South Hedland upset Miners in epic

A strong bowling effort led South Hedland Cricket Club to a stunning upset over the Miners in the opening round of the Ray Stoddart Shield on Wednesday last week.

The T20 contest was held at Kevin Scott Oval, with South Hedland winning the toss and electing to bat.

The Miners broke the opening partnership early when Taurean Williams castled Shoaib Khan for just four runs to leave South Hedland one for eight in just the second over.

Williams struck again in the fourth over, dismissing Simon Thomspon for eight to leave South Hedland reeling at 2/26 in the fourth over.

South Hedland’s middle order responded with Wasantha Situge and Christian Apedaile making 19 and 17 respectively, while Clint Ernst made 14 to help get Hedland to a defendable total.

South Hedland finished their innings 8/111 from 20 overs.

The game looked evenly poised when Julian Wilmot dismissed Billy Cousins in the first over before Ernst took the scalp of Nicholas Armitage in the second over.

It was not long before Miners responded, building two strong partnerships around opener Williams.

Miners were cruising along, needing just 30 runs from the final 10 overs with seven wickets in hand when Hedland turned the game on its head.

The Miners were unable to cope with the bowling spell from Shaheer Ejaz, who took three wickets for 14 runs from his four overs and left the Miners needing six runs with just one wicket in hand. Hedland’s Shoaib Khan took the final wicket in the next over to complete his best bowling performance of two wickets for no runs.

South Hedland captain Christian Apedaile said it was an epic victory.

“We had a pretty long pre-season; we didn’t perform that well last season,” he said. “We really just put in the hard work, kept believing, kept practising hard and we were rewarded today.”

Meanwhile, the Port Hedland Cricket Club crushed the Wanderers on their way to a 49-run victory.

Port Hedland’s Chris Briody finished 77 not out, while Jarrad O’Dea scored 50 to help their team to a dominant 146.

Wanderers were unable to match Port Hedland, losing regular wickets and being bowled out for 97.