Half centuries from George Bailey and Scott Milenko have saved Tasmania's blushes as they cruised through to the one day cup final with a six-wicket defeat of Queensland.
The Bulls at one point looked capable of pulling off an unlikely victory in the first semi-final at Drummoyne Oval on Saturday before the Tigers steadied the ship to chase down Queensland's modest target of 178 in 37.2 overs.
Queensland had their tails up after the Tigers were reduced to just 4-52 thanks to an early onslaught from towering quick Billy Stanlake (2-38) and Luke Feldman (2-20).
Stanlake, who will be part of the Australian side for their upcoming Twenty20 series against Pakistan in the UAE, set the tempo when he had Matthew Wade caught behind for a duck in the first over.
With wickets falling around them but plenty of overs to play with, Bailey (70 off 97) and Milenko (57 off 68) took their time to chase down what proved a mediocre target.
"Once I got to the middle, Alex (Doolan) was batting really nicely and when Simon came out, both were striking the ball really nicely," Bailey said.
"A bit greedily, I thought that if I just bat to the end of the game, then we'll get somewhere near the runs (needed)."
The Tasmanians will now meet the winner of Sunday's semi-final between Western Australia and Victoria.
Earlier, the Bulls' innings never reached any great heights as they were dismissed in the 45th over.
While several Queensland batsmen got starts, paceman Mark Stekete top scored with just 30 as the Bulls struggled on a tricky wicket at the suburban Sydney ground.
Paceman Gabe Bell, playing his first domestic 50-over match, provided the early breakthrough, snaring openers Max Bryant (11) and Sam Heazlett (22) cheaply.
And when dangerman Chris Lynn (15) edged Jackson Bird through to keeper Matthew Wade, the Queenslanders had lost two wickets in the space of six balls to be 3-50.
Paceman Bird, who could consider himself unlucky not to be in the UAE as part of the Australian Test squad to face Pakistan, took 2-41 while Gurinder Sandhu was economical, finishing with 2-14 from his nine overs.
"We definitely thought we had them under a lot of pressure," Stanlake said.
"We had four wickets and it was a tricky chase with the deck playing up and down a little bit.
"We had them up under the pump and credit to Billy and Bails, they didn't really give us a chance."
