'We'll just have to see what happens': Souths win but now waiting game begins

Needing at least a first innings win, after finishing day one 5-57 in pursuit of the Redbacks' 114, they started day two six down after a bit of a mix-up around Matt Beattie's availability.

Thinking he was available, Skilton had named him for both weekends, only to learn during the week that he was away on the weekend with representative oztag commitments.

Because he was one of the in batsmen, he had to be retired out.

It "wasn't great", Skilton conceded, but he was still confident with the batters they had to come that they'd "be able to chip away and win that first innings".

They had an early hiccup losing Conrad George for the addition of only 16 runs, leaving them with still 42 to get and only three wickets in hand.

But Mitch Smith and coach Trent Weir combined to secure Souths the all-important first innings points.

"We knew we had to win the game to give ourselves a chance of making the finals so it was really satisfying to see a few blokes stand up," Skilton said.

"We know we've got some quality across the team. It's just getting those individual performances together and working collectively to get the result, so it was good."

Having held the innings together before coming off with cramp late on the first day, Smith picked up where he left off and went on to top-score with a patient 61.

"He watched really hard, he respected the bowlers and he just waited and waited and just worked away accumulating runs," Skilton said.

"He wasn't doing anything flash, he was doing exactly what he needed to."

"Trent (46) was the same. He earned the right, being in there for quite a period of time and being defensive minded, that when they did bowl some bad balls later on he'd earned the right to be able to put them away."

"He was seeing them well enough that he could rock on the back foot and put them away."

Their last chance to press their finals claims, having the bye the final round, there could have been the temptation once they'd passed North's total to press for the outright and make sure of a finals spot.

But, conscious of their batting power and ability to "score very quickly" - as they showed in the second innings, scoring 7-149 off 24 overs - Souths prudently decided to bat on, pushing on to make 143.

"The intent wasn't explicitly to make it a dead rubber after we won the first innings but we wanted to take a bit of the air out of the game that's for sure and use a few overs," Skilton said.

The win saw them reclaim top spot.

Only ahead of Bective-East by a point and City United by two, Skilton expects it's more likely they'll finish second or third. There is also a slim chance they could miss out altogether, but it would take a big upset.

Jordan Lewington was the Redbacks' best performer with the ball with 3-14 while Lincoln Peters (39) and Brendan Rixon (35no) led the second innings attack.