Wanderers and South Hedland vie for silverware

The winner of the Ray Stoddart Shield for the champion team in the Twenty20 competition in the Norwest Crane Hire Port Hedland Cricket Association will be revealed this Saturday night at Kevin Scott Oval in South Hedland.

The top two teams through the home-and-away season, Wanderers Cricket Club and South Hedland Cricket Club, will meet again in the grand final competition, having squared off in February in the 40-over finale.

In the shortest form of cricket, these two have faced each other twice this season, with South Hedland winning on both occasions. Their third scheduled meeting was rained off two weekends ago.

Wanderers were without their inspirational skipper Lee Irwin in the first encounter, when they were comprehensively outplayed by South Hedland. Abu Rafferty and Izzy Kalzee led the scoring for the Southerners as they rattled on 193 in their 20 overs.

Wanderers were only able to score 130 in their reply.

Their second encounter produced almost 400 runs, with only six wickets falling in the full 40 overs.

Nanu Kalzee led from the front for South Hedland with an unbeaten 99 as the Southerners closed their 20 overs at 2/201. In reply, Irwin smashed his way to 119 runs off 46 balls as the Wanderers finished just three runs short in the chase.

The final on Saturday night should feature all the aspects the spectators enjoy in Twenty20 cricket — fast scoring, big hitting, and tight bowling.

Both teams should be at full strength with the last piece of silverware on offer for 2016/17.

The game is scheduled to start at 6.30pm.