South claim maiden win

South Hedland Cricket Club finally broke through for their first win this season when they defeated the previously unbeaten Wanderers by 12 runs in the Twenty20 match at Kevin Scott Oval on Friday night.

It was the Southerners’ sixth and final match in the competition and was celebrated long after the game.

Nirav Gurjar, deputising for captain Shoaib Khan at the coin toss, called correctly and elected to bat — the first time Souths had the chance to set a score in any match this season.

Wasa Situge (43 runs) and Shoaib (24) set the foundations at the top of the order, with key contributions from Julian Wilmot (20) and Vipul Patel (11), and a staggering 32 sundries, including 18 wides and eight no-balls, allowed South to post a competitive 7-148.

Jayden Hackshaw and Richie Douglas were the most successful of the Wanderers bowlers, with two wickets apiece.

The Wanderers chase began badly when Davey Thomason, defending a short ball from Ghalib Zaman, played the ball into his stumps on the first ball of the innings.

Fellow opener Avneil Swami (17) received support from Douglas (22), but when Swami was caught short of his ground at the non-striker’s end, and Douglas and Hackshaw were bowled in consecutive deliveries by Situge, the Wanderers’ chase stuttered at 5-57.

Josh Thatcher (26) and James Elliott (24) put on a 42-run partnership for the seventh wicket to give the green machine a sniff of chasing down the 149-run target.

Wanderers captain Josh Standen, batting at No.10, was unbeaten on 17 when the final wicket fell on the last ball of the 20th over.

Situge, Ghalib Zaman and Yogesh Patel all chipped in with two wickets in the maiden win for the men in yellow.