into the mid-season break for the KFC BBL|11 as he eyes the T20I and ODI series against New Zealand and Sri Lanka early next year as another chance to don the Australian green and gold.

Wright, who began cautiously (at one stage he was 22 off 46 balls), put the foot down after drinks as the hosts wrestled back the momentum.

He was eventually out for 55 off 70 balls but Tigers' debutant Tim David entered and began striking at 140-plus almost immediately to keep the required rate under six an over.

David, who is no stranger to Blundstone Arena through his exploits with the Hobart Hurricanes in KFC BBL|10, struck a number of lofty blows over the infield that allowed Tasmania to coast to victory by five wickets with nine balls to spare.

Even when McDermott fell for 133 off 140 in the 48th over, David snuffed any thought of a WA comeback by powerfully dispatching the next two balls to the fence to effectively ice the game.

Noticeably, Test allrounder Cameron Green didn't bowl as the visitors struggled to make inroads after two early wickets to Andrew Tye (2-52).

Earlier, the visitors got off to a flyer after being asked to bat first, with in-form batters Josh Philippe and Sam Whiteman taking the score to 93 with relative ease.

Whiteman, who struck an epic unbeaten 176 in the Marsh Sheffield Shield match a few days prior, and Philippe, who also hit a century in a Shield game at the Gabba a fortnight ago, hit several towering sixes before David's gentle part-time off breaks induced the error, with Philippe (45) holing out to mid-wicket trying to help himself to another maximum.

Philippe heads into the BBL with back-to-back title winners the Sydney Sixers in a rich vein of form having scored 360 runs at 60 in his past eight innings at domestic level.

Cameron Bancroft (46) started where Philippe left off, but when Whiteman (79) fell with the score on 164 and Green (6) and Bancroft about 30 runs later, their innings appeared to be faltering.

Tom Rogers, who dismissed both Whiteman and Australian Test No. 6 Green, impressed as he halted WA's momentum with a tidy spell of 2-49 from 10 overs.

D'Arcy Short also fell cheaply when he chipped a simple catch to short mid-wicket and when skipper Ashton Turner and Matthew Kelly departed, the visitors had lost 6-62 to slump from 1-164 to 7-226 in 15 overs.

A late flurry from Hilton Cartwright (50) and fast bowler Tye (34) helped propel the visitors to a competitive score of 9-294, but some exceptional death bowling from evergreen veteran Peter Siddle (2-51) and Sam Rainbird (1-64) restricted WA to four runs off the last two overs and kept the ensuring chase within the realm of possibility.

It was Western Australia's second Marsh Cup loss of the season (both to Tasmania) but they still sit on top of the table heading into the BBL break with three wins from five games, while the win lifted Tasmania to second with two wins from three games.