Agar on his last over: 'I didn't think we were a chance to win the game'

Meredith played one yorker down the ground and Neil-Smith heaved into the deep for another single. And so it came down to the final ball. Four to win, one wicket to win, or a draw. This is where things went really wild. Agar got his yorker spot on, Meredith backed away and squeezed it through the covers. There was no chance of scoring the four needed to win, but Meredith started back for a second and left himself stranded.Agar suggested the information on the scoreboard, which showed three needed (to level the scores), rather than the four for the win, may have been a factor.”It’s the pressure, it can play tricks on you,” he said. “Potentially, Meredith could have been seeing it as they needed three, if they came back for a second and there’s a fumble they could get another. We knew going into the over what they needed because the umpire communicated that with the batsmen in tow, but Riley came in during that over. That’s the only plausible option I could see, or a massive brain fade which can happen when you are chasing runs and get so close.”Even in the small amount of time between delivering the last ball and it coming back to the stumps, Agar’s mind was racing. “There were massive mixed emotions because I backed myself in to get that wicket,” he said. “He [Meredith] backed away and showed me all the stumps, I nailed my yorker, and he’s just jammed it out. So in my head I’ve gone ‘oh, no, I didn’t seize that moment’ then I go ‘cool, we’ve drawn it’, then out of nowhere we’ve won it. You are almost in shock. Sitting in the dugout afterwards, the boys were in silence trying to process it.Wes Agar (right) and South Australia team-mates at the moment of victory•Getty Images”I’m lucky I’ve trained with my bowling action to nail a yorker so that held me in good stead to switch so fast like I did yesterday. It went from ranking probably the worst game of cricket I’ve played in to one of the best pretty quickly. It just reflected how we were in the rooms, like almost in a bit of shock with all that happened in a short space of time. It’s almost taken us a whole day to process it and feels like I still am in a way.”The lost point for bottom-placed Tasmania (what they would have gained for the draw) will likely prove less critical than the six gained by South Australia for the win. The upshot of all the drama is that they head into the Sheffield Shield break top of the table as the BBL takes over domestic cricket. They can sense a first final since 2016-17 and a bid for their first title since 1995-96.”We’ve got a lot of players around 25 to 30 [years old] who are really starting to understand their game and gel,” Agar said. “We’ve built a culture around that. Personally I feel we’ve always had the talent but may not have had the experience to match it, or we’ve had the experience but not the talent. I feel like now is a perfect period where both are marrying up and we are able to not only compete but are fighting hard for wins.”It showed yesterday. In years past we could easily have rolled over and it’s a testament to our group that we didn’t. It shows we are ready to push our case and play in that Shield final.”