MELBOURNE, 20 February 2004 — Australia, Shane Warne claimed four wickets to steer Victoria to a 218-run victory over Tasmania in their Sheffield Shield cricket match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground yesterday.
The home side needed only three overs after tea to take the last three wickets and dismiss Tasmania for 221.
Warne finished the second innings with figures of 4-51 and took six wickets for the match and is expected to be named today in Australia’s Test tour of Sri Lanka next month.
Warne returned to cricket last week after a 12-month doping suspension.
Michael Dighton top-scored for Tasmania with a quickfire 54 from 41 balls before Warne had him stumped.
Matthew Elliott top scored in the first innings with 166 and became the first Victorian batsman to score six Shield centuries in a season.
In Sydney, centuries by Darren Lehmann and Graham Manou had South Australia 182 runs away from a stunning outright victory over New South Wales.
Set a massive 521 runs to win after NSW declared their second innings at 299 for four early on the third day, South Australia made a big fist of it with Manou scoring 130 and Lehmann unbeaten on 149 with former Zimbabwean Test batsman Andy Flower not out 21.
South Australia required a further 182 runs with seven wickets in hand in today’s final day to bring off a sensational win.
