The Barracuda Breeze sponsored match ball was soon put to good use by Kidd, who made an early breakthough, but the next wicket was another 89 runs away though, as Dale (39) and Armitage (53) took control, their partnership finally broken by Blackmore taking a well judged catch in the deep.

Beevers continued to show form behind the stumps with a couple of stumpings off Harrison who also had Pearcy lbw and finished with 4 for 30. After Sheriff posted a competitive total of 141-6, Melbourne started slowly in reply but were well placed with only one wicket down and over a third of the total on the board when rain interrupted play. When play was able to resume, Harrison and Blackmore steering Melbourne to 73 without further loss but a middle order collapse reduced themto 87-7 and only 7 overs remaining with Tony Fisher claiming 4 for 28 in a devastating spell.

Jon Clarke and Brian Underwood put Melbourne back in contention with some excellent calling and running and they needed 16 off the last over, and six off the last two balls , but fell thrillingly short on 138-9 beaten by 3 runs.