Tasmania suffer Sheffield Shield heartbreak after Riley Meredith run out

Tasmanian all-rounder Mitch Owen has leapt to the defence of his teammates who remained at the crease at the end of Monday’s disastrous Sheffield Shield finish. He explains why he feels for them.

South Australia recorded a remarkable win. (Photo by Steve Bell/Getty Images)

Tasmanian Tigers all-rounder Mitch Owen has leapt to the defence of teammates after the horror finish in the Sheffield Shield loss against South Australia.

Fast bowler Riley Meredith was run out on the final ball, turning for a second run — a wicket which ultimately cost the Tigers a draw and ended in a two-run loss.

Since Monday’s rollercoaster finish, where the Tigers lost four wickets in the last two overs when they appeared on track to chase down 429, Meredith has attracted criticism online.

But Owen said the Tigers were quick to put an arm around their teammate.

“Riley’s a professional, he can clear that pretty quickly,” Owen said.

“Going into a big Big Bash for us at the Hurricanes, we need him at his firing best. It probably shouldn’t have been up to those guys.

“Personally I would have liked to seal it a bit earlier. It’s a situation the lower order probably hasn’t been in as much.

“I don’t think it’s a lack of game sense, it’s a high pressure situation, it’s got to come off for someone and unfortunately it wasn’t us.

“It was quite hard to take, it’s still quite fresh.”

After Tim Ward posted a century, Mitch Owen’s power hitting late in the day — scoring 53 runs off 39 balls — gave the Tigers a chance of pulling off an unlikely victory.

But when Owen hold out off the bowling Nathan McAndrew, it all started to fall apart.

“I tried to seal it myself to be honest and got caught out in the deep,” he said.

“I can’t really speak on behalf of the other guys but in that situation, they’re trying their best to get those runs.

“It doesn’t really feel like I contributed much without getting that win.

“Looking back on the first half of the year, I’m happy to be impacting games but at the end of the day I want to be winning games.”

Owen said the message from coach Jeff Vaughan was he was “quite proud” of the group.

The Tigers are now out of action until February.

EARLIER

Tasmania has suffered a heartbreaking Sheffield Shield loss to South Australia after a final ball run out.

Riley Meredith was run out turning for two to hand the visitors a two-run victory at Bellerive Oval in Hobart.

The Tigers needed four runs off the final ball to produce one of the greatest run chases in their history but could only manage a single.

Meredith and Lawrence Neil-Smith completed one run before Meredith turned for a second and before he was dismissed by South Australian skipper Ben Manenti and Wes Agar at the non-striker’s end.

If the wicket had not of fallen, the game would have been a draw.

What looked set to be a remarkable win with two overs to go turned into disaster with the Tigers losing their final four wickets.

Four to win off the last ball of the match, nine wickets down… and Meredith gets run out coming back for a meaningless second run?!

Insane finish to the #SheffieldShield match between @SACricketTeams and @crickettas 🤯 pic.twitter.com/Yz2gffKshz

— Will Faulkner (@willzfaulk) December 9, 2024

Tim Ward’s second Shield century of his career had given the Tigers a glimmer of hope after entering the day at 1-41 when a draw probably looked like Tassie’s best chance of a result.

Ward hit 142 runs off 288 balls to finish just two runs shy of his career best score of 144 before being dismissed by Wes Agar.

It follows a strong run of form for Ward who was cruelly denied a century in the previous Shield game against New South Wales when he was dismissed in the 90s in both innings.

Radhakrishnan’s fellow opener Jake Weatherald played a strong supporting act with 65 off 81 while Jordan Silk (65 off 134) and Brad Hope (69 off 116) also recorded half-centuries.

Mitch Owen gave Tassie some hope with his late order power hitting after finishing with 53 off 39 before the disaster struck.

Owen was the first of the four to go.

South Australia had taken control of the game after posting 6-398 declared in their opening innings before dismissing the Tigers for 203.

The visitors posted 9-233 declared in their second dig.

This was the final game for the Tigers of 2024 with their campaign to resume on February 5 next year with a one-day game against NSW.