South Hedland reign supreme over Port Hedland in Port Hedland Cricket Association grand final

A top-order batting collapse from Port saw South storm home to victory in the grand final of the Port Hedland Cricket Association one-day season recently. Playing at Kevin Scott oval on December 9, Port Hedland won the toss and elected to bat first — a move they might’ve lived to regret with opener Sam Mason and third bat Jarred Ams both being dismissed for ducks after facing just three and four balls respectively. Ethan Stobie had a wry smile on his face after clean-bowling Mason in the first over and seeing Jarred Ams caught by Inayat Zaman in the first ball of the third over. And despite being the best of the three top-order batsmen, Mark Schaufeli also had an innings to forget, managing just nine runs off 23 balls before being caught out by Thomas Christides off another Ethan Stobie ball. From there, a decent Port partnership between Ben Jarratt (29 runs off 55 balls) and captain Jarrad O’Dea (32 runs off 43 balls) gave hope to the Sky Blues. But it was too little too late, with the total sitting at just 7/123 at the end of the 25 overs. It was a total quickly topped by the South batsmen, who needed just 17.4 overs to hit 124 runs thanks to some big-bash-style hitting from Zacharia Davies, Iain Maclennan and Thomas Christides. Davies slogged home three 4s to see his total hit 24 runs off 29 balls before he was caught by O’Dea, while Iain Maclennan managed 28 runs off just 18 balls thanks to his four 4s and single 6. But it was the third bat Christides who proved the difference maker, scoring 45 not-out from 38 balls thanks to his whopping eight boundaries — seven 4s and a single 6.